Fry Pan Bargain from Meyers Hatchery

[LilyD]

Okay just got my new chicks this morning. Ordered 25 Fry Pan Bargain chicks plus a meal maker got 27 chicks total. One chick was dead on arrival. The rest seem okay so far just cold. (I live in Vermont and while it was 60 degrees almost two days ago today it's 29 degrees and it snowed. Understandably it's taking a bit for them to warm up and start moving around much in the crate.

 

[LilyD]

The pictures were literally taken the second after I put them in the brooder so they are still pretty chilly from shipping I just checked on them again and they are starting to move around and spread out a little more. I set up 3 heat lights just because we are so cold outside this morning. High is supposed to be 39 degrees today but back in the 50s for tomorrow. Vermont weather can be very fickle like that.

 

[LilyD]

Just checked on them and they are spreading out eating and drinking. Posted a video here of them now definitely better. They have 3 heat lights on them currently because it's so chilly out and we have them in an enclosed barn.

 

[lauralou]

Looks like you got a nice mix of breeds. I like to imagine that I might one day order a fry pan bargain and get a bunch of roos to evaluate in hopes of finding a great flock rooster.

Please keep us updated as they grow and mature.

 

[LilyD]

Week one and we're off to a good start. We lost one during transport and one at 48 hours. I believe the second one was still due to being too cold during transport. It was very cold their first night around 20 to 29 degrees and they were in our barn so out of the wind in a brooder with heat lights to keep them warm. What I am finding now is that they are doing much better with the lower temps than I thought they would. It definitely isn't 95 in their brooder. We currently have one heat lamp that is on the back side of their brooder. The first night we had 3 in an effort to keep the temp fairly even across the brooder but even then with it being in the 20s I think we were averaging around 80 directly under the lights. Has anyone else noticed this? Went out tonight to feed and check on everyone and they were all over the brooder happily eating, drinking and playing all over. Currently it's 45 degrees and they have one heat light. I took video you can see here, but since I am standing in front of the brooder they all went back to the back of the brooder where the light is. They aren't cold they were all playing and all over eating and drinking when I first made it out there. I took pictures after I had closed the brooder back up and they were already starting to move to the front again. Most have their wing feathers coming in and looking nice. The orp roos look really nice and are fairly large, watching those because I want an orpington rooster to go with my layers so I will snag one from this bunch if they are good enough. Not quite sure what breeds the black chicks are there is a lot of variety in their coloring. Waiting to see what they will look like as they get older. So far we have gone through a 1lb bag of dumor starter (original bag of starter I got from the feed store they gave me layer instead) so had to grab what I could find for first thing Wed morning. They are just starting on a 25lb bag of organic starter crumble and doing well.

 

[LilyD]

My goal is to choose out a rooster (or two) to come live with my ladies (orpington, wyandotte) and pick out ones that are heavy fairly fast growing but still good temperament to breed to the girls and then do the same next year keeping the girls and boys that excel past their parents to breed back to others. Looking at the ones I have currently I like the looks of the black chicks (several are fairly quick growing already bigger than the others) and some of the buffs which I am hoping there are either black, blue, buff or jubilee orpingtons in the mix. If they are I will be over the moon excited.

 

[RoosterML]

@LilyD are they for meat or for keeping?

 

[LilyD]

@LilyD are they for meat or for keeping?

I bought 25 of them with the intention of taking a rooster from that bunch to go with the layer chicks I am ordering as well. The rest will be for meat. I also ordered a batch of cornish X chicks and some BBW turkeys as well. The layers I have coming are orpingtons so hoping for a good looking orpington rooster to keep from the bunch of boys. The others will be processed at 16-20 weeks once they are meaty enough to eat.

My long term goal is to create an orpington flock that is for both eating and laying eggs. I had orpingtons before but got sick so had to sell off my stock now trying to start from scratch and missing the birds I had previously. Only keeping the best out of the ones I ordered for layers and breeding the rest will become dinner

 

[LilyD]

Monday this crew will be 3 weeks old and will be moving out into the pasture and into their new home. I will be using a cattle panel and 4 5 1/2 foot heavy duty Tposts to create a hoop house with a tarp over the top to protect them from the elements. While they are tiny I will have them confined to inside the house but as they get bigger I will start to let them out to free range during the day and have them put in at night for protection from the local wildlife. The Cornish X I just ordered will be 1 week on Tuesday and I need to get pictures of them. They are fairly small still but are definitely packing away the food so I imagine they will start catching up to the older roosters soon. Hoping that the older roosters from the Fry Pan Bargain will teach the Cornish and BBW turkeys to forage during the day. I will still have a heat light in the hoop house so that they have access to it if they get chilly. We have been averaging anywhere from 50 degrees to 75 degrees during the day and 40's to 50's at night. I'll get pictures once I get them moved out on Monday.

 

[LilyD]

Okay update on my Fry Pan Bargain bunch. They will be 4 weeks this upcoming Monday. Still have 25 birds still all are doing well. Most of them are fully feathered out with little patches of down showing through the feathers still. Very excited by the orp chicks in the bunch. Picking them up to bring them to the outside brooder and the orps by far were the meatiest of the bunch. The dominiques and barred rocks are probably then next. There are some large black chicks not sure what breed with white chests that are doing okay but still not fully feathered out and then some little brown chicks that are significantly tinier than the other chicks. There are only a few of those in the bunch though so still pretty pleased with their growth and how they are doing. Hoping to process by 16 weeks and have birds ready to dress out around 5lbs. We shall see.

On a positive note these birds hit the ground running (pun intended) and started foraging the minute I gave them access to dirt and bugs. They were grabbing up things out of the inside of the grow out coop right off the bat and pretty much ignoring the feeder. I do still have a heat lamp out with them to be safe since night temps are around 40 degrees and they can do around 70 now. I will keep a close eye on them tonight and keep watching to see if they are getting cold and I can add more lights if needed or close the coop up more to eliminate drafts and help them stay warm.