New date for Day olds – Friday 10^th October

Due to demand, we now stock the County Gold table birds for you to rear at home.  By feeding them the best quality feed, giving them a safe and clean home and letting them have a life where they can feel the sun on their backs and the grass beneath their feet – far removed from the commercially reared chicken found in supermarkets.

The County Gold’s are a slow growing bird who reach their optimum weight around 72 days old, this can be slowed down with the introduction of corn feed if required.  Because they are slow growing they don’t have the leg problems of faster growing birds, they are much more upright and able to hold their own weight.

They come into Cotswold Chickens as day olds and can be purchased straight away but you must have the correct equipment in order to keep them warm for the next 5 weeks until they are old enough to go outside.

Rearing them isn’t as difficult as you might think, they can be kept in a shed, garage or utility/spare room, they need to be kept warm under a heat lamp until they are about 5 weeks old.   In this time it is possible to let them have some freedom as long as they don’t get too cold.  They are fed on chick crumbs until 5 weeks old when growers pellets should be slowly introduced.

It’s not advisable to mix young growing table birds with existing laying hens, the young table birds may well bring out the mothering instinct in the layers and they’ll take them under their wing and make them broody.  On the other hand it might bring out the defensive nature in the layers who could seriously damage the youngsters, but more importantly the young chicks are not vaccinated.

Our chicks are sold in any quantity above our minimum order of 4, they are ready for collection during opening hours.