Day 1, the chicks have arrived!

Everybody has to start somewhere when working towards a goal.

Our goal- to have a Family Farm. I believe there is many ways to start a farm and many different kinds of farms.
This is ours.
Right now we live on a large city lot.
Our first mission on our farm is to raise some meat birds. 50 to be exact. Here I will share the process of taking chicks and raising them to become dinner!

We chose to order our chicks from Ideal Poultry. As they are the closest poultry hatchery to us. We promptly picked them up from the post office.
Once home we put them in their new temporary home for the next 4 weeks. Their home is a horse trough from Atwoods, 150 gal I believe, lined with wood shavings, then news paper on top of that. A heat lamp is attached at one end of their home, to allow them to move away from the heat if they need to.

As I took each chick out of the shipping box they arrived in, I carefully dipped their little beaks in their water, then their food. My children are beyond excited about this adventure.
My daughter did ask if we could name them, but I told her no. They know that these cute fuzzy little creatures are destined for the dinner table. We do already have two hens who bless us with an egg a day that we have named and consider them to be pets. And we also have a loyal and gentle dog, Molly, who is a part of our family. The children have their pets, these chicks are not that.
A quick note on the water and food. We purchased electrolyte powder to add to their water and chick starter for their food.
On nice days when the sun is shining and it is nice, we plan on moving them outside to soak up some sun.

I looking forward to writing more about this adventure and I do hope someone will read this and be encouraged to take a hands on step towards self sufficiency and food production.