Summer Chick Project for Kids

For a young entrepreneur like my son Caleb, age 7, raising and selling chicks can be a wonderful summer project that teaches responsibility, compassion, finances, and work ethics. 

Partridge Cochin chick

For the last two years raising day old chicks was my daughter, Rebecca's, summer job.  But now she is waitressing and going to college,  and the time, grossness, and effort of raising chicks is not worth the money to her.  So Caleb, age 7, has decided to take over the business!  Because he is so young Caleb will need a lot more help from me than Rebecca did, but for us it is a good way to start out, and I am allowing him to keep the profits!

You can purchase day old chicks from local farmers or order them through the mail.  Mail order chicks tend to be riskier since problems and delays can occur in shipping, however, the "fancier" breeds like Polish tend to sell better.  We purchased day old Polish and Cochin chicks from Meyer Hatchery for Caleb to raise. 





Caleb and Lucas were so excited to see and hold the adorable chicks, but they understood they needed to mostly stay in the brooder until they became a bit stronger.  (Click here to see more info about setting up a brooder)

Responsibilities:

Caleb's responsibilities include checking each chick daily for pasty butt, cleaning and drying said pasty butts, checking food and water daily, cleaning out the brooder as needed, socializing the chicks, and teaching them to come when called.  At seven years old, he will need reminders, assistance, and a lot of oversight on my part!

Caleb doing a great job feeding the chicks

He also needs to learn all about the breeds that we are raising including color, size, and frequency of eggs produced, what type of pet they will make, and how to introduce them to an existing flock.  In preparation for the local chicken swap, we dress well, make signs, and make sure the chicks are clean, friendly, and perfectly healthy - ready for their new homes!  When we attend the poultry swap to sell the chicks, it will be up to Caleb to have the confidence and knowledge to be able to sell them!

Expenses and Profits:

The cost of the 10 chicks plus shipping was approximately $70.00.  Because of shipping costs, the price goes down with the more chicks you get.  (Rebecca raised 30 chicks last year, but 10 is a good number for Caleb.)  Since we have raised chicks for the past few years, we already have most of the brooder supplies, but we still purchased chick food, vitamins, pro-biotic powder, and Poly Vi Sol for a cost of approximately $20.00.  The chicks will sell for $20.00 each when they are 8 weeks old, so he has a potential profit of $120.00, not to mention all the skills he will gain!

Morning Chores

I have mentioned that we have 9 1/2 acres of land.  On this land we now have 1 dog, 3 cats, 18 chickens, 3 ducks, 2 horses, and 2 goats plus 2 small raised bed gardens.  The homestead is not even close to being self supporting, so I call it my hobby homestead.  Hobbies tend to be expensive and a lot of work, but you continue them for the joy derived.  Because this is a hobby, I help to support our home and homestead with a full time job (as well as being a full time mother).

I am often asked how I can possibly do everything that needs doing, especially in the morning before loading one child on the bus and bringing another to daycare and heading off to work.  So here is my typical morning on the farm:


Fritz says "Put some catfood in that bowl!"


This is Fritz, who has a self dog food feeder with all the dog food he could want, but he would much prefer to eat the cat food.  If I filled the cat food feeder up, he would eat it all.




So every morning I put out a cup of cat food for our indoor cat, Liza (and for Fritz), and a cup of cat food for our outdoor cats, Guess and Trixie, and, unfortunately, for the opossum who cleans up what is left over at night.





 


I also take a cup of cat food and/or table scraps for our chickens and ducks who greet me at the fence clucking, quacking, and fluttering every morning. 



The horses are fed their grain next and are given hay when the pasture is down.  Fritz is enthusiastic to accompany me to the barn where he gets his daily horse treat.  Every morning the horses greet me at the gate, then I open the tack room door to a horse butt facing me, and I have to remind them to get into their stalls for breakfast.

Since this is their routine, I truly think that they feel without this system of gate greeting, butt display, and stall command, they would surely not be fed.  (Horses love routine.)  In the winter I also have to check the temperature and put on/take off blankets as necessary. 


Next come the goats who are fed a small scoop of sweet goat chow - they are always so happy to see me!

I check everyone's water, then give a cup of sunflower seeds to the chickens who once again cheer me on from the other side of the fence.  I fill up the chickens' feeder, check their water, collect beautiful eggs from the nest boxes, then water the garden. 
 


I currently have strawberries in one garden with plans for zucchini, and sugar snap peas in the second with plans for cucumbers.  I will also be making a vertical garden "potato tower" out of field fencing, and I will let you know how that works out!




The whole production takes approximately 20-30 minutes.  Many people would cringe at the thought of these morning chores every day but, as it is my hobby, I usually find them quite enjoyable!  I hope you do, too!

New Mini LaMancha Doelings have arrived!

 

I am absolutely thrilled that our new Mini LaMancha goat doelings have arrived!  Please meet our new dairy goat additions - Mary and Martha.  They are so cute and so full of mischief that I am having problems getting anything done other than playing with the babies.







We traveled on Saturday just before Easter and met the breeder.  They were pretty well behaved on the way home, but about an hour from home began calling to us from the back of the truck.





Rebecca and her boyfriend helped get them settled in for the night after lots of snuggle time.  Our old horses didn't take well to the new additions and galloped around kicking and snorting like they were young colts. 
 





The next morning was Easter and the kids couldn't decide if they would rather search for eggs or play with goat kids. 
 


I was shocked to arrive home from church to find one of the goats in the horse pasture grazing with the horses.  I'm grateful that they made friends with the horses, but was surprised that they escaped the field fencing so easily. It could have ended badly if the horses had not accepted them, but everyone was getting along fine. 

With my neighbor's help, Monday evening was spent chasing wayward goats and reinforcing the fence with chicken wire. It is Tuesday morning, and I just got a text from Rebecca saying the rascals have escaped again!

The Little Goat House that We Built



Well, it took nearly 8 months, but here on the day before my Mini LaMancha goat doelings arrive, I have finally completed the goat shelter!

The shelter is 8 feet x 6 feet and is on skids so that we can pull it around with our tractor.  I got the basic idea for the shelter from pictures on the internet, then put it all together in my head about fifty times late at night before I bought my first nail.  This is the first structure I've ever built, so I wanted to get it right!

I started in late August of last year with a load of 2x4s that Home Depot was kind enough to cut for me at no charge. 


The boys and I started framing - here is Caleb helping out:



Framing was a lot of fun.  I used nails to support cross pieces.  Caleb's job was to remove the nails, while Lucas hunted lost nails with the metal detector.

 

I installed a metal roof, then became ill with food poisoning, which kept me down a month.  Before I knew it winter was approaching and I still needed to put up the walls.  I used OSB - it may not have been the best choice, but we will see how it holds up.  I used TrimLoc around the edges of the sheet metal to protect us from the sharp edges.

 


The boys were a big help painting the outside with KILZ, then a coat of paint.
  


Everything sat through the winter and held up very well.  Then the doelings were born in early February, so I knew there wasn't much time left!  Time to get off my tush and back to work.



We painted some 1x4 boards to use as trim and to protect the edges of the OSB.

 

When the ground was dry enough Dan used the tractor to haul the shelter into the horse pasture onto a sand heap.
  


I finished securing the trim this morning, and this afternoon will hang buckets, feeders, and a hay bag then fill it with straw for bedding.  We will enclose the area with field fencing temporarily to give the horses a chance to become accustomed to their new pasture-mates and to give us time to secure the paddock.

All ready for the babies to arrive tomorrow!