The Brooder
The turkeys for our Thanksgiving Dinner Baskets are coming in the mail in May, but we're testing out our facilities now with four new chicks. As is normally the case, we're trying to minimize our capital cost: the goal is facilities that work, not facilities that necessarily look pretty. Young poultry basically need five things: heat, food, water, protection, and clean facilities. The heat we're providing by a suspended heat lamp, the food and water via standard feeders and waterers (it's hard to improve on the basics here), and protection and clean facilities via three foot diameter kiddie pools deeply bedded with wood shavings. These pools cost about $8 a piece, and they're about the perfect size for 10-20 birds, a lamp, and feed and water. Their round shape will also minimize the chance that young birds will pile into a corner, smothering each other. I've built up the sides of the pools with surplus cardboard I've been hoarding for months (not sure this is necessary or not). The basic idea is that I will keep adding shavings to the pool as they grow rather than cleaning out the pools. This is known as the "deep litter" or "deep bedding" method, and it makes a lot of sense. By constantly adding carbon in the form of wood chips, you soak up all the nitrogen that might volatilize as ammonia (ammonia is the biggest danger to confined animals). Eventually, the litter bed begins to compost, providing supplemental heat and insulation for the chicks. When the birds are big enough, they'll be able to jump in and out of the pool (and when we have turkeys, mingle with the rest of the flock) into a similarly deeply bedded stall in the barn. When the brooding cycle is over, I can just empty the pools into the compost pile and clean out the stall once, minimizing the work for the farmer and keeping the birds happy and healthy. At least, that's the plan, and why I'm happy I get to test out this method with four $4 chicks rather than the 80 $10 poults.
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