Raising Meat birds on alternative feeds (ie CHEEP-ly)

[LindaB220]

New egg here to backyard chicken. In have been eating meat birds, basically from birth. My family were butchers for three generations, any meat is eatable, offel (spelling?) liver hearts, lungs gizzard, are fine, legs are great if you have no health problems eg diabeties. As for the intestines the lining can be used as sausage skins, (very thin one) but I would be concerned about worms ets, we used it as fishing bait and eat the fish.

I know my dog will eat it and the last time I did a few chooks I noticed that the chooks would take the intestines but not eat it raw, stewed up with some other food may encourage them but I do wonder why???

I prefer to use it as a fertiliser in the garden or the compost and let the chooks eat the worms etc.

Very good post. You learn something new every day. Interesting point about the intestines.

 

[Findtex]

Thankyou, I was wondering what you learnt though.

Just as a side I was told that I need 10 posts before I can post photos. Is this true?
Obvious not

 

[Whoopsie daisy]

Whew! I had such a busy week

Started with processing 6 of the birds over this past weekend, which took up a lot of my time, since I am not very experienced.

They came out well, at 3 weeks and 5 days the one I weighed dressed at 600g (1 pound, 5 ounces roughly) without the innards. I was surprised! My husband and I could share a chicken at supper - I even saved the breast for the next day's lunch sandwiches. Delicious too!

Sorry about the dirty scale. It's one used to measure out pig food...

They were perfect little mini chickens!

After that, two of my rabbits had litters and one of them kept scratching the babies out of the nest, killing half of the litter and hurting the others. I attempted throughout the week to bottle feed them, but one died of starvation due to insufficient nutrients (when I wasn't feeding them, I was researching...) I finally fostered the remaining 3 babies to the other doe, which worked out perfectly!

So I'm glad this week is over. I may process a few more birds this weekend. I don't mind the small size as it's just my husband and I. The whole point is to not have to process 50 in one day, but a few every weekend until most of them are done. I want to keep a few pullets for breeding to my Barred Rock rooster.

A 4-week old Pullet:

 

[RachelJG]

Getting ready to process my broilers in about a week! Killing cone and drill-powered picker and basic h ordered. Borrowing a propane burner. I need to set up a sink though. So much infrastructure for just 8.

they look pretty big. Don't have a good way to weigh them. I've been feeding them a mix of whole grains and legumes. It works out to only like 17% protein, but I've been fermenting it, and they are growing... So maybe that's ok: 2 parts split yellow peas, one part lentils, one part BOSS, one part oats, two parts wheat, (that's seven parts, by weight) + 3% Fertrell nuts balancer. One has a limp and is a little smaller. My larva farm still hasn't taken off :/ and they wouldn't touch the stewed meet/bone leftovers I gave them. They were not thrilled about sprouted feed either, which surprised me. That's my update!

 

[Findtex]

Did 9 of mine last week, That is 5 pound or 2.25 Kg dressed, I can get a feed off that.

 

[LindaB220]

Did 9 of mine last week, That is 5 pound or 2.25 Kg dressed, I can get a feed off that.

What kind of chook is that? No CX right? Just looking at the legs Long. BUT look at the breast. Maybe it is.

 

[LindaB220]

Getting ready to process my broilers in about a week! Killing cone and drill-powered picker and basic h ordered. Borrowing a propane burner. I need to set up a sink though. So much infrastructure for just 8. they look pretty big. Don't have a good way to weigh them. I've been feeding them a mix of whole grains and legumes. It works out to only like 17% protein, but I've been fermenting it, and they are growing... So maybe that's ok: 2 parts split yellow peas, one part lentils, one part BOSS, one part oats, two parts wheat, (that's seven parts, by weight) + 3% Fertrell nuts balancer. One has a limp and is a little smaller. My larva farm still hasn't taken off

and they wouldn't touch the stewed meet/bone leftovers I gave them. They were not thrilled about sprouted feed either, which surprised me. That's my update!

Looks great. Especially the ff. If you're uncertain about weights do one a day in advance. If it's not big enough let the others wait another week.

 

[Findtex]

What kind of chook is that? No CX right? Just looking at the legs Long. BUT look at the breast. Maybe it is.

Blue Rock Cockerel that did not make the grade.

 

[RachelJG]

*fertrell NUTRA balancer... dumb auto correct. Also, I checked today, and I have larva in my farm! maybe they will be ready for the next batch... I put a few in the chicken pen even though they were not fully developed and they disappeared right away.

 

[Whoopsie daisy]

Getting ready to process my broilers in about a week! Killing cone and drill-powered picker and basic h ordered. Borrowing a propane burner. I need to set up a sink though. So much infrastructure for just 8. they look pretty big. Don't have a good way to weigh them. I've been feeding them a mix of whole grains and legumes. It works out to only like 17% protein, but I've been fermenting it, and they are growing... So maybe that's ok: 2 parts split yellow peas, one part lentils, one part BOSS, one part oats, two parts wheat, (that's seven parts, by weight) + 3% Fertrell nuts balancer. One has a limp and is a little smaller. My larva farm still hasn't taken off

and they wouldn't touch the stewed meet/bone leftovers I gave them. They were not thrilled about sprouted feed either, which surprised me. That's my update!

Thanks for this "recipe" Your chickens are looking good! Good luck with processing. I didn't do any this weekend. Maybe this coming weekend. I need to construct a killing cone... The last batch I did were flapping and spilling blood all over the place while they were bleeding out

(Is that normal??)