Setting Up Chicken Houses For Baby Chicks!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มิ.ย. 2022
- We have 8 total chicken houses on our farm, and we raise about a 4 pound bird. We typically keep our birds for about 35 days and have about 14-18 days in between flocks. In our latest video, we get our chicken houses ready for the baby birds to be delivered.
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This is fascinating. Been working for a grower who's been in business 27 years, but I've only been here for 4. We dream of an inventory of videos that explain how and why everything is done for training purposes. From setting up a house, to how to react to different alarms, troubleshooting a down feed line or heater, to swapping motors, repairing auger lines, rewiring vent/tunnel switches, etc. Even tips and tricks like one farmer who showed us how he rigged up his turbo growers on a winch system so when it's time to pick em up you just kick em from under the feed line and raise them. This is the closest I've seen to this dream.
We are going to try to do some more chicken house videos soon! Thanks for watching
Really admire what you guys do. Glad we have farmers like you men.
Thank you very much!
WOW!! You raise Chickens too??? How cool is that! Thank God for you Farmers!!
You produce our food!!! I for one, eat a lot of chicken! Almost every day! Grocery Stores like Giant & Wal-Mart offer 2 sizes of whole chickens that have been marinated and roasted in those big rotisseries! YUM YUM!
I'll get smaller one and pig out on the whole thing in one sitting!!! I might have actually eaten one of your chickens!!🍗🐔🐓🐤
Thanks so much! We appreciate the support!
i like
Hi I have been watching your videos for long time and I got so much information which helped me a lot. Actually I bought a pullet farm last year here in Havana Arkansas. I never had any experience of chicken farming before. But I’m doing very good. Got lots of compliments for raising good flocks. I have been watching your videos even before I bought this farm 😄
Glad you enjoy our videoed and things are going well on your farm! Hope you have continued success!!
Great content as always. Very informative video. Thank you both for that. Hope Eric enjoys his vacation while your working 😆
Thank you!
Really cool stuff. Thanks for the explanation
Thanks for watching!
South Korea also grows them in the same way. I don't understand all the videos, but I will subscribe and visit often. have a good day.
Thank you! Same to you!
Love your videos as always. Wondering where can I get one of those water line stick?
We got those from QC Supply when we replaced some of our waterlines. They are made by Lubing I think
enjoyed it, rarely get to see the inside unless i'm picking up birds for a buddy of mine (he built a composter in the last few years), he is in southern Tennessee, curious as to how many clean-outs you get or try to do a year, Oh yea tell Eric all vacations have been cancelled🤔😂😂
Thanks! Since we have gone antibiotic free, we typically just do partial clean outs as needed. (Maybe twice a year).
I tried to tell him vacation was cancelled but he didn’t listen 😂😂
Really interesting, would love to see the house full of chickens
Hopefully one day we’ll be able to share some videos of the inside. Since we don’t technically own the chickens, we aren’t supposed to take videos of the live birds.
@@FarmerHunt Thanks
Love this video buddy
Thank you!
Good job 👏👏👏👏👍👍👍
Thank you!
Good information.... do you guys ever do a complete wash down of the inside with a pressure washer,,,,,,seems to get really dirty fast.
Typically we don’t. We blow the houses down pretty often and brush equipment off. We have to be really careful about using water in the houses because if it doesn’t completely dry out then bacteria can easily start to grow and cause problems with the baby chickens. Our main goal between flocks is getting our litter as dry as possible.
When you let the waterlines down do have to regulate them or just turn your water on when you get birds
We usually turn the water on and place the chickens and then later that day we will drop the pressure down. If we don’t our floors usually end up getting wet within a few days.
You guys run a little bit different set up from what I am use to I work full time on a 4 house farm they are 43×500 the birds are almost 50 days old I help grow for OK foods its nice to see other farms in other states and see how different it is from my state
Thanks for watching and for your comment. Our houses are 40x500 and we raise a 35 day old bird. Hope the business is treating y’all well!
@@FarmerHunt yes the business is difficult with 8lbs birds in this heat they are leaving out Wednesday or Thursday I guy I'm working for also has a cattle company to its pretty cool to learn about other frams from other states I'm in Arkansas to
What kind of bedding do you guys use ? If any at all, I’m from the pallet industry but have a huge opportunity to break out big time in the bedding world, I’ve got a few questions, it’d be awesome if your able to answer some regarding housing and bedding.
We typically use pine shavings or saw dust. A few years back we used to always fully clean out once a year. Since the company has gone antibiotic free, they don't really want us to fully clean out anymore. Typically we will remove some of the litter and add back a load or two of shavings or saw dust a couple times a year.
How do you like the turbo mate 2 vs the regular turbo
We like them a lot! They are a little bit more of an investment but it’s so nice having them flip up on the feed line. I was worried about it adding additional weight to my feedlines but it hasn’t been an issue. They work great!
IS THE FLOOR CEMENTED AND THEN COVERED WITH DIRT OR JUST A DIRT FLOORING WITHOUT IT BEING CEMENTED? AND DO YOU TAKE OUT ALL OF THAT DIRT AFTER EACH BATCH AND PUT FRESH ONE, OR DO YOU JUST SPRAY IT WITH AN ANTIBACTERIAL SPRAY?
. WHAT IS THE BEDDING FOR BROILERS? DIRT AND SHAVINGS, OR JUST DIRT? LOVE THE VIDEO.
We have dirt floors and then we start with sawdust or shavings on top. We do a full clean out about once a year. When we aren’t fully cleaning out, we decake after each flock and often windrow also
@@FarmerHunt Thank you very much for explaining to me. The information was valuable!!!
@@FarmerHuntgood work
If you could go back would you tell your 20 year old self to get into poultry?
What's the day as a broiler grower?
That’s a tough question… for about the last year or so the chicken business has gotten a lot tougher on the farmer. The cost of everything is way up and the pay hasn’t followed. Under the right circumstances I would probably still take the same route. I think there will be changes coming in the next year or two that will be beneficial for the farmer. The hardest part is taking on such a large debt and being at the mercy of the integrator.
It varies throughout the flock. I’d say I spend an average of 3-5 hours a day in the houses throughout the day. Some days are even more than that but some days are a little less. It all depends on the age of the birds, weather, quality of the chicks, how all the equipment is running etc.
Typically each morning we walk each house and remove any dead birds and bull any unhealthy birds. Beyond that we mostly monitor to make sure the birds are comfortable and all the equipment is properly functioning.
Are you related to Jim Nabors? Interesting video.
😂😂 not that I know of!
do you use biochar to absorb ammonia?
We haven’t ever tried that. Does it work pretty good? We use PLT
Yalls houses look very similar to mine. The only difference is I have choretime feeders and plasson waterline. Were yours built in the 90s?
Yes they were built in 94
@@FarmerHunt ours were built on 91. The post on the walls gave it away. We had to go back and add support post beside the existing post is the only difference.
First time i’ve seen that waterline measurement tool! Do you know the inches for day 1 by chance? gonna try to make one thanks
I’ll measure it and let you know.
its 4 7/8" to day 1
I thought 4”
Great video
What is your percentage loss on the chickens? 2nd question do you gatcher the chickens by hand or with a machine when it's time for them to leave?
2-3% loss is average for a good flock. We have had some reach 5% or more though.
A crew comes in and catches them by hand. They load them in the cages and a fork lift puts them on the truck. They typically catch them at night. Takes about 2.5 hours per house.
@@FarmerHunt
Thank you for your reply. 2-3% loss actually is real good I would think. Catching that many chickens by hand in 2.5 hours wow that crew is hustling but of course by them doing it so often they know the quickest and safest way to do it. Still I'm amazed
@@dwightharber4873 It's a pretty neat process to see a crew come in and catch a house. They have got it all figured out.
Interesting episode. How may yards long is one of your chicken houses?
The houses are all 40’ x 500’. Each one holds 30,000 chickens.
@@FarmerHunt that's about 3 birds per sqft?
@@xyooj96 1.5
How do you guys clean out your chicken farm? Do you have somebody do it for you or do you do it yourself would like to see how that’s done do you sell the chicken manure?
Sometimes we do it ourselves and sometimes we have someone come do it. It just all depends on where the litter is going and what kind of time we have. We mostly just clean out the centers from time to time and add saw dust back to the existing litter. Since the company went antibiotic free, they don't really want us doing full clean outs anymore. We usually load it on spreader trucks straight from the chicken houses. We have also used a conveyor and loaded it on semi trailers also. Next time we are cleaning some out we will do a video on it.
Thank you very much. I would like to see that I was a dairy farmer just about all my life but raise chickens on the farm meat chicken and never we’re at a real chicken Parm or I love that raise turkeys.
What is the size of each of your chicken houses?
They are 40' wide and 500' long (20,000 sq. ft.)
So do y’all go back every week and level waterlines ?
We don’t. We will sometimes go through and relevel some drops but typically not an entire line
How old is y'all's chicken houses looks 30+ years old.
They are right at 30 years old
@@FarmerHunt how much would it cost to build 2 houses?
Just now finding your channel. Im about 45 mins below Montgomery. Who do yall grow for?
We grow birds for Pilgrims.
How many birds per house?
We have 30,000 in each house
Love your videos. When you started in the poultry business. Did y’all buy existing houses or build new ones?
Thank you. We both bought existing houses. At one time one guy owned all 8 houses. Now Eric owns 4 and I own 4.
What are your Shead dimensions???
The chicken houses are 40’ x 500’ and the compost/dry stack barn is 80’ x 80’
@@FarmerHunt thank you very much. And what was the cost of building one she's? If you don't mind telling. I am a NYC corporate guy and seriously thinking of leaving everything behind and start a Farmer's life. Just want to get a perspective.
If you are looking to get into the business i'd recommend buying an existing farm. The integrators mostly want the 66' x 600' houses built now. They are around 500K each but the house double what one of my houses holds.
I don't know, if it is safe for the baby chick. Looks like the brooding area so dirty.
How come you don’t ever have your parents on the channel?
My parents live about 45 minutes away. They are both retired from teaching school and selling insurance. They come visit occasionally but don’t have anything to do with the farm. Eric’s dad is occasionally in a video. He has his own farm but we work with him some.
@@FarmerHunt oh ok. I thought you grew up on this farm and they were still living here.
Do y’all have issues with rodents with all of that feed out?
We put out rat bait monthly. If we didn’t it would not take long to get a bad infestation.
Almost everything seems automated so after initial investment there should be mucho profit.
We hope. Still working on that initial investment plus repairs and upgrades from time to time.
not removing dust ? not washing, no disinfection ? With all those feathers and even shit on the floor ? I wouldn't eat chicken from this barn to be honest :D salmonella guaranteed
We don't blow down our houses after each flock. Washing the houses down adds a lot of water to the litter and ground. Bacteria thrives in wet or moist environments. Rather than wash down the houses, we spend a lot of time working with the existing litter and removing any of the cake. We want the litter and floor as dry as possible prior to preheating for the next flock.
He could blow it out to remove all the dust and disinfect the house,
And you put down the white power and it when all over the feed for the baby chicks .
Do you have a inspector come out to look at the house before each group of baby chicks....
@@emilyrosman3094 We blow the houses down periodically but not after every flock. Litter management is where most of our time is spent because it’s the most important part of the process.
As far as disinfecting the houses, how do you recommend we do that?
We have the houses inspected 48 hours prior to bird placement, at or shortly after bird placement and then weekly before they are caught and sent to a usda inspected plant.
Question. Why my water line has air in it?
Try flushing them and make sure the balls in the riser tubes are allowing the air to escape from the lines.