Can you feed broilers with broiler meat.

[ourflockof4]

Ok, I'm sure I'm wasting my time because you cant see the other side, but here it goes. I'll use smaller numbers just for an example.

If he buys 100 bird and feeds them grain type food up until 3 weeks they should weigh around 2 lbs each. A 3 week old broiler will eat about 1.5 lbs of food per week. So 100 broilers will need 150 lbs of feed from week 3 to week 4. If he was feeding them only other broilers he would need 75 to get 150 lbs of feed. Granted though the later in the week it gets the fewer broilers would be left so the number needed woul go down. So lets just say that he would need 50 for feed.

So at the begining of week 4 there will be 50 birds with a body weight of 3 lbs and they will need about 100 lbs of feed for the week. Lets just say that you need 25 for the feed this week.

At the begining of week 5 they will be about 4 1/2 lbs, and need about 60 lbs of feed, which would be about 12 birds, leaving him with 13 left.

Week 6 body weight of about 6 lbs, feed needed for the remaining 13 - 42 lbs. = 7 birds. That leaves him with 6 left.

Week 7 body weight should be about 7 1/2 lbs with 20 lbs of feed needed, or 3 birds.

That would leave him with 4 birds left that weigh about 8-9 lbs each, 30-35 lbs live, 20-24 lbs dressed wieight, being very optimistic.

If we say that it cost him $100 to buy the bird and feed them up to the 3 week point then he would need to sell them for $4/lbs to break even. And that is not figuring in any of the overhead for the building, water, lights, workers, ect.

If he is feeding them only broilers then he is losing HUGE amounts of money. Beleive it or not, but thats the truth.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
It sounds like you already had your mind fixed on an answer before you posted the question, and you are unwilling to accept any other answer. So I have to wonder why you even posted the question, since you already know all the answers.

So one more time: Yes, they can eat broiler meat. To the rest that you expanded to, about broilers being raised entirely on broiler meat, and the idea that a person doing this will make scads of money, is absurd. It just won't work. You seem to think that if you raise broilers, then that meat is free. It isn't. It costs money to raise these birds, and no, you can't endlessly breed more broilers and keep it going indefinitely.

Besides which, broilers are hybrids, they don't breed true, he'd have to be maintaining very expensive parent stock. If he's not doing that, then he's buying chicks. Chicks are more expensive than feed, and you have to feed them and wait for them to grow.

You have to be SELLING birds at some point to make money. If they're gone, you can't feed them to the other birds. What replaces that mass of food?

If you are still absolutely certain that you're right, and this guy is raising broilers on nothing but other broilers, and somehow making money, I suggest you try it out yourself and see if you can make it work.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Is that your ONLY source of information?

I'd suggest you call the farmer and ask him.

 

[TimG]

Even if the farmer has a source of free chicks, it can't be cheaper to raise the chicks (on whatever they're fed) and then feed those to the broilers that are intended for human consumption than it would be to simply raise the free chicks for human consumption.

 

[rancher hicks]

All your going to get here is a lot of differing opinions. Why not check with the health department and see what they have to say? Just because a chickens "will" eat a dead thing doesn't make it healthy. Dogs will eat their own vomit but I haven't heard of anyone feeding it to them.

Common sense says that whatever a chicken died from it wasn't a good thing. I don't feed my chickens things that aren't good. What's more I keep my place as clean as possible of yuk things.

As for those male chicks that get ground up, I expect what ever they are put into is "cooked" before turning it into animal feed. Not fed raw.

I read an article in either Practical Poultry or Backyard Poultry where the author had a change of opinion to this type of thing after doing some research. Decideing that it wasn't a smart thing and risky to ones health.

And if you won't listen to the experts, you won't listen to anybody here, expert or otherwise.

Do some further research and then decide.

Hope you find a safe answer

Rancher.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

" Dogs will eat their own vomit but I haven't heard of anyone feeding it to them." ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
I have to agree with the other "non" experts on here, question has been asked and answered, no avian scientists showed up to the party so I am checking out.
winsor woods I am still laughing about your hens "lining up" . . . mine do the same thing at the BBQ, I'm always worried one will try to jump up on it.

 

[mike67909]

Quote:
Most animals in the pound are killed with CO2, not chemicals. It's much cheaper.

Depends on the size. It would be in humane to use it for a dog. From my experience most animals were euthanized by injections. I work in animal research and we euthanize only mice, rats and other small rodents with CO2.

 

[jjparke]

Right or wrong it seems like a waste to feed meat to the animals that you are raising to eat? you would run out of meat?????

And it seems you are only looking for a reason that it is wrong and not acceptable. It sounds like you were buying it "under the table" from your neighbor.
Was he regularly inspected by the USDA? Did you pay tax? Did you pay fair market price?

 

[tsarge]

Let me point everyone in the correct direction. There is a farmer in Alabama who is abusing this system. How do I know this. Well the guy who used to work for him for 10 years is now working for my wife. According to him this particular farmer is abusing the system by slaughtering his broilers (not via euthanasia) and feeding this meat to his broilers. Someone mentioned that he cannot be using broilers the whole time because the cycle would end. I do not see it that way. If he buys day olds and raises them or evens better if he is hatching day olds the ability to raise enough broilers for feed for the next broilers is now maximized.

I agree that not ALL the nutriants that is necessary for the growth of broilers is available in broiler meat alone but a large part of that is. That means he buys less feed from a feed company. What do broilers eat I am guessing soya, maize, wheat and etc.

This is how he is making a good living. So it is not about the car the guy drives next door! Again most individuals on this site have agreed that it is not such a bad idea to feed broilers with broiler meat. However as long as you do not feed them with the brain, or the head, or the spine (because that is how BSE in cows developed) then it is okay.

However I think that although there is been alot to learn I think that the experts on BYC still haven't answered my question completely.

What "System" is he "abusing"? He "grows" his own feed in the form of broilers? A farmer who grows hay to feed his cattle is growing his own feed. There must be more to this story than what your SINGLE source is telling you. It does not make financial sense to slaughter broilers to feed broilers, as others have pointed out the numbers don't add up.

Your problem seems to be that you are disgusted with the thought that the chicken you have purchased from this farmer was fed broiler meat, and that you consumed the finished product unaware. Your question has been answered several times, you refuse to accept such answers. My 2 cents.​