4-h meat bird diet

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Here are the requirements for the Clark County Ohio 4H Broiler projects:


Project Requirements:
Meat Chicken Requirements:
A. Pen of three white meat type birds (Cornish Rock Cross), 45 to 60
days old by first day of Fair. Order through Rabbit & Poultry Committee
or on your own from certified hatchery. See County Order/Pick up date.
LQA & DUNF: Members are required to attend LQA & submit a
DUNF Form at fair weigh-in to show at the Fair.
Skill-a-thon/Project Judging: Must participate in the Co. 4-H
Skill-a-thon/Project Judging to complete project & show at Fair.
Project Book Work:
A. Complete QA and Animal Records Sections of project book.
B. Participate in learning, leadership and citizenship activities.
C. Complete appropriate number of activities in your book

 

[riftnreef]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Here are the requirements for the Clark County Ohio 4H Broiler projects:


Project Requirements:
Meat Chicken Requirements:
A. Pen of three white meat type birds (Cornish Rock Cross), 45 to 60
days old by first day of Fair. Order through Rabbit & Poultry Committee
or on your own from certified hatchery. See County Order/Pick up date.
LQA & DUNF: Members are required to attend LQA & submit a
DUNF Form at fair weigh-in to show at the Fair.
Skill-a-thon/Project Judging: Must participate in the Co. 4-H
Skill-a-thon/Project Judging to complete project & show at Fair.
Project Book Work:
A. Complete QA and Animal Records Sections of project book.
B. Participate in learning, leadership and citizenship activities.
C. Complete appropriate number of activities in your book

Yeah...that sounds about right. My daughter did fancy and production poultry last year....though the rules will change this year so they don't have to show trio's for fancy...but still trios of meat and production. At least that is my understanding of the rule change so far, and there have been a few more that have not come out yet. Most of the kids just get their birds through the poultry commitee I think to avoid having to get large orders from hatcheries with 25 chick limits. Your rule requiring an order or 25 each would be rough...I would hate to have both kids showing broilers and have to order 50 birds to show 3 each...that would leave me with 44 birds to have dressed and market myself...not to mention my back yard would be a disaster...LOL​

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Quote:
Our fair does this too, and it is really interesting to see the difference that management styles make. Some of the birds are half the size of others.

It is important to find the 3 most similar birds for each pen. This is a production class, so the judge is looking for uniformity. Three pullets can beat three larger roosters if the pullets are more uniform.

Weight can vary by whether they were hungry or pooped before weigh-in, which is frustrating if they were perfectly even at home but now one is off! So frustrating!

Our judge compensates by feeling the birds up a lot to judge firmness of the meat as well as uniformity of weight. These are supposed to be meat birds not fat birds, so he doesn't give points for birds that are obviously sugared up and flabby. Your judge may have a different opinion.

Make sure the birds are as clean and feathered as you can get them. The judge will give points for the healthy, prepared, finished look of your birds. We use white dog shampoo and wash them a week before and a day before.

We raise ours on pasture in a hoop house. One of these with a tarp over it.
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/4hpoultry/t02_pageview/Hoop_House.htm

It needs to be moved frequently. Broiler poop is different from regular chicken poop, more of it and not as fully digested, mats up terrible on the grass. I sometimes have to break the mat up with the garden hose sprayer in dry weather.

We take feed away at night and feed only during the daylight hours. We have found this makes them eat big in the morning and also in the evening in preparation for sleep. They are not lit up at night, animals need sleep to digest food and grow.

We use a 20%-25% protein feed that includes animal protein. The Meat birds get any high protein table scraps.

The variety our fair gets from the local industrial chicken grower (nice of them to donate) has not had significant leg or sudden death problems. We are very lucky there. We have had no loses and found it easy to make 2 uniform pens of 3 each from 12 birds, but I think 20 would better if you can handle that many.

We have won champion or reserve champion broiler pen in the last two years. We were beaten by a gal who asked about and copied our method (4-H is about sharing and growing together).

Good Luck with your project!

 

[eKo_birdies]

Quote:
Our fair does this too, and it is really interesting to see the difference that management styles make. Some of the birds are half the size of others.

It is important to find the 3 most similar birds for each pen. This is a production class, so the judge is looking for uniformity. Three pullets can beat three larger roosters if the pullets are more uniform.

Weight can vary by whether they were hungry or pooped before weigh-in, which is frustrating if they were perfectly even at home but now one is off! So frustrating!

Our judge compensates by feeling the birds up a lot to judge firmness of the meat as well as uniformity of weight. These are supposed to be meat birds not fat birds, so he doesn't give points for birds that are obviously sugared up and flabby. Your judge may have a different opinion.

Make sure the birds are as clean and feathered as you can get them. The judge will give points for the healthy, prepared, finished look of your birds. We use white dog shampoo and wash them a week before and a day before.

We raise ours on pasture in a hoop house. One of these with a tarp over it.
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/4hpoultry/t02_pageview/Hoop_House.htm

It needs to be moved frequently. Broiler poop is different from regular chicken poop, more of it and not as fully digested, mats up terrible on the grass. I sometimes have to break the mat up with the garden hose sprayer in dry weather.

We take feed away at night and feed only during the daylight hours. We have found this makes them eat big in the morning and also in the evening in preparation for sleep. They are not lit up at night, animals need sleep to digest food and grow.

We use a 20%-25% protein feed that includes animal protein. The Meat birds get any high protein table scraps.

The variety our fair gets from the local industrial chicken grower (nice of them to donate) has not had significant leg or sudden death problems. We are very lucky there. We have had no loses and found it easy to make 2 uniform pens of 3 each from 12 birds, but I think 20 would better if you can handle that many.

We have won champion or reserve champion broiler pen in the last two years. We were beaten by a gal who asked about and copied our method (4-H is about sharing and growing together).

Good Luck with your project!

how long have you been using those pens? have you found they hold up well to high gusts of wind?

how many birds have you found to work best in them?

thanks in advance!

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Quote:
how long have you been using those pens? have you found they hold up well to high gusts of wind?

how many birds have you found to work best in them?

thanks in advance!

The wood beams used for the base are heavy enough to keep the whole thing down in any wind we have had in 2 years. If the wood has not gotten too water logged (heavier) I can slide them around myself. I have a 15yo DS to assist if I am feeling weak of a morning.

The DS and DH can build one in an afternoon, the frame is done in an hour. With all new material, they run about $100 here, most of that is wire.

The tarps only last 1 season. We point them out of the wind so the tarp on the back acts as a windbreak and shade.

We have used chicken wire or hardware cloth. Hardware cloth is noticeably heavier, more durable and safer.

we have a large variety of varmits, I have not yet lost any that were safely locked up in a hut.

12 broilers to a 4 X 8 hut, moving twice a day by week 5.

The other option is to use the huts as shelters only. We have Premier electronet around a large area. Once the birds reach an age that hawks are not a bother, we let them out of the huts into this fenced area during the day. This works better with regular dual-purpose large fowl that are trained to avoid the fence than it does bantams (who will not stay in)

I open the door of the hut in the morning and they flood out. I slide the hut to a clean spot.

Broilers can be particularly lazy and not want to leave the hut.

If you are sliding huts with birds inside you have to be careful not to run any over. So I like to use them as shelters as soon as the birds seem big enough.

I add roosts when using for DP youngsters. When I use them for layers, I leave one in one spot for the nesting boxes.

We have 5 of various sizes.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

We have had Honor Class with our broilers each of the last three years, which is pretty good since there are over 100 pairs exhibited at our fair each year.

This next year I think we will stick with the Turkey Starter for most of the feed rather than changing to the Fast Grow.

We house our broilers in a small shed on our farm with light and fans for ventilation. We also have the feed and water separated as far as we can to encourage the birds to move regularly.

Jim

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

We have had Honor Class with our broilers each of the last three years, which is pretty good since there are over 100 pairs exhibited at our fair each year.

Very Nice! Congrats!​

 

[riftnreef]

Thanks for all the tips and advice...I guess I was under the impression that you had to have some crazy concaction of a diet to get these things to size on time, but that don't seem to be the case. Our goal is sto start with 25 birds for both kids together and house them in the garage. Lights running about 20 hrs a day to allow for some rest and cut down on fighting. My garage is detached so it stays fairly cool, but I will probably put a fan on them in the daytime on warm days as fair draws near with the temps up and the birds getting some size to them. My only fear is having enough ventalation...but if I start to notice a build up, i can always wire in an exhaust fan on the end of the garage.

One more question....if you keep them low enough, will the broilers use roosts? I think it would help in keeping their brest feathers somewhat in tact if I could get them off the ground from time to time.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
None of ours ever touch the roost. They prefered to be on the ground close to the feeder. I just used a bit of woolite to clean them up before the fair.

 

[bosoxbratt]

hi there we need helppppp lol our first time showing meat chickens at our county fair and we have one week tp go and our chcickens are all about 1/2 lb over the limit ugghhhh anything we can do???? thank you ..our daughter will be so sad if she cant show 2 of her own meat chickens