Mob 4: Countdown to the End

Dog overseeing breakfast

Mob 4 has arrived in their last week with butchering scheduled for this weekend.  They reached the ripe old age of 8 weeks this past Tuesday, and while they've been healthy adult chickens, they're starting to show their age.  We're seeing a lot less movement, more sitting and more waddling their fat butts when moving from food to water.  They're still a perky, chatty bunch and make a production about either the people or the dog coming anywhere near The Fortress.

Stats for this mob thus far:

• 42 chicks shipped
• 7 chicks died in the first 2-ish weeks
• 1 hen died at almost 7 weeks
• current flock is 34 chickens strong
• total cost so far ~ $170 (need to add in some additional food cost)
• looks like we'll have about 3 bags of feed left

While our chick loss for this mob was the highest we've seen so far in our chicken adventures, it seemed to cull out the weaker birds early, and we've had an exceptionally low mortality rate with the adult birds.  As much as I loathe babies dying, I much rather have them die young instead of filling them up with a bunch of expensive food and then have them kick the bucket in the last week (which is what Mob 3 was like).  Having an almost harvest-able chicken die makes me a little bitter.  Having a chick die just makes me sad.  I can live with sad.

It's looking like we're going to have a great weather for butcher day - stay tuned!