If you missed Week 1 on Raising Cornish Cross Chickens click here, to read why we chose this breed and how our first week went, plus lots of cute chick pics!

We have not suffered any casualties as of yet and they are growing remarkably FAST!  They are about to outgrow the brooder and will need more space soon.  My mom took five of them to finish raising them at her house, so that helped to make some extra room.  I’m hoping they will have enough space until they are 3 weeks old and can go in an outside pen during the day.  I want them to be able to free range as much as possible once they are big enough.  It’s been so warm we haven’t used the heat lamp since they were 11 days old.  They are such messy little things we have to check their water every few hours because it gets full of bedding and poop very quickly.  I seem to remember the same thing with my egg laying chickens when they were little.

Here are pics of week 2:

Some of them are a little bigger then others, which is what I expected when I ordered a “strait run” (some male some female).  I got a strait run so they would vary in weight and we could pick the right chickens at the right weight for my girls 4-H projects.

As you can see they are starting to out grow some of their cuteness!  Oh well, I didn’t get them to be cute…..right?

We enjoy watching and laughing at them running at each other and flapping their wings. They are pretty comical!

Here is a little cost break down so far:
Each chick cost: $3.83; so for our 10 chicks it cost – $38.30
The chick starter cost $10.45 for a 25# bag. After 2 weeks there is still some feed left and  I subtracted what my moms chicks ate and ended up with $6.10 feed cost for 2 weeks.
We also bought a bale of pine shavings for $7.95 and I figured we have used about a dollars worth so far.

This comes to $45.40 for the first 2 weeks for 10 chicks.

Of course this doesn’t include the cost of a brooder, heat lamp, heat lamp bulbs, waterer, or feeder.  We are using all the supplies from last years egg laying chicks.  So if you were raising chickens for the first time you would have to add in these expenses.  As you can see, the first year is the most expensive!

So far we are still pleased with our decision to raise Cornish Cross!

Here is the link for Week 3