Delaware Meat Bird Attempt

[imacowgirl2]

@Bookworm007 is there a reason you are feeding the Deer Run birds chick starter and the hatchery birds meat bird food? I didn’t catch that the first time I read through…curious s to your reasoning?

 

[Bookworm007]

@Bookworm007 is there a reason you are feeding the Deer Run birds chick starter and the hatchery birds meat bird food? I didn’t catch that the first time I read through…curious s to your reasoning?

The order of cockerels from is just hatchery stock so I'm not interested in keeping them as breeders. Additionally I couldn't find much information about raising dual purpose birds on meat bird feed and if it benefited time to butcher. In contrast I'm raising the deer run chicks on regular starter because most birds will be retained as breeders minus a few roosters. Nothing super scientific, just my personal curiosities.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Out of curiosity, what percent protein is the meat bird feed and the feed you are giving to the others?

Additionally I couldn't find much information about raising dual purpose birds on meat bird feed and if it benefited time to butcher.

The true scientific studies are generally paid for by the people that have the money to pay for them and have a special interest. Since that special interest are either the Cornish X meat birds or the commercial hybrid layers you are going to find very few studies on dual purpose chickens. The CX and commercial layers are highly developed by selective breeding as specialists, which makes them more delicate than our dual purpose. What they find in those studies does not always directly corelate to our dual purpose. Studies on dual propose are really hard to find.

We can draw some inferences from those studies, and I often do, but I try to recognize that data may not really fit my dual purpose.

What you get on here is mostly opinion. Sometimes that is based on real life experiences. Sometimes it is based on what someone read, which may or may not be taken out of context. Sometimes it is based on someone thinking "well it seems this should be right". Sometimes I don't have a clue where some of this off the wall stuff comes from. Some can be purely emotional. One time when I said I use free rocks to put in my waterers to keep chicks from drowning I was told I don't love my chicks enough, I needed to spend money to buy pretty marbles to use instead of using free rocks.

In my opinion, feeding a higher protein level feed will cause them to grow bigger and faster. As long as you don't get ridiculous (over 24% protein) I am not aware of any harm you do to the pullets reproductive tract or to the males ability to breed as long as you stay within the same size class. I don't know if it is cost effective for you to do that. It would not be for me as size is not everything to me. There are only two of us and I can get two meals out of a small pullet or hen. A larger cockerel just means I get leftover chicken for my lunch. Don't get me wrong, size is one of my criteria when selecting which male I keep for breeding but size is not something I obsess over.

My suggestion is to feed your laying/breeding chicks the way you plan to feed your future laying/breeding/eating flock so you are doing a comparison on how they will be fed. And choose your breeding male(s) at the age you plan to butcher. You can delay settling on your layers until you've had a chance to evaluate their laying, at least some. I generally wait until the pullets are 8 months old.

 

[Percheron chick]

I have some Privett Delaware pullets that I am raising as layers. They are 13 weeks and tower over the EEs in the same age group. They have huge breasts too. I was thinking I might of ended up with CX before the black started coming in. I can get weights if you are interested in a comparison.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I have some Privett Delaware pullets that I am raising as layers. They are 13 weeks and tower over the EEs in the same age group. They have huge breasts too. I was thinking I might of ended up with CX before the black started coming in. I can get weights if you are interested in a comparison.

I would love to have some weights to compare to my NH, if it’s not too much of a bother!

 

[Percheron chick]

6 total. All range between 3 lb 1 oz and 3 lb 7oz. They have been super easy to work with. Dominant of the mix but not bullies.

 

[Bookworm007]

Out of curiosity, what percent protein is the meat bird feed and the feed you are giving to the others?


The true scientific studies are generally paid for by the people that have the money to pay for them and have a special interest. Since that special interest are either the Cornish X meat birds or the commercial hybrid layers you are going to find very few studies on dual purpose chickens. The CX and commercial layers are highly developed by selective breeding as specialists, which makes them more delicate than our dual purpose. What they find in those studies does not always directly corelate to our dual purpose. Studies on dual propose are really hard to find.

We can draw some inferences from those studies, and I often do, but I try to recognize that data may not really fit my dual purpose.

What you get on here is mostly opinion. Sometimes that is based on real life experiences. Sometimes it is based on what someone read, which may or may not be taken out of context. Sometimes it is based on someone thinking "well it seems this should be right". Sometimes I don't have a clue where some of this off the wall stuff comes from. Some can be purely emotional. One time when I said I use free rocks to put in my waterers to keep chicks from drowning I was told I don't love my chicks enough, I needed to spend money to buy pretty marbles to use instead of using free rocks.

In my opinion, feeding a higher protein level feed will cause them to grow bigger and faster. As long as you don't get ridiculous (over 24% protein) I am not aware of any harm you do to the pullets reproductive tract or to the males ability to breed as long as you stay within the same size class. I don't know if it is cost effective for you to do that. It would not be for me as size is not everything to me. There are only two of us and I can get two meals out of a small pullet or hen. A larger cockerel just means I get leftover chicken for my lunch. Don't get me wrong, size is one of my criteria when selecting which male I keep for breeding but size is not something I obsess over.

My suggestion is to feed your laying/breeding chicks the way you plan to feed your future laying/breeding/eating flock so you are doing a comparison on how they will be fed. And choose your breeding male(s) at the age you plan to butcher. You can delay settling on your layers until you've had a chance to evaluate their laying, at least some. I generally wait until the pullets are 8 months old.

All very good points! We have been considering switching to more of an all flock feed and then offering a calcium supplement for the layers in the future but maybe we will just make that transition early as I have found a reasonable all flock 20% protein feed which should provide a good middle ground for all the chickens in the flock. Could then finish the freezer chickens on a slightly higher protein content if the results on 20% are lack luster.

Currently the 10 cockerels are getting purina 22% protein meat bird feed, and the other brood which is about half Delawares and half BCM/Ameracauna/Welsummers is getting 18% protein chick starter.

We aren't strictly going for size, on our last go of red rangers we let them go to 16 weeks and we noticed a loss in the quality of the meat when compared to younger chickens. My goals from this are to have chickens that reach a reasonable butch weight by 12 to 14 weeks and breed true so we don't have to buy chicks anymore, and the biggest motivation a chicken that free ranges better. We currently do the chicken tractor routine and even moving them twice a day it is hard on our land. Not sure how the homesteaders make it look so good, but I'm hoping we have better luck free ranging.

 

[imacowgirl2]

My goals from this are to have chickens that reach a reasonable butch weight by 12 to 14 weeks and breed true so we don't have to buy chicks anymore, and the biggest motivation a chicken that free ranges better. We currently do the chicken tractor routine and even moving them twice a day it is hard on our land. Not sure how the homesteaders make it look so good, but I'm hoping we have better luck free ranging.

I don’t free range my NH very often because of hawk predation…they are slower than my layers, so would likely be the first to be picked off (and I can’t afford that risk right now with only two laying hens), but I will say the free ranging we do with the layer flock makes a wonderful difference for them and for me in coop/run maintenance. We have about 5 acres and they can usually be found in all parts of it, and as long as you don’t mind chicken poop everywhere, we’ve found that they’re not really hard on the land. When my NH hens were in the layer flock (before my meat bird coop was built) they would happily free range all day with the layers…they just tended to come back to the run more often for food, and didn’t range quite as far as the layers.

 

[Molpet]

Are the second ones these?

I just seen on FB that someone was having issues.

"
Update on McMurray "Enhanced" Delaware Broilers. We processed 4 hens today at 11 months old. We raised these birds last year in hopes of a sustainable flock. They grew fast, were super easy to raise, clean, and docile. Great meat quality, and very tasty. McMurray says these birds will breed and can be raised as a sustainable flock. I'm here to tell you all, that is not the case. We kept these 4 hens back just to see how they did long term. They continued to grow, more like a meat bird than a Delaware. They were extremely fat and started showing signs of health issues recently, like poor egg quality. What I found inside was SHOCKING.

They amount of fat in their abdomen, around their intestines and their hearts was intense. All 4 had advanced fatty liver disease. The largest one had an entire lobe of her liver that was necrotic - a chunk had literally broken off and was just free in her abdomen. It was the texture of cooked liver. Another one had three to four crushed eggs in her abdomen. Not in an oviduct, just crushed, decomposing eggs in her abdomen. Several of her developping yolks were runny and off colored.

I am SO glad I processed them today. None of them were showing overt symptoms of serious disease, but these girls would have been dead with the first heat wave, if not sooner. They'd never even been through a molt. These are not birds that can survive long term. They make good meat birds but that's it."

 

[Bookworm007]

Yikes @Molpet those hens were not doing good, glad you shared your experience. We were thinking about trying some of those next year but maybe we should pass on that.