Suburban Meat Birds

[Tervuren]

Picking up 7 Cornish Cross from Dunlap Hatchery tomorrow. First time trying to raise meat birds. Kind of a project in suburban self sustainability.

I’ve had my hens for 2 years now who are like pets to me, so we’ll see how do with the meat birds lol. Part of the reason I started with CX is because they have to be butchered and it is literally impossible for me to try to keep one as a pet without it amounting to cruelty imo. Also want to have first hand experience raising the kind of chicken I’ve been eating my whole life. If this goes well I’ll probably go with a ranger type in the future.

I’m going to be keeping them in my garage for 3ish weeks and then have them in a chicken tractor in my backyard that’ll be moved daily. Have the set up ready to go in the garage with an xpen and the chick plate heater is warming up. Will expand available space in the pen as they grow. Opted to start with puppy pads. I assume meat birds are like other chicks in that they’ll try to eat bedding at first. Had a very silly moment in that I forgot I threw out the chick waterers 2 years ago because I disliked the plastic ones so much. Dunlap has a store though so I’ll pick two up tomorrow am.

Going to update with weights and a rough tally of costs as I go along. Obviously will be way more expensive then store bought but I like keeping track of things so I will.

 

[muddy75]

I have raised cornish cross in city limits for past 4-5 years. I really liked them because with one exception of allowing a couple to grow out longer, crowing wasn’t an issue. For my area, I didn’t have to keep them in the brooder more than a week but you probably still have possible snow this time of year .
Your tractor setup looks good! Good luck!

 

[Tervuren]

All home and pretty well settled in. Silly things keep climbing into the water. Had to gently blow dry one off. Way more chill then my girls were as day olds. Not skittish of my hand and got weights easily. 41.8, 42.5, 44.1, 40.2, 40.8, 46.9, 42.5. They really are too cute at this age (I mean that literally not just as a term of endearment)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Put small rocks in the waterers so they can walk on water without falling in. Some people use marbles but I like free rocks.

 

[JeffPr]

As they get around 4 weeks old , your manure load will skyrocket. I hope you have a big yard. Mine are 6 weeks old and I move the tractor twice a day, with 12 birds. And I could easily move it 3 times a day.

Remember they are meat. And there is nothing wrong with that. My .02 is we owe them the best 8 weeks we can give .
And a quick clean humane kill.

It’s a life/death they wouldn’t have by “the big chicken” conglomerates .

 

[JeffPr]

This is a 1/2 days free fertilizer....

 

[Tervuren]

As they get around 4 weeks old , your manure load will skyrocket. I hope you have a big yard. Mine are 6 weeks old and I move the tractor twice a day, with 12 birds. And I could easily move it 3 times a day.

Remember they are meat. And there is nothing wrong with that. My .02 is we owe them the best 8 weeks we can give .
And a quick clean humane kill.

It’s a life/death they wouldn’t have by “the big chicken” conglomerates .

Good to know about the 4 week mark! I have a compost pile and if it gets too big for that I might see if gardeners with compost on the Nextdoor app are interested. Will be spending time keeping the time dog away from the poop before I get it into the compost (which is well fenced off from her).

And that last sentence is exactly why I’m doing this. I eat meat and if I can produce at least some of it more ethically then the big conglomerates then I will. Just getting my suburb raised brain wrapped around some stuff lol.

 

[FunClucks]

Some helpful tips:

Be prepared to process them at 5 or 6 weeks if needful. They get big FAST. I processed mine from 5-9 wks and the larger ones I parted out. Smaller ones made good roasters.

When the chicks cover more than 1/3 of the brooder space while sleeping in a pile it's time to expand the space. I like to have them cover no more than 1/4 of the brooder space.

Grow out in brooder no longer than 3 wks if at all possible.

They make 3x the poop as eggers and eat and drink 3x as much.

Make sure every chicken has space to eat at the same time or they could hurt each other trying to get to food.

At 3 wks they can drink from horizontal nipple waterers. Eggers can do it at 4 wks but CX get stronger/bigger sooner.

Be prepared to change brooder bedding once a day, perhaps multiple times a day. Hope you don't have to, but recognize the possibility.

I put food and water at opposite ends of the brooder so they have to walk back and forth, and elevate food and water so they have to stand up to eat and drink. Otherwise they'll just lay there to eat and drink and it can cause leg/heart issues.

Chicks will not get out of the way when you clean the brooder or put in a feeder/waterer. Normal chickens move back when they see you coming, but these will not. You have to physically move them with your hand or an object, and they will object and try to go back to where they were even though you're obviously doing something with that space. Things coming from overhead don't make them move. I squished a chick by accident during the first week because I put the feeder in, and thought they'd all gotten out of the way. One hadn't, and because they were mobbing the feeder I couldn't see under it to see that a chick was stuck. I still feel bad about that. Don't make my mistake. Always count heads.

After they've been dispatched I wash their rears with dish soap before plucking or skinning. Some folks can manage to raise them so that they have clean rear ends - I couldn't manage it, so I give them a post-mortem bath.

Have a good time with it! My freezer is now filled with delicious chicken! We eat it twice a week, one processed bird makes two meals worth of baked chicken, plus there's the carcass and giblets for stock or pets.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Hey fellow urban/suburban meat-raiser! I'm on my second batch of Cornish X that I've raised in my backyard here in Cleveland, Ohio. I learned a lot the first time and I'm sure you will too.

Have you planned for your processing day and what that looks like with neighbors? Our city has in ordinance that slaughter and processing must be done out of sight of neighbors (yours might too), so that does present a challenge. Last time we chopped the heads off behind the garage and processed in the garage. This time I bought a 10'x10' tent that I'm gonna hang some tarps on the sides for privacy so it blocks everything, and try to do everything in or just outside of there. It's something we urban meat raisers have to think about, so I just wanted to throw that out there.

Your tractor looks great. Did you make it yourself? Only suggestion is to maybe have a little more covered area. Most people shoot for 2/3 covered but 1/2 is probably fine too. It prevents wind from blowing rain in, and it will still give them a big enough shady spot even when the sun is directly shining in it. And you might want to cover the current wire with hardware cloth, as a raccoon can reach in and around that corner to get your chickens. But the design is really nice and neat! I like it. It looks lightweight.

Anyway, good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Tervuren]

Hey fellow urban/suburban meat-raiser! I'm on my second batch of Cornish X that I've raised in my backyard here in Cleveland, Ohio. I learned a lot the first time and I'm sure you will too.

Have you planned for your processing day and what that looks like with neighbors? Our city has in ordinance that slaughter and processing must be done out of sight of neighbors (yours might too), so that does present a challenge. Last time we chopped the heads off behind the garage and processed in the garage. This time I bought a 10'x10' tent that I'm gonna hang some tarps on the sides for privacy so it blocks everything, and try to do everything in or just outside of there. It's something we urban meat raisers have to think about, so I just wanted to throw that out there.

Your tractor looks great. Did you make it yourself? Only suggestion is to maybe have a little more covered area. Most people shoot for 2/3 covered but 1/2 is probably fine too. It prevents wind from blowing rain in, and it will still give them a big enough shady spot even when the sun is directly shining in it. And you might want to cover the current wire with hardware cloth, as a raccoon can reach in and around that corner to get your chickens. But the design is really nice and neat! I like it. It looks lightweight.

Anyway, good luck and keep us updated!

I’m actually going to have the butchered at a local USDA inspected processor. Doing the butchering myself the first time around is a bit too much for me. Hoping to find a class, but so far no luck. You’d think it being Idaho there’d be something lol.

I bought the tractor, I built the coop with my dad for the girls. It went well, but it was a pain so I’m happy just paying someone to build the tractor lol. Good ideas on some changes to make to it!

I’m a little worried about what the weather is going to do in late May and June. Sometimes it doesn’t get over 90 and other years June has lots of days in the 100s… Fingers crossed. I have a fan and mister for my girls that works well for them so that’s my plan for the chicken nuggets.