Next let’s look at broiler chick housing
Here at Fenstermaker Family Farm our meat chickens aka broilers are purchased as day old chicks from a local Ohio hatchery that allows up to pick them up personally. We have chosen to not have our chickens receive vaccinations. Additionally we do not clip their beaks, combs, or toes. Some commercial poultry facilities trim these to keep the chickens from harming one another in the tight living conditions. For the first few weeks of our chickens lives, they live in one of our personally designed & built brooders. We have several brooders to allow our chickens adequate space and clean living conditions. The first brooder we built is a 4’x4’ space with the front and top open for good ventilation and to allow natural sunlight. We also use an LED light to mimic the sun to ensure they receive plenty sunlight daily. We opt to keep this space designated to 25 broilers or less.
Our newest brooder is in our new chicken coop and it’s a 4’x10’ space that can be divided into two separate spaces. The whole front of the brooder is open for ventilation and to allow in the sunlight that comes into our chicken coop. We use LED lights to mimic the sun. We plan to keep this space designated to 50 broilers or less.
They call the brooders home for the first 3-4 weeks they are with us. We do not move the broilers outside until they have fully feathered out, are off artificial heat, and the outside overnight temps are consistently above 60 degrees. Our broilers have access to water 24/7. We’ll talk food in a later post ????
*The information shared is how we at FFF raise our broilers.
*In effort to not upset the media world, f@ct checkers, and have our account suspended we will not be posting photos or information on the commercial world. We recommend you research the buzz words used in advertisements, look at the commercialized facilities & processes, and regulations around processing/butchering, ect
