That is right. Most would not want to know how they fattened them. In the case of Sussex, often wheat and milk, they crammed them into little fattening cages. They only had room to eat and drink. You can find examples of these fattening batteries on line.
In my opinion, once a bird starts to crow, they are not worth eating.
Thank you all for this info. It is very helpful.
At what age do your birds start to crow? I never thought of that as an indicator.
If you were raising birds, for meat then you would start them differently from the egg layers? For egg flocks, I see chick starter at 16%.
But Agway also makes a MeatBird from used from hatch to slaughter which is 22%.
So for layers, they get fed 16% from hatch till they go on breeder/layer 18% and then on just layer? 20%.
But I was told by an experienced breeder that Sussex need more and I should be feeding them no less than 20% at any age.
Then I read on the ALBC PDF about meat assessment that feeding meat birds 16% can stunt their growth by 50%. That was
an eye opener!
Which makes sense to me because that's what I did with the Sussex chicks this year ( raised them like my
friends who were raising dual purpose
egg flocks). I figured I would raise them like a dual purpose laying flock as that's basically
what they would be doing for us here. But now I realize that even as a
dual purpose bird, the Sussex is first and formost a
meat bird.
And I am now seeing the effects of denying that heritage in my chick development program.
I was saddened to see they
grew smaller as opposed to their genetic potential from both parents.
Now I am wondering if I caused this by raising them on 16%.
I did change later when I was told 20% but at least 2 critical growh periods had passed by then.
. The saving grace to all this is
that now I will raise their children differently with Meatbird from hatch to slaughter.
. I should see that size potential manifest
itself.
Thanks,
Karen
