Amandakae
In the Brooder
- Feb 12, 2015
- 33
- 15
- 39
I dont blame anyone but myself for my rookie mistakes, please don't kick me while I am down by posting nasty replies.
I started in the spring with 50 Cornish Cross, after many many hours of research and post reading from this forum, feeling really good about Raising our own meat chickens. They were free range, I fermented their feed (all organic $$$) and I only gave them measured amounts so that they would stay active... BUT in my fear of feeding them too much I think I under fed them, which stunted their growth. I realized what had happen too late (5 wks old) so now no matter how much I feed them they don't seem to gain. I had grand ivisions of 10 pound birds... now at 12 weeks old they are measuring in at 3 pounds LIVE weight...
Which might not to SO bad if I still had 50 of them, but I don't...we ended up getting coccidiosis and lost 20 birds, then the 'coons showed up and before we knew it had lost 9 birds in 3 days!!! So now down to 21 birds. When I think about how much money we have spent on feed, I am very discouraged. Do you all agree that it's time to just cut our losses and harvest them? We are spending $45 a week in feed...
I started in the spring with 50 Cornish Cross, after many many hours of research and post reading from this forum, feeling really good about Raising our own meat chickens. They were free range, I fermented their feed (all organic $$$) and I only gave them measured amounts so that they would stay active... BUT in my fear of feeding them too much I think I under fed them, which stunted their growth. I realized what had happen too late (5 wks old) so now no matter how much I feed them they don't seem to gain. I had grand ivisions of 10 pound birds... now at 12 weeks old they are measuring in at 3 pounds LIVE weight...
Which might not to SO bad if I still had 50 of them, but I don't...we ended up getting coccidiosis and lost 20 birds, then the 'coons showed up and before we knew it had lost 9 birds in 3 days!!! So now down to 21 birds. When I think about how much money we have spent on feed, I am very discouraged. Do you all agree that it's time to just cut our losses and harvest them? We are spending $45 a week in feed...