Chick to Traeger in 8 Weeks **WEEK 6**

April 3 - 9 (week 6)

On the 3rd, we finished the 50# bag of 20% Flock Raiser and started the 50# bag of 18% Chick Feed - 4 days later we finished the 18% and started back on 20%.. they are eating like pigs!!! It's a crazy amount of food. I will tell you again, you have to experience it to believe it!

4/5: final pen size - 8'x4'   (32sf)

The pen was again expanded to 8'x4' on the 5th - this will be the final size of the pen. The research I found states you need aprox 1-1.5sf per bird. That's pretty accurate as they don't move around very much. The pen size is now 32sf which is plenty of room for the final weeks of growth.

The heat lamps are turned off during the day as the greenhouse warms up, and turned on at night to maintain a 65deg temperature.

Another nice thing about housing them in the greenhouse is it has a concrete floor... easy to clean! A straight edge shovel and my garden cart make quick work of cleaning up the pen, plus this is AWESOME compost for my garden!!

Even though they do not have free access outside, the pen is next to a 5'x6' south-facing window that lets in lots of light for them to enjoy.

4/6: getting fat and sassy!

I have now been picking up 1 or 2 birds every day to feel how much weight they've put on... they don't have much for feathers (bred that way), so the weight is all in the meat! Getting the Traeger warmed up!!!!

Week 6 complete, and all is well
Count: 26 birds

PEAS OUT!
~GP