My Meatie Journal (NEW TRACTOR PICS added in post #9)

Hey guys. I'm keeping a journal of my first meat chicks. My findings and list are in one of my BYC pages here . I'm sure I'll be adding much more. It's very short right now as I've only had the birds for a short time. What's amazing to me is that their average weight last Friday was 1.806oz and their average weight today (Friday) was 5.112oz.

The next time I get DP or layer chicks, I'll be doing this weekly weigh-in as well.

Thanks for checking it out if you're interested. As always, I appreciate your feedback, help and suggestions.

Awesome!! Look forward to seeing your progress with those little cuties.

Thanks Itsy! Very useful. Once again you are inspiring me!

Oh thank you for keeping us all up to date!!!!

Yay! I am subscribed!

It is amazing that they had such a signicant weight gain so quickly! I am really excited about your weighing them each week, as I only have the capability to do the final weights and was very interested to see how they gain through out the process. Obviously the numbers wont be EXACTLY what mine would be, but it'll give me a general idea!!

Thanks Itsy!
-Jessa

I will be following along as well - such a bummer that you have lost two. My 25 Cornish will arrive this week and this will be my first time raising meaties (other than the 11 I have growing in the main coop - Buff Orps). Think I may need to purchase a freezer chest if all goes well ;^) Good luck with yours - looking forward to virtually watching your grow!

It's nice to know that I have friends to go with me through this journey. Thanks, guys!

I believe that I lost one due to a child who came over the house to visit. He was holding one of the chicks much too tight and I urged him to relax his grip. He gritted his teeth and told the chick to hold still. At that point, I made him give the chick back to me. It had trouble standing for a few minutes. I observed it and decided it could go back in the brooder. Coincidentally, I had a dead chick the next day.

It's safe to say that said child (who I think is 10 years old) will not be holding any more chicks.

Awww, poor chick! Kids can be so mean.

I'll be following along too. Fascinating to see how fast these chicks grow.

Well I've been updating my Meat Bird Journal weekly, with weights on Friday. The chicks are now about three weeks old and went into their new tractor today! My boyfriend and I put this together in one evening after work. It was VERY quick and VERY easy. The cost was about $100 over a period of time. I didn't buy all of the supplies at once. I had a few pieces of wood that we recycled as the supports. It measures 4'x8'. There are 13 birds. This tractor is smaller than what I originally had in mind but still does the job, is able to hold more birds if I desire and it's easier to move without a dolly of some sort than a larger tractor would be. If I were to do this again: I'd make sure my wood didn't get wet, because it warped; I'd paint BEFORE putting the chicken wire on (lol); and I might put it on wheels. I'm hoping that predators don't try to dig in and that we don't get any snakes. A snake would be able to fit through that wire. It is completely open at the bottom. We shall see what happens! If anyone has any suggestions, please don't hesitate to post. ALSO - when I'm done typing this, I'm going to look for DIY water buckets. If anyone knows of any links offhand, please let me know. My local store wanted $45 for a 3 gallon waterer and I refuse to pay that much for a plastic bucket!





We didn't have washers big enough to hold those screws to the chains, so I decided to use Yuengling bottle caps. MMmmm, one of my favorite beers!



Red Broiler Chicks at about three weeks old. Want to guess my ratio of males to females? One of the chicks is very interesting because it has white legs, where all of the others have yellow legs.





The resident Cocker keeps a close eye. He's great with the chickens (with almost no training.) He even protected one of the chicks from one of the barn cats when the chick jumped out of the brooder.

looking good. I (hopefully) will give this a try next spring. Thanks for the info. Still following your updates.