150 Lbs of Chicken!

[Recon]

I ordered 25 Cornish X's from a local hatchery in early August, thinking I would start small and maybe do another batch of 25 before the end of the hatching season to really fill my freezer.

This was my first experience.

Well, 9 weeks later, I am shocked to figure out that those 25 chickens have put about 150 pounds of chicken in my freezer! I am thinking now that I won't be doing another batch! The smallest have butchered at 5 pounds. Most have been about 7.25-7.5 pounds, and a couple have been 8 pounders.

I am happily surprised because I didn't expect to put so much meat in the freezer, having only the typical grocery store 4.5 pound bird as my previous frame of reference.

I had Purina Flock Raiser available to them 24/7 with ample fresh water. I didn't let them out because it was so hot here (I'm in the California foothills) that I was concerned about them getting too far from the fresh water... I might do that part differently in the spring when it isn't a hundred degrees everyday.

Anyway, thanks to those of you who help newbies. I picked up a lot of good info just lurking here as they grew.

 

[Southerngirl]

GREAT JOB !! Until you have raised and put your own chicken in the freezer do you truly appreciate good homegrown food. We have found to range them outside more you may want to make a portable chicken tractor out of PVC pipe and zip tie chicken wire around it; place a 5 gallon waterer and put a strong tarp over the top to keep the sun and rain out and you are done! They are stinky for sure!! But well worth the time and effort.

 

[Recon]

I think we probably get spared the stink out here in California because it is so hot with such low humidity that everything pretty well dries out really quickly. They did however contribute significantly to the fly population. We had zero flies this year until those guys started getting bigger... but then, I have ample garden fertilizer too so there is a silver lining there as well.

 

[Acre of Blessings]

We have 34 that are 2 weeks old today and they probably weigh close to a pound
(around 12 to 14 ounces). We have food (Dumor 24% broiler feed) for the 24/7 and I change their water up to 7 times a day, to keep it fresh.

I pray that we get a lot of meat out of them. I plane to can mos tof them since I don't like to rely on man to keep me with power, so I will probably only freeze about 10 of them.

Congrats on the poundage that you recieved from your birds. Now, if we could just mail order a calf.

 

[k0xxx]

150 Pounds, WOW that is amazing! Congratulations on a job well done.

I would have never guessed that much meat from 25 chickens. My wife and I had been discussing raising some meat birds this coming spring, and had been thinking 50 birds. I am so glad that you posted this, as there is no way we would have room for 300 lbs in our freezers.

 

[willheveland]

Quote:
Great job! There is nothing like going to your freezer in the winter and pulling out one of your own fresh homegrown chickens.You will be enjoying them most of the winter.
It was good you started with 25.It's better that way to not get over your head and make the experience overwelming.It sounds like you didn't have big losses as many rumor to have with cornish -X.(I have never had the big losses and with you,especially living in Cali) Raising Cornish x's in batches is a great way to go(short term commitment) and they do produce alot of meat.
If you haven't roasted one yet,the best is yet to come. Will
p.s.One of the things I do about the flys is that I keep a bag of dehydrated lime around and everyday when I move the pen I give the used ground a light dusting of lime.It's great for the lawn and keeps the flys down as well.

 

[justusnak]

25 = 150 pounds!! WOW I have 51 getting ready for the butcher soon...Ohhh, its a good thing we like chicken! LOL GOOD JOB!!

 

[antlers]

Quote:
Be careful on how much you put on the gradens. Poulty manure is VERY high in nitorgen and related compounds. Too much will 'burn' your plants and kill them. I can not tell you how much to put on as it varies with soil type , starting fertility and the ability of some plant species to be more tolerant of and or need high nitrogen levels. Better to start out slow and add some weekly until you know what you can till in.
If you fertility test your soil, there are charts out there that will give you average nitrogen content of different animal manures and you can then calculate how many tons per acre to apply and that can further be reduced to puunds per square foot . A bit of work but a good winter assignment.

 

[Recon]

Quote:
The hatchery, Belt Hatchery here in California, sent me 26 Cornish X's. They arrived about the 6th of August. About a week later we had a couple days of 104 - 107 degree weather. Well, one of them didn't make it through that but I didn't have any more casualties after that and there were plenty more hot days. Perhaps the warm weather positively affected weight gain?

We have roasted three already. We did one right away for the family and two more for my grandmother's 92 birthday. For the birthday party we did a couple store boughts as well for comparison. Big difference. People seemed to agree that there was less intramuscular fat in the birds we raised.


Quote:
Our soil is pretty horrible from a vegetable garden perspective. It's primarily decomposed granite so it just sucks the manure right in and doesn't hold it for long at all. In fact, I started scattering chicken manure from our layers in the area where I like to garden a couple years ago... I also mixed in leaves and grass and just made it a big scatter-decomposition area. I didn't garden there at all the last few years, just kept throwing green stuff out there. This year I went out and tilled it and right away the neighbors were wanting to know how I got the soil looking so good. Then the veggies, especially the melons, that came in there were great. Enough to feed everyone who wanted some! So I started scattering the manure from the Cornish X's over an area that I hope to use as garden next year. My hope is to grow enough garden next year for the family and the chickens.

 

[DaKid]

Recon
I ordered 25 Cornish X's from a local hatchery in early August,
Well, 9 weeks later I put about 150 pounds of chicken in my freezer

Question is 25 birds X 9 weeks = 150 lbs of meat - so the question is this how much feed did it take from start to finish to get these birds this size - How many / much total Lbs FROM day one to processing FOR THIS TOTAL OF BIRDS FOR 9 WEEKS


I 'm just trying to see if I'm in the same range bracket more or less
but I only have feed infront of them for 8 hrs a day and water 24/7

Thank Al.​