I processed mine at 12.5 weeks and ended up with an average between 4.5 - 5.0#. I had some monsters who we ended up quartering for personal use, because I agree that it's a tough sell to sell them at $3.50 - $4.00/lb if they get to a dressed weight of 7-8#. The biggest one I kept whole was...
I think that, not unlike when you eat a piece of corn-fed beef (which is what I was raised on in a farm family in the Midwest) you taste the flavor of the fat more than you do the flavor of the meat and that you can taste a big difference between grassfed beef that melts in your mouth and the...
Mine like to roost, but just make sure you keep the roosts low to the ground or they won't be able to get their fat little bodies on the roost for very long.
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Liz,
I finally had a chance to get my photos from the camera to the computer and thought I'd share this one with you. This is one of my Red Bro Broilers at 8 weeks -- he looks like probably 85% of my group did on that day with about 5% bigger and meatier than he is and about 10% of...
...mention goats around my DH, he said he would never drink goats milk. I'm trying to convince him that I need more land and a couple goats lol.
**Warning** You may not want to allow unconvinced DH's and DBF's to read this next post because if they do, you'll never get your goats!**
You'll...
Liz -
I know that we all feel bad for the FR people that they had all the troubles that they had when they did -- and I know that the FR people have quite a fan club here -- but I can also certainly understand your frustration from the get-go with the fact that you didn't get what you ordered...
Mine (mid-April babies) are absolute little greedy hogs...not too much longer for these fat boys and girls at this house. Even though they are quite the little eaters, they still are all getting around well -- no leg problems, no heat problems, and just counting the days until processing.
I...
How much are you limiting their feed? That sounds like it might be part of the issue.
Personally, I would worry less about processing them at a certain age than I would about getting them up to the right weight.
The health issues that tend to come with birds that have been kept too long...
I'm the same way...I can be entertained for hours watching them. From watching one of my little pullets jump straight up in the air as she catches evening bugs to 'visiting' with Clara Cluck -- my very first layer as she sees me coming and thinks that it is her job to tell me all about her day...
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The least stressful way on the bird that I have found is to just take my bathroom scale outside...put it on a board on a flat surface...weigh myself one or two times to make sure that I am on a level enough spot where it is accurate and then just pick up a bird in my arms and see the...
We, too, are in the throes of the heatwave. I have day ranging layers and day ranging broilers and I have been using ice -- but not the soda bottles. Instead, I am putting little shallow pans of ice cubes out in their pen, ice in their waterers to keep it cool for them, and also just spreading...
I don't know if this will help, but I put my feeders and waterers at the far end of the pasture so that they have to venture out. They'll get used to it pretty quickly. Mine now only spend the hottest part of the day in the shade of their hoophouse -- that, and after dark. On days when it is...
I've done this for years with sheep and goats and have had great success. I usually get a goldfish and also an algae eating type of fish (I don't know their names but the ugly ones that hang on the sides with their sticky mouths). They do a great job of keeping the tank clean. They grow huge...
An open apology to Janet in TN...
Janet,
I would like to publicly apologize for my rude and snippy post in response to your news about your Freedom Rangers. While the purpose of a forum like this is to share information, another thing that they should be is warm and welcoming. My recent...
An open apology to Janet in TN...
Janet,
I would like to publicly apologize for my rude and snippy post above. While the purpose of a forum like this is to share information, another thing that they should be is warm and welcoming. My recent response to you on this thread was neither of...