Meat Bird Project - Delaware, White Rock, Dark Cornish

[KoopOnTruckin]

That's awesome that your birds will be breeding then. Do you get roughly the same length of day light then?

Yeah your cops are a little more intimidating than ours!

More girls is never a bad thing! Might be interesting to get a few more chicks next year to see and even get different blood in?

It definitely is a shame, always is when you've ambitions for breeding. I may keep 2 quads with these and my current. One or two of my existing line aren't what I'd want tbh. I hope to breed better. Even try and source more as some English guys have access to French birds

I'm hoping they will be ready by then. Yes, we're pretty close to the equator so our daylight doesn't swing a ton. I just looked it up, our summers give us about 14 hrs daylight, and the winters shrink to no less than 10.5 hrs. And our winters are extremely mild. As this is my first year breeding chickens, I'll have to play it by ear - there's always artificial light if needed. And I'll also be using an incubator, fingers are crossed for success!

And yes, it's never easy to see a bird struggle. I've been afraid that the smaller birds aren't getting access to feed as readily, afraid they're being bullied, etc. But if you've got a runt or one not up to par, it's good to know that from the get-go so you can keep them away from breeding.

 

[Dlmillion]

Update: Here are my most recent numbers. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8In3P9Jq5XKUEtWbnJvVnpXXzQ
I was shocked at how big of a jump there was in the weights in the past week! I had to weigh the first three pullets i grabbed several times before i believed the numbers i was seeing. I went from a 40% weight gain to a 20% weight gain and now back up to nearly 40%. I suppose that suggests i just didn't feed them enough during that poor gaining week.... On second thought, maybe they were just using up energy growing feathers rather than muscle? The temperature did just take a bit of a dive here two weeks ago. interesting thought i suppose.

I still have them on the 18% feed and it seems as though they're gaining just fine so far! I moved the coop that they're in to a small fenced off area so now they are allowed outside during the day to scratch the ground and forage as they please. Interested to see if that change will impact the weight gains next week.

Days are also shortening quite a bit now so i am really anxious to get the bigger coop done and rig up some electricity in there for lights so i can keep the chicks active as I want eggs as soon as i can get them!

This week I'll also be selecting the smallest chick from each breed to give to my girlfriend down in San Diego. I've got her all excited about chickens now so she's excited to be getting some that she can get some experience with. Hopefully, she will be able to weigh those ones regularly so we can see how the altitude and climate change will effect their growth.

 

[Ulladh]

@KoopOnTruckin That should be plenty of hours for them surely? We get up to 17 in he summer and down to 7 in the winter, which can b dragged out for sure, plus pretty cold! No snow though.

@Dlmillion That is definitely a big jump, watching mine tonight for a while they eat a lot, they do run about and Ive seen some trying to fly as wll as fight but mostly just eating and drinking! Im trying to convince my girlfriend to get into hens, mostly so I can get more!

Ive a proper digital scale bought so I will be doing a proper weigh in for their 3 week mark hopefully tomorrow

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Update: Here are my most recent numbers. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8In3P9Jq5XKUEtWbnJvVnpXXzQ
I was shocked at how big of a jump there was in the weights in the past week! I had to weigh the first three pullets i grabbed several times before i believed the numbers i was seeing. I went from a 40% weight gain to a 20% weight gain and now back up to nearly 40%. I suppose that suggests i just didn't feed them enough during that poor gaining week.... On second thought, maybe they were just using up energy growing feathers rather than muscle? The temperature did just take a bit of a dive here two weeks ago. interesting thought i suppose.

I still have them on the 18% feed and it seems as though they're gaining just fine so far! I moved the coop that they're in to a small fenced off area so now they are allowed outside during the day to scratch the ground and forage as they please. Interested to see if that change will impact the weight gains next week.

Days are also shortening quite a bit now so i am really anxious to get the bigger coop done and rig up some electricity in there for lights so i can keep the chicks active as I want eggs as soon as i can get them!

This week I'll also be selecting the smallest chick from each breed to give to my girlfriend down in San Diego. I've got her all excited about chickens now so she's excited to be getting some that she can get some experience with. Hopefully, she will be able to weigh those ones regularly so we can see how the altitude and climate change will effect their growth.

I've been reviewing your numbers for a while this morning, very impressive! Yes, that is a big jump in a week, may just be them going through a growth spurt, like you said, previously putting their energy towards feathers. Add some photos if you can, I'd love to see them. They seem to be doing great on the 18%. I'm curious to know if the amount of protein makes much of a difference over the course of a full growth period, I'd imagine it does but we once thought that the world was flat.

I'm with you that getting them to maturity is important, it takes a lot of patience to watch them grow up especially when you have an end goal in mind!

I left on a business trip 2 weeks ago and was gone for a few days, I came back and my wife had handled everything herself and sold all of our eggs, and also has a wait list that we still haven't fulfilled. She loved me being gone so she could take the reigns on the chicken project - I'm happy that she's accepted it and enjoys the work that goes into them!

Like you said, we could experiment for 30 years and still not have close to all of the answers to all of the questions that we have. That's why this is such a fun hobby, so many variables but you can always get benefits from our flock, even when things don't go perfectly to plan.

 

[Ulladh]

So done a weigh up tonight, this is now week 3 and I am sitting roughly on an average of 330-340. Smallest being visible now as the hens who are just over 300, while what Im guessing to be the roosters are all at least 350 to 370. That is on 20% protein so im going for a higher % stuff tomorrow now on growers, probably turkey grower as my local hen grower is only 20%. There isnt a big selection here of feed providers unfortunately

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

That is a great number so far, 330g is what I averaged on week 3 with my second batch of WRs on 24%.

 

[Ulladh]

It is ok, had to bump them up to a big trough feeder as too much squabbling and simply no room for them at the little bell feeders. Id need to seperate at some stage later, but will leave until I can definitely tell the roosters from hens.

Have you considered using any wing tags? Seen videos online but not quite sure what age to do it, as you got to put them between a wing tendon and bone I believe.

Unfortunately had to put the chick with the bad leg down tonight, and they are some very flighty chicks, definitely must be in the breed like leghorns as no amount of handling puts hem mental at any slight movement

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

I'm sorry you had to put the little one down, that's gotta be tough. But better in the long run. Yes, I've strongly considered the wing tags, @Dlmillion uses them and makes it look very appealing. Next batch will definitely have the tags, and will use them going forward after this batch. I think he put them on at like 1-2 weeks old, and it's a one-time thing that should last forever.

I'm going on another business trip this weekend and will gone a few days. On Saturday before I leave, I will do my weigh-ins for the week, and at that point I am going to separate the keepers from the dinners, and the keepers will get their own wing in the big coop. That way we can go in there and handle them a lot more often than we are doing now, and hopefully will make them more used to people and being picked up. I will also plan to take some pics for comparison and future reference.

The Dels are growing on me a bit more, they are the easiest to pick up and handle, but are also the first to try to jump out when the door opens. I just wish they were a bit bigger...

 

[Kiki]

It is ok, had to bump them up to a big trough feeder as too much squabbling and simply no room for them at the little bell feeders. Id need to seperate at some stage later, but will leave until I can definitely tell the roosters from hens.

Have you considered using any wing tags? Seen videos online but not quite sure what age to do it, as you got to put them between a wing tendon and bone I believe.

Unfortunately had to put the chick with the bad leg down tonight, and they are some very flighty chicks, definitely must be in the breed like leghorns as no amount of handling puts hem mental at any slight movement

Here is Dlmillions video.

 

[Dlmillion]

The wing bands can be put on as early as 1 day old. I just happened to put them on when the chicks were a week and a half because that's when the bands arrived in the mail. I am definitely thankful I have the wing bands on now! Makes identification very simple and the pullets don't mind them in the slightest!
I highly recommend them

These are the ones I used. They're the cheapest I could find and allow you to choose the numbers they are stamped with which makes it easier to order exactly how many you want and have full control over the numbering sequence.
http://www.ketchummfg.com/wing-bandear-tags-aluminum-numbered