Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds - Page 58

I see a trend developing here, north = no flies, south = many flies.    All that oogleing (sp) the hot male actors on the crime shows wasn't for nothing!!! 

They didn't like it one bit but no aggression towards each other....but I about lost a finger or two at feeding time.     I'm trying to stay off the forums for a bit...it was taking over a good bit of my mind and time for a bit.  Not good.

Vfem...did you get your birds from Central Hatchery like me?  If you did, no amount of feeding these birds up are going to work, I don't think.  They are just substandard CX, IMO.  They were fed more than my last group and my last group were 10 lbs live weight by 8 wks....these are now 10 wks and not a bird would go over 6-7 lbs, even after two weeks off free range.  They are shorter, have a shorter body and breasts and just don't have the double muscling that my last CX had.  It has nothing to do with the feed...both groups were fed the same feeds except the last group were only fed once a day!  This group have had more feed, better nutrition of the FF, more good foraging opportunities, etc., and they still don't measure up. 

I'll not buy from them again.  Great foragers, great health....but small finished product.    One person stated they were not true CX but more DP birds than CX...this I can now see.  They forage as well as DP, have similar body structure of the DP and, though they look like the CX in body style and ugliness, they just don't get big enough. 

BJ, I thank you and I sure wish you could be here too....50 CX by myself have been no treat.  After doing the first 12 as usual, plucking and all, I decided they weren't worthy of that level of care in processing.  Now I just split open that breast skin, take off the breasts, take off the thighs and legs and toss the rest...I hate to waste the little bits but they don't have enough meat on them to warrant all that effort.  I do the same exact thing! My DH doesn't help but my 11 yo and 9 yo DS's will, so they help me cut the heads off to bleed them out. I feel guilty about "wasting" so much but really it is the best parts, IMO!

Sure makes processing easy now....I drop the tailgate on the old truck, bring a bucket of water and two paring knives and kill 6 birds each morning.  I just use the tailgate itself to kill them and use it as my processing table as well.  Clean, quick, easy, fast.  I love the tailgate idea, the last time I processed I was fussing about needing a table. I have been off of BYC b/c of vacation and you are right, BYC can take alot of time up. Now I can start my FF!
 

Unfortunately I got them at TSC a few years ago and they can never tell you exactly where they get their chicks....they seem very vague and say they get them from various hatcheries.  The chicks I saw at TSC this year were just as small as those I got from Central Hatchery, which were almost half the size of the ones I got from TSC in the first batch.  Go figure! 

JR, that's some great information! You're going to keep this info all the way through until process?

Figured I would update this thread with my week 1 results from my CX ff 'vs' dry crumble experiment.  The results are surprising; the crumble chicks appear to be converting feed better than the ff chicks at this point.  The first weights were taken on Friday after the ff chicks started eating better but they were still probably a little behind the crumble chicks.  Next week should be interesting.

Day 8 6/6/12 WEEK 1 Complete

Weights

Ounces FFC     CC                   Average Weight FFC      CC        Difference

1)          4.75     4.375                                      4.2847  5.0625  0.7778 oz

2)          3.5       6.0

3)          2.75     4.75                 Feed Given        20C       10C

4)          5.125   5.75

5)          4.375   4.625               C eaten / chick   1.11       1.25      0.14 oz

6)          4.0       4.875              1C = 5oz

7)          3.75     5.75

8)          3.75     4.375

9)          4.375                           Weight Gain Since 6/1/12  FFC     CC        Difference

10)        4.75                                                                       2.6177  3.1095  0.4918

11)        4.875 

12)        3.875

13)        4.375       At this point, it appears the CC are converting their feed slightly more

14)        3.875       efficiently than the FFC; they gained almost a half ounce more while

15)        4.875       eating 0.14 oz more. But, the 20C isn't all eaten yet so not 100% accurate.

16)        5.25         FFC 2.35oz gain/oz feed; CC 2.48 oz gain/ oz feed

17)        3.875

18)        5.0