Counting Your Chicks after They've Hatched

Reader Contribution by Sue Dick
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We raised chicks last year.

It was a complete success. They were the most delicious, juicy, plump birds we’d ever laid eyes on or fork into. The only pity was that we hadn’t known we’d be such good chicken farmers and had only enough to put in our personal freezer. People asked if they could buy some and we reluctantly sold one or two, but as we could only cook chicken approximately 1/week for the whole year after, we told ourselves we needed to expand.

We had raised two kinds, laying hens of various breeds and Cornish Crosses for broilers. Both had done extremely well.  This year, apart from the replacement laying girls I ordered (a mix of Australorps, Isa browns, Amerecaunas, and a Silkie or two) we ordered about 185 broiler chicks.  I had sent out a cold-call email asking which of our past customers (our farm also sells completely natural grassfed beef and pork and lamb) would be interested in chickens and received an overwhelming positive response. Calculating my profits mentally, and happy to provide great, healthy chicken for people, we were excited about our expansion.

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