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Unsure. If there's, say, one person then that's a lot more work for that person than if there are two or three helping. If I were to guess, it will be two people.

I'm considering some incentive for the folks who help me on processing day: giving them chicken for helping. I am not sure at this point what would be a good amount to give those who help me. I think we'll have 30-40 birds to process and we'll employing a chicken plucker to help with that part...

It has been my experience that my Orpingtons have been of similar or slightly larger size than my Australorps. I do see some variance in size though - I've got a couple of buffs right now and one is noticeably bigger than the other of the same age. YMMV though.

Yes, I think that is a decent amount of space, particularly since you provide them with roaming/foraging time for 9 hours a day. For comparison, I have 40 hens that have a run that is 12' x 30' and there is plenty of space in it for my birds - that's roughly 9 square feet per bird for mine...

Thanks muchly! Very interesting information.

Hi folks, Does anyone have any hard data on the effect of feed fermentation as it pertains to meat bird feed conversion ratio? My understanding is that adding water to feed to cause fermentation of said feed causes the feed to first swell and then effect microbial growth in the feed which can...

Manure around the house and on the driveway. Our flock of 40 egg layers (and some ducks) free range all day - full run of the farm. Routinely I have to scrape/spray down the driveway (it is asphalt) because they end up hanging out in the shade by the garage. And, yes, I could restrict them...

Re: location - Virginia :) The pipe is galvanized top rail and is quite easy to bend against a wooden form. I did a bit of math to determine the arc I needed, used twine and a spike to create the radius and then tied a marker on the end and scribed it on a 4' scrap of 2x6. Cut that out...

Thanks muchly! The doors have worked well. I'm going to build a scaled down mobile coop with the same kind of door for the meat birds.

Hi folks, I just wanted to share some pictures of our layer flock's hoop coop. It is two years old now and has held up well. I wanted to make an integrated coop/run that would give them ample room to move about, plenty of fresh air and a draft-free environment in the winter. I also wanted to...

I have been wondering about this as well. There's a farm about an hour or so from our farm that charges $5.50/pound for whole chicken and $17/pound for chicken breasts. These are poulet rouge fed non-gmo feed. Honestly I think the $17/pound is quite high - I saw "organic non-gmo" chicken...

No worries - definitely will be pasture raising them. Make it a great day, Matt

Thanks for the response. This is good to know. Curious how your female freedom rangers dressed out at 16 weeks. Did you see an appreciable increase in size? Thanks muchly, Matt

No worries. :) Thanks muchly, Matt

Thanks - This is definitely something to consider. :) Muchly appreciated, Matt

Thanks much for the links and info. Muchly appreciated, Matt

Hi folks, I'll keep this brief. :) Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere - I've overlooked it if it has - but I'm going to finally start raising meat birds here on our slice of Virginia in 2022. I'm leaning toward the Freedom Rangers for our first run of birds - probably 30 - getting...

Perhaps you've already solved this - if so, I'd love to heard your solution. I'm assuming your radial flow filter is gravity fed, correct? My solution is different - I have to pump up and out of the pond as it is lower than everything else. I have a 24V system - twin 100W photovoltaic panels...

Yeah, I guess she's broody. We got her out of the box today and she eventually went off to join the others sunning themselves in the front yard. She was sitting on one of the other bird's eggs. Thanks for the replies, Matt

So, I've got five hens - an easter egger, two Australorps and two buff Orpingtons. They've been routinely laying 4-5 eggs a day and seem to be healthy enough. They get out of their 6x10 run several days a week for at least a few hours and overall they've been doing well. In the past week...