Brood Awakening: The Not-So-Simple Art of Chick Scheduling
September is the month when I start planning out all our chick shipments for the upcoming year. On paper, it seems simple: four orders of broiler chicks (raised for meat), two orders of layer chicks (raised for eggs), and one order of turkeys. But, as with most things on the farm, it’s never just that simple. Years of experience have made me efficient, but there’s still a lot of “peck-work” that goes into planning.
First, you need to understand our infrastructure. We only have one brooder (a heated structure where chicks live until they grow their pin feathers and can regulate their body temperature). Because of this, I have to carefully space out chick shipments to allow time for cleaning and sanitizing in between flocks.
Broiler chicks grow quickly and usually only need three weeks in the brooder—except for the first order of the year that arrives in January, which I keep in for four weeks to hedge against cold snaps. Layer chicks, on the other hand, are slower growers and generally need five weeks in the brooder, though they can often move out around four weeks.
From there, the broilers move into mobile coops and are raised to harvest at eight weeks old, and the harvesting process takes two weeks. Meanwhile, the layers graduate to a “grow-out brooder,” where they stay until about 14 weeks of age. They remain separate from the main flock for two reasons:
They’re smaller and would get picked on by full-sized hens.
They need a higher-protein feed without calcium.
At 14 weeks, we start slowly merging them with the main flock—a three-to-four-week process in itself.
So when I’m planning chick shipments, I have to make sure:
No two flocks overlap in the brooder.
We’ve merged layers with the main flock before the next batch needs the grow-out brooder.
No shipments or moves clash with two weeks of slaughter work.
To stay extra organized, I code each flock: broilers are B1 through B4, layers are 1A and 2A (next year they’ll be 1C and 2C, since we keep layers for two years). All dates go into my calendar and get color-coded gray—because if you see a gray dot on my calendar, you know that’s a week when social life is officially canceled.
This system took me years to perfect, and it’s critical to keeping our business resilient. Once it’s mapped out, I can sit down with my business advisor to review cash flow. Each flock costs several thousand dollars before we ever see a profit, so timing matters as much as egg collection does.
Here’s where I confess: I wasn’t very kind to myself this year. In the past, we raised three orders of layers and two of broilers. Now, we’re doing four broilers and two layers, due to a grant that allowed us to build more coops and raised more broilers. They all need to be scheduled to arrive before fire season. Why? Because in 2019, during the Kincade Fire, USPS shut down live animal shipments within a 60+ mile radius and cost me hundreds of chicks and thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Ever since, I make sure all shipments arrive before we get too deep into fire season because a fire in Napa County could mean my order is cancelled. Plus if we get our last
The trade-off: no wiggle room. Normally I build in one to two weeks of breathing space in case a hatchery is delayed or I get sick. This year, with the extra flock, I had to overlap some deliveries and harvests.
And wouldn’t you know it, July brought a heat wave on the East Coast, and B3 was delayed a week. That meant B3 and B4 overlapped, leaving us harvesting one batch while another was arriving. To keep everything on track, we started harvesting B3 at seven weeks instead of eight. To top it all off, 2A is arriving the week of the 8th. Again, this was not kind to do to me.
When customers ask this month, “Why are your birds smaller this round?” that’s the long story long. This batch will dress out at 2–4 pounds rather than 3-5, and honestly? We’re fine with that. Sometimes you’ve just got to wing it.
Cheers,
Farmher Tiffany
