raising broilers in the winter

Thanks for all the great advice. My next batch will be able to run the pasture for bugs and grass but this first batch will have to be stationary in one of my sheds because of winter. We still have snow to get through for a couple months. Will the 20% feed still be able to get the C X to slaughter weight in 6 weeks. I understand they won't be full size but my first couple batches I will be experimenting with to see time and feed what the results are. I have raised a lot of meat animals and gotten very good at getting a great animal to harvest. I am just completely green with meat chickens. Thanks for all the help

I'm in N IL and have discovered that trying to raise meat birds during the coldest parts of the winter is simply not hospitable - to the birds nor me!

I've raised Rangers and CX in all 4 seasons - and have found for our weather (zone 5b) that if I get the chicks about May 1st, they grow the best. I've gotten chicks mid September and also December. Both the fall and the winter batches grew significantly slower, despite every husbandry method known to man and internet.

With the colder months, the chicks ate more and grew slower - even with heat lamps and heated waterers and mealworms for treats daily. What should have taken just 12wks for the Rangers in December took nearly 18wks for the same size in the batch in May. For the CX the rate of delayed growth was similar (instead of 7wks, they were 15wks). Further, since the chicks were completely disinterested in being outside in the cold and nothing to peck at but snow, they all had concave breast-bones from sitting on roosts for hours and hours on end! Not very pretty if you're trying to market the birds to customers....

Also, to compound the issue is the amount of frozen litter which needed to be removed. When you're dealing with not-quite-full sized birds for weeks on end, you've got LOTS of compostable material - but with the frozen weather, where to put it? It didn't compost, it was frozen! I still have litter from last winter which is at the bottom of the pile being worked over.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with waterers - keeping them from freezing, taking out fresh water 3x/day (which is a lot of time, truly!), cleaning out dirty waterers in sub-zero temps....it wasn't pleasant. With spring/summer/fall batches, we have a garden hose out to the coop. But once freezing temps hit, I'm hauling buckets in or out of the house instead.

Simple, small things which really make a difference. I've given up raising meaties in winter temps. It's simply more than I wish to undertake. My orders are for May 1, June 15 and August 1 - with those three batches, I can fill our freezer for the remainder of the year. And still get good feed/growth ratio and dealing with the litter and water. Much more pleasant.....