My friend Cedo has chickens in her yard for both eggs and meat. The meat chickens are the newest arrivals. They were hatched on July 20th, 16 days ago, and came to her house the next day (see the blog post about it here). Since then they have been growing very fast!
Just to refresh your memory, this is what they looked like at one day old.
Cedo gives them one last inspection before we go out to do other errands.
Here they are just one week later. They are bigger and beginning to grow some feathers. They have been moved to one of the chicken houses, though they still sleep in the crate and have a small space in front of the crate to run around and get food and water. (Cedo got the food and water out of the crate as soon as possible to keep the crate cleaner). At this point they are still too small to be given the run of the whole chicken house because they are small enough to escape through small spaces.
On July 30th, 10 days old, they have been given the run of the chicken house and don’t seem to be escaping or getting into any sort of mischief. Escaping is not good because there are birds of prey and cats in the neighborhood, and a few dogs who will chase chicks.
Saturday, August 1st, 12 days old, and you can see that in even the last two days their feathers and wings are noticeably bigger.
Today is August 5th, and they are 16 days old. They are so much bigger than they were on arrival. Cedo says they are eating a lot, no surprise since they are growing so fast. She says they would grow even faster if they had light at night and could also eat all night. But, she thinks they are healthier and happier of they sleep at night like normal chickens.
The older chickens are fine too, and Cedo hopes to see eggs very soon.
So, here is the update on the chickens, as promised. I know I haven’t posted anything else lately, I’m not sure why. I guess nothing is going on at the moment that feels newsworthy. I have been doing the usual things around the house, taking a painting class (a post will be coming later on this), working in the yard, riding the bike a little, spending time with friends, nothing unusual.
We are having some unusual weather lately though. It feels like summer – hot, sunny, breezy, and dry. We haven’t had rain in days. Some say it has something to do with the El Niño weather pattern developing this year. I see some clouds moving in now though, so hopefully we will get a bit today. The plants need water and we could use some cooling off!
The Panama Adventure 
I should Drive down and see you. LOL
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You should. There might even be a chicken dinner in it for you 😀
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hey kris, i’ve raised those meat birds. they look like cornish cross and are the most common breed because they grow so fast. once they go out to pasture, they are ready for processing in as little as 4 wks and will reach a weight of 5 or 6 lbs. we made our own wiz bang chicken plucker, for removing the feathers which can be the hardest part of processing. hope you can follow them right to the end and maybe help with the butchering. will be interesting to see if cedo does that herself or sends them out. thanks !
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These were chosen because they grow fast but I don’t know the breed. She just called them white chickens. They are supposed to be 6-8 pounds in 8 weeks or so. It will be interesting for me too to see how she handles turning them into meat. I knew I would learn new things here but didn’t quite see this one coming!
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Hey Kris,
We will be in David in a few weeks and will be needing to buy some appliances and furniture for the condo….any recommendations on places to go?
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There are quite a few choices here. I’ll email you my phone number and we can talk more easily that way, if that works for you.
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We let the kids have a pet chicken when they were little and here is what I found out….they are fast and nasty little critters. lol
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We must be lucky because these are pretty mellow and well behaved
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I too am interested in the processing. Somewhat. Maybe for future reference? Does Cedo sell some for added income? Maybe a dumb question. David.S.C.
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I’m sure she’ll let me help so I’ll write about it. Yes, she is selling eggs and chickens and tamales for extra income.
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Ha! They’re actually quite adorable! We’re coming to Panama November 20th! I can’t wait to see everything, I’m hoping this trip we find the place where we want to start our second life :). Always love reading your posts! Enjoy watching the chicks grow!
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November! That’s not that far off. How exciting!
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Can relate to your water problem. We are having a drought here in St Croix, in desperate need of a good rain. Thanks for the photos.
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Ooh, good luck, hope you get some rain!
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