10 lbs.

[Steve]

I bought 14 cornish X chicks April 15, 3 died before I got them to the slaughterhouse. I asked the guy who butchered them if I could weigh them. This one according to his scale weighed 10 lbs. There were 5 that were this big, the other 6 were slightly smaller.

This was my first time raising meat birds, and I learned a few things....they make a mess, they eat a lot, they drink a lot for starters. I let them have access to a outside pen everyday so they could get fresh air and exercise. If I were to raise them again I'd definately get more and a bigger pen.

I kept track of my costs including $2.50 per bird to be processed and my final expense was $92.16 from start to finish.

This one is Sunday dinner and is in the oven as I type.

 

[silkiechicken]

mmm Sure looks good!

 

[snowydiamonds]

Healthy lookin' dinner Mine are in a very large pen and looking clean and strong. Have one with failure to thrive in the house, its doing much better and beginning to grow again. It'll end up a cornish game size, I'm sure. Did you restrict feed in the evenings? It makes them get more exercise, act more like egg layer chickens and they're cleaner. I put the feed and water in the yard, only have the coop for sleeping at night. I also put a small flock of egg layers in that pen since there was more than enough room and they showed the cornishx's how to act like chickens instead of lazing about. My first butcher date is about July 20th and mine are so tame I can't walk in the pen or near it without them all climbing on my feet so the neighbors are going to help, mine are too tame but they're helping tame the wild flock of bantams I just got, too.

 

[lewisfarmgurl]

That is a beautiful bird and I bet it will taste wonderful for your dinner!

May I ask what type of food did you feed them and where you bought them.

 

[amyquilt]

Beautiful!

Using your cost of $92.16, using average pounds of each at 9, it ends up being $.93/pound.

Looks wonderful!

 

[max13077]

Quote:
I think people need to look at things like chicken, pork, beef, etc, and even veggies that are "home" or nearly home raise not just in that price sort of slant. You might be able to get chicken or whatever at the store cheaper than what you can raise it for. However people have got to realize that at home you are generating a FAR superior end product than you could ever buy in a store.

Plus you know where it came from, what went in it, and all that. You have no clue when you buy them from the mega mart, or a restaurant about any of those things. Sometimes it’s so freaky you wouldn’t eat it if you did know. Remember cambells soup and KFC a while back? Some huge chicken farm in the Midwest experienced a mega die-off of birds. Health officials didn’t know why. Whoever runs campbells and KFC bought the dead birds and processed them!!!! I haven’t eaten products from either business ever since!!

But we need to look at that quality vein I think first. I had some pork chops a couple days ago that a friend of mine who owns a small farm(loser!) had from one of the hogs he'd just slaughter. They were hands, feet, toes, ears, you name it down better than any pork I've ever tasted in my life. It might sound like I'm blowing it out of proportion, I'm not; these were that good. I’ve had his chickens too; no words on how good they were…... I'm anticipating the meat birds I will be getting in a couple of weeks to be in that same caliber. We’ve really been duped by the diminished quality of the processed foods we eat today.

That one Steve posted the picture of looks absolutely outstanding! You should be proud.

 

[Steve]

I bought them at our local tractor Supply store April 15 and used the feed they sell 20% DuMor was the name on the bag. Butcher date was June 20th.

I've raised my own hogs and cattle but never chicken and I agree, nothing store bought compares to what I've grown and I am sooo looking forward to how this first attempt at raising chicken dinner will taste.....I'm like Pavlov's dog waiting in anticipation.


There will be 7 of us having dinner tonight from this chicken along with stuffing, mashed taters and gravy, dinner rolls.

 

[Richard]

I never heard any thing about KFC and Cambells doing that when did it happen and is there a article or story on the web somewhere about it?
Quote:
I think people need to look at things like chicken, pork, beef, etc, and even veggies that are "home" or nearly home raise not just in that price sort of slant. You might be able to get chicken or whatever at the store cheaper than what you can raise it for. However people have got to realize that at home you are generating a FAR superior end product than you could ever buy in a store.

Plus you know where it came from, what went in it, and all that. You have no clue when you buy them from the mega mart, or a restaurant about any of those things. Sometimes it’s so freaky you wouldn’t eat it if you did know. Remember cambells soup and KFC a while back? Some huge chicken farm in the Midwest experienced a mega die-off of birds. Health officials didn’t know why. Whoever runs campbells and KFC bought the dead birds and processed them!!!! I haven’t eaten products from either business ever since!!

But we need to look at that quality vein I think first. I had some pork chops a couple days ago that a friend of mine who owns a small farm(loser!) had from one of the hogs he'd just slaughter. They were hands, feet, toes, ears, you name it down better than any pork I've ever tasted in my life. It might sound like I'm blowing it out of proportion, I'm not; these were that good. I’ve had his chickens too; no words on how good they were…... I'm anticipating the meat birds I will be getting in a couple of weeks to be in that same caliber. We’ve really been duped by the diminished quality of the processed foods we eat today.

That one Steve posted the picture of looks absolutely outstanding! You should be proud. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/flashbackmax/images.jpg

 

[MissPrissy]

You did good! I cooked some our chicken today too. BBQ chicken.

Scooch over and set me a place at the table - I'm still hungry for home grown chicken

 

[max13077]

I remember reading it in the local paper. It was shortly after I got out of high school. Maybe 1996? Something like that. It's just stuck with me thinking that all these chickens died, nobody knew why, but there were people eating them. I can't imagine they'd be allowed to sell them.