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I have 11 day old cornish X broilers from Welp and those suckers are already panting from the "heat." I turned off the brooder lamp yesterday and kept their brooder door open to help keep them cool. This is my first year raising cornish X broilers as I have typically raised the Freedom Ranger...

Out of Curiosity, I called around my middle TN area for prices and they wanted around 40 bucks per 50 lb bag. That's about 80 cents a pound. Holy Schmokes! If I were to grow out a bird to 8 weeks that would be about 14 dollars in feed cost alone per bird. I think I'll just stick to feeding my...

Hi all! Last weekend I sold the rest of my Pekin meat ducks. It certainly has been a learning experience! I ended up raising 45 ducks, lost one to this summer's obscene heat, and selling 44 total. I served about 8 families. It was an overall success, with them wanting me to raise chicken and...

I'm raising 50 Pekin ducks out and this is my first real go at raising ducks. All of my ducks are very lively and seem healthy. They are gaining weight and eating just fine. A few of them have pale bills and nowhere near the orange color of my adult Pekin drakes. The thread located here...

I did a quick search and was unable to find what I needed. What would you say the finished carcass weight is compared to alive? I'm guessing 60% for Cornish X and probably less for slower grow birds. Can anyone chime in on this topic please?

What's the weight that you look to grow your broilers out to? I've read that smaller birds tend to sell better, as in the 2.5 to 3.5 lbs range. I've done the math, and my fixed costs would be prohibitive to sell birds under 3lbs. feed /50lbs 13.55/50=0.271$ per pound fcr 2.5 live weight...

Where do you get your cornish crosses from? Which hatchery has the hardiest birds from your experience? It would be interesting to hear from folks like Jeff Brunty, BigRedFeather and others.

I've decided to jump into raising ducks and such for the local ethnic market. I've already figured and reached an agreed upon price for my live ducks. I've also decided that it would be a good idea to get 50% down before I order the ducks. The problem is that I haven't a contract. How...

Hi Folks! I know this isn't directly related to meat birds, but it's pretty close. Back in December we processed our first batch of Freedom Rangers, which were quite tasty, and let a few escape the freezer. We saved several which turned out to include some ladies and a fella. The rooster...

I've searched and found some threads with information on it. This is the first beak deformity I have come across. I was wondering if she should cull the affected bird. My wife says it seems to be eating and drinking okay. For now, I have thrown her under a broody Freedom Ranger.

I've seen a lot of BYC members post pictures of their wonderful DIY and home brew incubators. The complexity varies from a simple foam cooler and a lightbulb to converted refrigerators with temperature, humidity, and egg rotation control. The common theme (IMO) though, is that folks tend to...

I've been poking at the idea of raising Pekins for the Asian Market and have started pricing Pekins and figuring overhead. I've been able to find some for 2.25 at Townline, but they don't list feed efficiency. I've also looked over Metzer's different Pekin varieties. Metzer's Grimaud Pekin...

I have been approached by a Chinese professor wanted me to raise ducks for him to buy. He wants to buy them live from me. This person also says that there is difficulty in sourcing live ducks for consumption in our area. I told him I would probably sell chickens for 3.50 /lb and he didn't...

I saw them in a Stromberg's catalog and thought that it would make for a neat chicken coop. The price is listed as 85 dollars. Has anyone used them before? They don't seem to have a manufacturers website and Stromberg's seems to be the only distributor in the US. Here's a link the...

Is Cornerstone pretty much the only place to get small quantity shrink bags? I've seen other online retailers but nearly all of them want you to buy a case. I've bought from Cornerstone before and was quite happy with the service, but was curious about what my options might be. A forum...

Any chance this would work? I'm doing my first freezer camp this weekend and got shrink bags in. I was wondering if you could go ahead and shrink bag the birds up and let them rest in the frig with the bags on. Or would it be better to let them rest and then bag them up?

Anyone else use an old water heater as a livestock waterer? We took an old electric water heater and cut a square out of the side with a cutting torch. The middle water heater element was taken out and a de-icer's electric cord was threaded through. The goats, ducks and chickens love it...

JM Hatchery says on their website that the maximum time you should process their birds is at 11 weeks. I intended to process them this weekend at slightly over 11 weeks, but something came up. It looks like we (DW and I) will be processing them next weekend at around 87 days or so. Do you...

I have a smaller refrigerator and little to no room for resting/chilling my birds post butcher. I've thought of using food grade plastic barrels with water and ice for my birds (25), but they are hard to come by in my area. My second thought was to either use giant ziplock bags, or food grade...

What's the general consensus on Freedom Rangers and rooster? I know that Cornish x you do not want to let roost due to weight and weak legs. I'll be getting my first batch of 25 tomorrow and building their Salatin style tractor this weekend. I was wondering if I should add onto the back end...