Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

[Mrs. K]

Just got mine this year. Last year, I got layer chicks at the same time. A 4 week old layer chick next to a meat bird, makes the meat bird SEEM like an adult, but really they are just humongous chicks, so I would not expect adult noises. Or behavior.

As for meat, I don't think I will ever try and eat a dual purpose bird again in anything but soup or a casserole.

 

[NewBoots]

No cockerel behavior, they ALL do bite the HECK out of my hands when I am bringing the feed back and forth. I’m going to have to work on that. But other than that no special behavior amongst them. No adult sounds whatsoever from any of them.

I will have to take a video or make a gif of some sort when they are in the grass they are RUNNING and it’s hilarious.

OMG please do! I'd love to see them. And thanks as always for the reporting!

 

[jolenesdad]

Will do.

I figured out my hands too. It’s my rings. I guess they look like a mealworm. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[jolenesdad]

Anyone who says their Cornish don’t want to move, hasn’t really tried.

 

[RUNuts]

Pretty birds! Growing and moving well. Keep up the good work.

 

[NewBoots]

Anyone who says their Cornish don’t want to move, hasn’t really tried.

View attachment 1738584

That is so funny! Look at those chooks run!

 

[jolenesdad]

I get excited for weigh day because I’m hatching chicks and the wait is KILLING ME!

Today was a great day. ALL percentages are increasing. And they’re doing it WHILE getting access to the grass.

I’m not able to range them as much as I want, I see hawks daily and know it’ll be a matter of time, so they go out for 3 hours in the afternoon right now while we do all the chores in that area to monitor. When not out, they have a 400sf enclosure with lots of enrichment stumps and tree limbs they use regularly.

When out, a few are more curious than the others and will try and get to the laying hens, but the laying hens don’t want them mingling just yet. So far,
probably because their pen is so large, they only really explore about 2000 square feet of grass. I do take them out and walk a few laps of the field they have each day, so they’re getting PLENTY of exercise. (See previous gif)

Day 36 Females
2.25 lb (52%)

Day 41 Females
3 lb (55%)

Day 41 Males
4.1 pound (65%)

Comparison photos to come.

 

[NewBoots]

I could watch them run forever.

 

[jolenesdad]

Didn’t get to post on Tuesday, but I did weigh!

It’s fairly hard to tell them all apart aside from the biggest boys and the smallest girls. All the other ages intermix, they’re only 5 days apart anyway.

There’s a gigantic range of weights. From my research I’ve gathered that is from not feeding them around the clock the first 7 days to reach a certain weight. Some of the Cobb research I’ve read says there’s a whole host of issues if you don’t reach a certain 7 day threshold. I’m not seeing any health issues as we near week 7/8, aside from a range of weights of the birds. No bowed legs, no sudden deaths.

They’re clumsy and lazy, that’s for sure. They don’t exactly eat around the clock. I imagine if confined to really small spaces they would because they don’t move too much, so they wouldn’t be moving from the food.

These guys move around but stay pretty sedentary as they’re reaching 4+ pounds. They move a bit... and sit. Run a bit... and sit. They will range more if I let them out in the morning than afternoon.

They don’t scratch that much. Some more than others. Some just eat grass and bugs but do not scratch or dig. A couple have no desire to leave the pen and what’s comfortable. They still only range out 40-50 feet from the pen.

WEIGHTS:
All over the place. Smallest is 2.7 pounds and the largest is 6. Most of the chickens are between 3.75-4.75 pounds.

I think it will be about 10 days to two weeks when the majority of the birds are 5.5 pounds and that’s when I’ll process them all. They’ll be 8 and 9 weeks old at that point. Up until this week, most of the Youngers still had down on their heads, and I’ve realized the broiler industry is essentially like veal, and I don’t like that. However I’m comfortable with their age and behavior now I would be fine processing at 8 weeks.

I wanted to make it to at least 8-9 weeks, but would like to extend that in the future. Since this is my first time, I don’t want to push it. Next time I’m going to try and get a couple laying chicks that are a couple weeks older to raise with them to encourage a little more time outside and movement. I may try a few various meat breeds at once to see if they can raise together.

More updates next week!!

 

[jolenesdad]