Calculating attrition

[tboneranch]

For those of you who have done meat birds for a few seasons. What percentage do you factor in to your losses for weak chicks, green meat, heart attacks, and pen accidents (had an accidental squishing or two when they didn't walk as fast as I thought they did). I honestly think I lost 20% last year-but it was my first year and I am already off to a better start only two weeks into it!! If I can keep it at 10% this batch I'll be pleased, but I haven't even put them in their pasture pen yet!

 

[Dogfish]

My first batch of 10 is at 4 weeks. No loss. I have a friend who had 106 and he is down 14 after 4 weeks.


How many do you have? 10% out of 10 is 1, but if you have 250, that is a whole other story. The amount of care and feeding for 10 birds amounts to a few minutes per day. Caring for 100+ would likely have more time and effort required, and because of teh mass of birds, I would guess there is more opportunity for losses. Scale would matter.

 

[tboneranch]

heh-good point! I do them in batches of 100. I am down to 96 at two weeks of age.

 

[Dogfish]

Dang. I'm doing this batch and then moving up to a batch of 15. I might try a batch of 50 next year, which would mean I'd have to build a whiz bang.

 

[mike67909]

I was at 12% loss with my first batch of 25. I had one I culled at 3 weeks due to bad legs, another died after a really cold night, and the last I culled at butchering time (it hadn't eatten for 2 days and the skin was really purple).

 

[jaku]

The learning curve on these birds is odd. It seems like, (myself included,) that everyone loses a ton with their first batch, then it gets much better in later batches.

 

[schmism]

IS a true percentage a good measure for this data?

are the odds of loosing 1 in 10 as good as loosing 10 in 100? or a 100 in a 1000? yet 10% is 10%

i think this might be a good case for listing actual numbers not a percentage. Its the same when you see just a pure statistic for something really rare. (purely an example for the point) the number of people who died from some super rare disease last year jumped 300%. ya it went from 1 person to 3 people. but a 300% increase looks HUGE we have to do something!... but when you see the actual numbers you realize that infact its nothing to worry about.

 

[rittert3]

very good points, I have started a variety of bird (chickens and gamebirds) most of which I hatch, then raise them from hatch/day olds until 4-6 weeks. My scale is in the 1/2 doz. to doz. range most of the time. I like to count on losing 3 or 4 but this could meen a 25-50% loss. I agree that percentages probably arn't the appropriate measure of loss even though it is probably the most generally excepted measure.

 

[mike67909]

Quote:
Of course percentage is a good measure. It represents the ratio or fraction of dead loss to live birds. It doesn't matter weather you give numbers or a percentage it means the same thing.

are the odds of loosing 1 in 10 as good as loosing 10 in 100? or a 100 in a 1000? Yes

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Quote:
I'm so glad I read this a second time. I thought you said your friend was down to 14 after 4 weeks.