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They probably just really like eating in the morning as most birds do. I would give them a second feeder for the morning feeding if you can. That amount of birds will need two feeders at this point anyway on account of having enough space for everyone to eat at once so you don't end up will a...

If your pens are well stocked, 1 time per year is ideal, 2 times per year is doable (spread as far as possible, ie several months). Any more frequent than that, and you will start running into problems. If your pens are sparse, you can get away with more frequent passes over the same spot. In a...

Something defintiely happened. Either a breed mix up or a evironmental/nutritional deficiency. Rangers are generally in the 3.5-6# range at 12 weeks. Hard to say what happened, but unfortunately they probably won't get too much bigger unless you keep them (feed them) for several more months...

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Yearling roos. Only ever butchered (to eat) a roo that was older than a year one time and it was defintiely not worth it. Resting 10 or so hours has been plenty resting for me on several occasions, especially for 3 month old broilers. I have butchered a set of birds at the end of the day and...

I have after butchering first thing in the morning and then eating it that night. Was no perceptible difference imo. But it did rest during the day technically.

Yes, skin the feet for your health. The scales on the feet hold so much poop, dirt, mites, etc. That being said, if I'm making dog food, the feet go into the pot unpeeled.

Yep you can do any of that. But the easiest is to just roast a chicken and collect the fat that pools in the bottom of the pan. I have cut off the fat from the cavity and rendered it separately too but the pieces are so small, you have to have a good number of chickens to make it worth it to...

Definitely want the bigger size bags for that size bird. Normal broiler bags will max out at around 5-6lb birds

Some folks notice a difference in their health when they dont meat meat raised on mainly soy protein. It's a pretty ecologically conscious way to raise chickens. Takes a little extra time and some times it's often times more expensive - pound for pound - but there are people who believe strongly...

Google "feed ration calculator" and use one of them to calculate the protein content based on your recipe (ignore the herbs and whatnot, just use the maine ingredients in the calculator (ie corn, wheat, oats, peas, meat meal). If the protein content isn't above 20% then you need a mix with more...

Like others have already said, the ratio changes as the weight of the bird changes. And heavy cornish broilers dont follow the curve. At about 4-6pounds live weight, I've found a reliable average to be 70% for most red broilers and heavy laying stock. Lighter laying hens tend to be more like...

Not that I'm aware of. I've never raised geese. But I know several people that use guard geese for their unprotected broiler flocks starting when they are around 2-3 weeks old

My opinion is that would be a pain and of little to no benefit. You're better off raising a guard goose if you're after the protective element. Although a good roo would not beat the chicks up, all that roo's are good for (in terms of protection) is sacrificing themselves to any predator that...

Turkeys are way more personable than broilers, I agree. Everything comes with time though. People are generally butchering less turkeys than they are butchering broilers too and I think there's power in numbers in that the more you butcher, the more you become ok with it.

Assuming they are older than 8 or 9 months, then going heavy on the scratch corn daily for 4-8 weeks ought to beef them up a bit. But you can only expect so much weight gain to be realized from a bird that has already reached adult weight. They will put on fat, but not all that much muscle.

Pasture will benefit with chickens on it no matter what. It would benefit if it was a patch of dirt, no joke! Pastured poultry is often the first step for small, diversified farms in order to bring their soil nutrients back to a level where they can grow other crops or animals that need most of...

I've free ranged freedom rangers a bunch. It works ok. Pasture pens (ie chicken tractors) are more efficient, but also more work. The broilers grow out slower when free ranged, but it works fine as long as you have very low predator pressure and high quality pasture forage. You want to keep the...

Really depends on how big the pastures are and the health of the soil. Generally when people say "smaller pasture" I find it means that it's too small. So I'm inclined to say that the answer to your question that I quoted here is no. If you exhaust a pasture's soil with chickens, it's best to...

Yes. A pairing knife might be easier to handle than a chef's knife but either one would do the trick.