100 Broilers and Fermented Feed Project

[Arielle]

KG-- HOLY MOLY-- you must have been spit fire ****** to get those last 39done by your self. 10-- THat *$&#^#$ didn't deserve ANY birds for his puny effort. I know you are one of thekindest people-- but he did not deserve 2, Hmmmm, 2 out of 10 that he helped with. You have earned the name Wonder WOman!!

I'm totally impressed that you did 53-10= 43 by yourself!!!!! Great job. I'm sure you are totally releived to have them GONE.

Looking forward to your numbers. Either cost per live wt, or cost per dressed--

 

[kuntrygirl]

KG-- HOLY MOLY-- you must have been spit fire ****** to get those  last 39done by your self. 10-- THat *$&#^#$ didn't deserve ANY birds for his puny effort.  I know you are one of thekindest people-- but he did not deserve 2, Hmmmm, 2 out of 10 that he helped with. You have earned the name Wonder WOman!! 

I'm totally impressed that you did 53-10= 43 by yourself!!!!!  Great job. I'm sure you are totally releived to have them GONE. 

Looking forward to your numbers. Either cost per live wt, or cost per dressed--

I was eating a bowl of gumbo while reading your post and I laughed so hard, I got choked. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! That made my day. I am still laughing at that!

Thanks. Yea, I was upset when he said he had to go but that only made my adrenaline flow stronger because I knew it was do or die and if I didn't DO then I was going to DIE if I had to care for those birds 1 more day. I told myself that if it took me until 2:00 AM, I was GOING to get it done. Even if I would have called in to work to take a day off just to sleep, I would have stayed up that long.

You bet I am relieved. I am so happy when I go out and see that their pen is EMPTY EMPTY EMPTY. And my freezer is FULL FULL FULL. I double and triple wrapped them.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Peafowl egg did not hatch Kuntrygirl. :/ I opened it 2 days after it was due to hatch and it was deformed in the head. 

I am blaming it on his management of his breeding birds rather than my hatching.. I have tried with at least 30 eggs and not a single one hatched. He did admit that he is feeding them layer feed. I told him that that is asking for trouble. I figured they would need a game bird feed like turkeys or pheasants.. Anyway.. Hope he changes what they are eating so I can successfully hatch one. 

I think there were a total of 4 fertile eggs.. the rest were all either clear or cracked. 

Thought I'd give you an update. 

I had an awesome hatch this week though. I have to count my totals, but I had only 8 that didn't hatch and there were well over 100 chicks. 

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww. I am so sorry to hear that. I was thinking about you this week and was going to ask you about the pea egg. I am so sorry.

Thanks for the update. I was hoping you had a pea. I hope that he can get his feeding program going so that you can hatch some healthy eggs.

 

[kuntrygirl]

kuntrygirl- I have devoured and loved your thread. I don't know how you've had time to do all you do much less post about it. You're a wonder.

I'm expecting 25 cornish cross on Tuesday. I'd done five last year (along with a few red broilers for comparison) to see how I liked them. They were wonderful!

I have my own list of "dos and don'ts" based on last year's experience, but have learned a ton more from you. Thanks for sharing it. Love all these folks trying something new and being determined to learn from it.

I still don't know how you processed 30+ birds by yourself in 6 (?) hours.

Thank you.

CONGRATS on your 25 !!!!!! e

I'm with you about folk learning something new and determined to learn from it. That's what it's all about. You said the perfect words. I'm glad you posted those words. And it's good to surround ourselves with people who have the same thing in mind as far as doing new things, encouraging and supporting others and learning.

Having to feed those birds one more day was what gave me the energy to process those monsters. I couldn't take it another day. I was going to need med if I had them another day. And ME NO CAN DO MEDS !

 

[MamaKitty913]

Hey LindaB when you said I'd be busy you were soooo right! I've had little time to keep up with everyone though ya'll are often in my thoughts and prayers. I went through 50lbs in 2 weeks the first 2 weeks for all 40. At 6th week we go through 50lbs a week for meaties: 15 Cornish, 2 WW, and 7 Bo's (counting WW and Bo's till we know who's a hen and whos soup) Rough estimates I read 2 lbs feed for each pound gained, average wt gain on my Cornish is now about 1.5 oz a week. I have added scratch this week as well as allowing them some crickets, earthworms (they finally figured out how to scratch the earth, lol), and my grandson and I went along some local roads to gather alot of red clover for them to eat. They still do not understand that BOSS is a food and only grab clover if a BO has it first. They will eat a TON of feed if you let them and won't move except to POO, they just kind of lift up a wing fluff a few feathers and there she blows! When I added the BO's that I thought were roosters the Cornish X they began to move since to get food they would ride on the backs of the Cornish for treats, it was too funny! But they were the Richard Simmons to my Cornish, lol! I've been letting them out to pasture with my supervision since it's warm enough here and there they still don't "forage" so much as chase the Buff's who chest bump them hop over them and ride! I love it it is so funny. I'm really looking forward to having less broilers but if I had a better set up I would say they are all pretty cool. But as far as the poo is concerned I look forward to Spring flowers way more than April's showers! Seio's has some fair prices sometimes for the starter and flock raiser, I got wild game at $17 or so for a 24% protien and rotated with TSC DuMore (spelled it wrong) chick starter at 20% the Cornish didn't act so starving with the straight 24% so I went to that until last week and have introduced flock raiser with scratch, some buttermilk or yougart mixed with the chick starter and BOSS, they always leave the BOSS. I've even tried opening them up and handing them the seed thinking I should have gotten seeds without shells' but no not 1 of my birds wants the BOSS!

And I also have a WFBS rooster who loves to defecate on the heads and body's of his brood, something no one has heard of... just my kind of strange luck

And a big shout to foreverlearning, beekissed, kuntrygirl, angelics, and cortieg for allowing me to know more about the chickens and ducks they had at TSC that 4 of the salesmen you guys rock, thanks!

 

[katbriar]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6256353/

What a beautiful freezer! I wondered how many you were going to keep for yourself! Looks like you also skinned them all?

I laughed about your "mine, mine, mine" comment. There is a great feeling about setting aside the provisions, isn't there?

I was a bit disappointed when my DH offered to split our 25 birds with some friends. We had talked about it, but he didn't realize I'd changed my mind!

These are good friends though and they'll come stay the weekend to help process so it will be good. But, it does mean I'll have to get more birds in the fall.

Hey, that doesn't sound bad at all!

 

[LindaB220]

Hey LindaB when you said I'd be busy you were soooo right! I've had little time to keep up with everyone though ya'll are often in my thoughts and prayers. I went through 50lbs in 2 weeks the first 2 weeks for all 40. At 6th week we go through 50lbs a week for meaties: 15 Cornish, 2 WW, and 7 Bo's (counting WW and Bo's till we know who's a hen and whos soup) Rough estimates I read 2 lbs feed for each pound gained, average wt gain on my Cornish is now about 1.5 oz a week. I have added scratch this week as well as allowing them some crickets, earthworms (they finally figured out how to scratch the earth, lol), and my grandson and I went along some local roads to gather alot of red clover for them to eat. They still do not understand that BOSS is a food and only grab clover if a BO has it first. They will eat a TON of feed if you let them and won't move except to POO, they just kind of lift up a wing fluff a few feathers and there she blows! When I added the BO's that I thought were roosters the Cornish X they began to move since to get food they would ride on the backs of the Cornish for treats, it was too funny! But they were the Richard Simmons to my Cornish, lol! I've been letting them out to pasture with my supervision since it's warm enough here and there they still don't "forage" so much as chase the Buff's who chest bump them hop over them and ride! I love it it is so funny. I'm really looking forward to having less broilers but if I had a better set up I would say they are all pretty cool. But as far as the poo is concerned I look forward to Spring flowers way more than April's showers! Seio's has some fair prices sometimes for the starter and flock raiser, I got wild game at $17 or so for a 24% protien and rotated with TSC DuMore (spelled it wrong) chick starter at 20% the Cornish didn't act so starving with the straight 24% so I went to that until last week and have introduced flock raiser with scratch, some buttermilk or yougart mixed with the chick starter and BOSS, they always leave the BOSS. I've even tried opening them up and handing them the seed thinking I should have gotten seeds without shells' but no not 1 of my birds wants the BOSS!

And I also have a WFBS rooster who loves to defecate on the heads and body's of his brood, something no one has heard of... just my kind of strange luck

And a big shout to foreverlearning, beekissed, kuntrygirl, angelics, and cortieg for allowing me to know more about the chickens and ducks they had at TSC that 4 of the salesmen you guys rock, thanks!

Great to hear. I wondered if Serio's carried it Good to know. Keep us informed on their progress. My 18 LF are doing great. The Delawares are a little puny but the White Rocks and Golden Comets are going gang busters. Will it NEVER stop raining? I've been trying to get into the garden for over 10 days. Just as it starts drying a little and along come mores rain. I think I'm going to town tomorrow and pick up a few starts on tomatoes.

 

[aoxa]

Some of you may remember I was trying to create my own strain of meat bird using a Meat King or Cornish Cross as the mother, and a Heritage Barred Plymouth Rock as the father. I posted pictures of the chicks, who were hatched February 27th, so will be 7 weeks tomorrow. They are wide like a CX, but are definitely not as big (which is fine by me!) they are twice the size of their half siblings though.

Both of them are girls it appears. Really wide stance. I am happy with them

 

[foreverlearning]

Are they as food aggressive? Are you planning on processing them or are you going to let them grow and see how well they do as layers?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Looks awesome!! Yeah I remember dressing 6 geese out til 10 pm-- it was a loooong time before dressing anything after that night. lol

Quote: Sorry the pea didn't hatch. I have had head deformities in my non-hatchlings from time to time-- Could be genetics or incubating causes for head deformities.

Some of you may remember I was trying to create my own strain of meat bird using a Meat King or Cornish Cross as the mother, and a Heritage Barred Plymouth Rock as the father. I posted pictures of the chicks, who were hatched February 27th, so will be 7 weeks tomorrow. They are wide like a CX, but are definitely not as big (which is fine by me!) they are twice the size of their half siblings though.

Both of them are girls it appears. Really wide stance. I am happy with them

My pullet looks exactly like this one!!! FLecks of black on a white ground. Pretty. My 1/2breds are about2- 3 times the size of the other hatchlings of normal heritage breeding. BUt the breast is surprizingly flat.

Disappointing. Yours definitly look much better in the breast!!