Chronicle of raising different breeds all at once as broilers

[LindaB220]

Wow, great information. Thanks a bunch. I think I'll do the fast growing ones first and the heritage later.

 

[Ruthster55]

Looks like the white Plymouth rocks are 16 weeks old now. How much feed would you say they go through in a week?

 

[LindaB220]

Looks like the white Plymouth rocks are 16 weeks old now. How much feed would you say they go through in a week?

Not sure. Maybe 1/2 c daily? That seems to be normal layer rations. Especially if they can free range. On another thread Beekissed said that she feeds the same amount of feed for CX over 9-10 weeks as she does the slower growing heritage in 5-6 mo. So what you're mainly interested in is the time? I think I'm going to try both. Maybe some dorking, delawares and white sussex's to build the flavor up in my flock. Than later mix them to the short growing ones. CX's do grow slower if you treat the like normal chickens. Free ranging and the same ration that the others get. I know that mixing a CX hen with a dorking or sussex would bring out some awesome taste. Just a thought.

But I'm still going to run a couple of 25 sessions this spring with CX or RR

 

[Mon27]

I have them all together so it is hard to tell. I will say that I go through a ton of food though. I have 36 birds, 22 of which are the White Plymouth rocks, and I got through about 50 lbs every 6 or 7 days. I do free feed them though but they are also free ranges. I am now fermenting there pellets and sprouting their scratch so hopefully my bill is reduced. I have 3 of the red broilers left. One, my fav, I kept to hatch eggs from. One was protesting being caught and one.. I just though it looked like it would be a good layer for some reason. Sounds silly but she just struck me that way. Well.. she is my first layer of this whole batch. I have 2 white leghorns, that came shipped as white plymouth rocks lol, and that darn meat hen layed first. A HUGE egg especially for pullet eggs. I am really glad I kept her. She was in the box today and I was so excited, I thought it was her first. When I saw the egg I realized I had picked up several of those already. They are the size of my gold sex links that are 4 yrs old. I thought one of them had just switched colors lol. I have several of my others starting to check out the boxes as well and someone is laying an almost white, round, pullet egg with a soft shell. The white plymouth rocks are pretty close to laying age and maybe 1/2 the weight of my meat birds. They dont look that much smaller, but when you pick them up there is a shocking difference. I only wanted about 10 or 12 layers but at this point it seems like a waste to process them. I was going to process my other 2 meat birds I am not keeping but not that I know they regularly lay a monster egg lol. I guess I am just going to have a lot of eggs! I am hoping someone goes broody and I can put all the meat birds eggs under them and harvest the roos. It will be a good experiment to see which, if any goes broody first as they are all from Ideal. I will keep everyone posted. I sort of feel like that laying broiler hen might do it. We shall see. Please feel free to ask anymore questions. I would have killed to have a chat with someone about comparative sizes and economics before I started this. I will never order a heritage breed for meat. It is impossible to do efficiently. I am glad I have the dual purpose for the sole reason of eating the roos and old hens though. Red Broiler roos, in my experience are the way to go. They are easier to pluck, less smelly, grow quickly, were not aggressive. Winner for broiler in my book. Maybe get a few hens for layers though! Might surprise you!