7 week-old broilers w/ lots of broken/misisng feathers

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Hopefully these birds look normal, I have 25 of them that look exactly the same, :) mine are 6-1/2 weeks now. Plan on butchering July 1st @ 8 weeks. I have been feeding twice a day. Measuring their feed and restricting their intake, they aren't as big as I expected, what should I expect if I free feed for the last week? Opinions please! TIA
 
HOBBYFARMER78 said:
Hopefully these birds look normal, I have 25 of them that look exactly the same, :) mine are 6-1/2 weeks now. Plan on butchering July 1st @ 8 weeks. I have been feeding twice a day. Measuring their feed and restricting their intake, they aren't as big as I expected, what should I expect if I free feed for the last week? Opinions please! TIA
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400


These birds are 6 weeks old...

I thought they looked kinda small also, we butcherd 10 days after this pic. They were big! Averaged right around 5 pounds dressed.

They gain something like a 1/4lb a day during week 6-8 you can see them get bigger daily.

How much you feeding them? I feed twice a day which seems to do fine. They do pant some when it gets hot but they are still fairly active. The birds I have outside now seem to forage much better, donno why I raise them all the same.
 
I have been feeding approx. 16 cups (ice cream bucket) twice a day. they do also have some area to free range and they have become good little foragers. This is my first go round with these birds, so I am only going by what I have learned (read) online. Hope this helps, seems to be working for me. Havent lost any birds as of yet, (knock on wood) :)
 
Flip and water belly are both caused by feeding too much. If you cut the protein level down on the starter feed you won't have as much trouble with water belly. And flip can be solved be decreasing feed and adding objects into their pen for them to leverage against should they roll onto their sides and can't get up.
Most meat bird feed rations contain 20-22% protein. This is way too much to continue on, so cut it down to about 17 or 18% protein and that should virtually eliminate all your issues with water belly.
 

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