Drewberry Jungle Fowl Boy
In the Brooder
Hey guys I'm just curious your thoughts on this topic. I've tried meat birds before and I just do not like the concept of such massive amounts of meat bird feed you have to feed them to get them up to weight.
Now I just hatch out 50 new birds each year and thin the rooster population down once they start crowing and fighting too aggressively. That leaves me roughly 25 meat birds a season. I completely free range them so they are capable of growing to size without any feed after infancy. I stop feeding them at 6 to 8 weeks old and butcher them at 5 or 6 months old. They are actually a pretty nice fine grained meat. I like the earthy flavor of free range birds BUT they don't have the fat content I'd like to see in a bird.
I strive to eat grass finished ruminant meat in general since their digestive systems are not designed to handle a large amount of seeds. I'm not against feeding birds grains since birds are actually designed to process seeds efficiently and assimilate fully. I think they can get enough wild seeds, pasture, fungi and bugs to support a balanced diet in my context on my land. They do stay pretty lean though like most wild animals do which makes sense.
My question is if anyone has experimented with fattening up their meat birds using fruits, roots and nuts. That's the way 5 star goose is fattened up but waterfowl assimilate food a bit differently because of their migratory design to store more fat and nutrient reserves for long journeys flying. Not sure if my logic is correct. I know my birds tear up all my oxeheart carrots, non gmo sugar beets, berries and nuts. Never strategically tried to fatten them up with this though.
I'm sure some might wonder why all the fuss because I could just grow a bunch of sunflowers and the corn I grow but I'm trying to lean away from annual gardeening practices and making perrennial edibles my mainstay for everything.
Now I just hatch out 50 new birds each year and thin the rooster population down once they start crowing and fighting too aggressively. That leaves me roughly 25 meat birds a season. I completely free range them so they are capable of growing to size without any feed after infancy. I stop feeding them at 6 to 8 weeks old and butcher them at 5 or 6 months old. They are actually a pretty nice fine grained meat. I like the earthy flavor of free range birds BUT they don't have the fat content I'd like to see in a bird.
I strive to eat grass finished ruminant meat in general since their digestive systems are not designed to handle a large amount of seeds. I'm not against feeding birds grains since birds are actually designed to process seeds efficiently and assimilate fully. I think they can get enough wild seeds, pasture, fungi and bugs to support a balanced diet in my context on my land. They do stay pretty lean though like most wild animals do which makes sense.
My question is if anyone has experimented with fattening up their meat birds using fruits, roots and nuts. That's the way 5 star goose is fattened up but waterfowl assimilate food a bit differently because of their migratory design to store more fat and nutrient reserves for long journeys flying. Not sure if my logic is correct. I know my birds tear up all my oxeheart carrots, non gmo sugar beets, berries and nuts. Never strategically tried to fatten them up with this though.
I'm sure some might wonder why all the fuss because I could just grow a bunch of sunflowers and the corn I grow but I'm trying to lean away from annual gardeening practices and making perrennial edibles my mainstay for everything.