Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

[aart]

I still have a few relationships with some of my layers you can laugh at, but this is progress.

Hard to get attached to bunch of meat birds in 8 weeks.
Oh, and, I have a couple layers I am rather fond of too.
Fond enough to keep them low on the cull list. Just marked 2 as 'Stays' on the list.

 

[RUNuts]

Hard to get attached to bunch of meat birds in 8 weeks.

Hard, but has been done. They were so friendly!

@jolenesdad nice set up! I covet the barn & the land. Enjoy it!

 

[jolenesdad]

They’re here!!! all arrived perfectly healthy, but screaming. The post office called me at 4:30 and gave me instructions how to get in before opening. I thought “how sweet” but when I picked them up I realized they were really just trying to get rid of them. LOUD and pecking the hands holding the box.

These Robust While are adorable little Dalmatians. From what I can tell (too many to track) they’re all eating and drinking the nutri drench. I’ll switch out to regular water with electrolytes at lunch.

Only a few are using the heat on plate and the rest were huddled like they were still in their shipping box after eating and drinking. I went ahead and plugged in heat lamps to raise the temp of most of the brooder to 90-95 degrees for the day and I’ll reduce the heated area tonight.

@LilyD how are the fry pan bargain chicks doing?

 

[aart]

but when I picked them up I realized they were really just trying to get rid of them. LOUD and pecking the hands holding the box.

Indeed!!

I went ahead and plugged in heat lamps to raise the temp of most of the brooder to 90-95 degrees for the day and I’ll reduce the heated area tonight.

Don't overheat them...just keep shoving them under the plates/pads.

 

[LilyD]

[QUOTE="jolenesdad

@LilyD how are the fry pan bargain chicks doing?[/QUOTE]

They are doing great foraging well if I leave the gate open for them to go out and are right back in front of the grow out coop before bed. The Cornish X are slugs I lost one Tuesday night looks like flip already and even with them eating only in the evening. They don't really even attempt to free range just sit in front of the water and feeders looking pitiful until I come out to feed them lol the others are out all the time an playing in the brush. I am home tomorrow so I will see if I can entice them to come out a bit further away from their safe spot lol.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am amazed that you get away with even letting them out. I am so afraid of a coyote making off with my waddlers... I will take them for a bit of a walk and lead them back and feed them.

 

[LilyD]

My property is actually fenced in. 2 acres with field fencing that has a line of electric all the way around. Haven't had the wildlife try to get in and the few that do are deterred by the 6 very loud dogs I have in the yard lol. I just wish they would attempt to free range more lol.

 

[Morrigan]

Just got through reading this thread. I love that people are putting in the time and effort to give their meat birds a good life. What a wonderful job the OP has done documenting the entire process.

Since I've starting raising meat birds I have not purchased a factory raised chicken, nor ordered chicken when eating out. It's a terrible industry. A couple weeks ago, we were driving across the Central Valley and saw a trailer stuffed, literally stuffed, with broilers off to the butcher. It looked horribly uncomfortable for those birds, and was quite upsetting to see. My husband and I looked at each other and agreed we would always raise our own, as long as it was physically possible for us.

My long-term goal is to start breeding a true dual purpose flock, so as to by-pass the hatcheries all together. I just drew up plans for a new coop and construction will start in a month. I'm thinking of doing a dorking-red ranger cross like what @Compost King has detailed in his thread.

In the meantime, I have got 3 broiler eggs in the incubator that are due to hatch fl) this weekend that I will give to a broody hen. I really hope those eggs make it as I'm dying to see how a CX does being raised by a broody hen in a normal flock setting.

 

[jolenesdad]

Just got through reading this thread. I love that people are putting in the time and effort to give their meat birds a good life. What a wonderful job the OP has done documenting the entire process.

Since I've starting raising meat birds I have not purchased a factory raised chicken, nor ordered chicken when eating out. It's a terrible industry. A couple weeks ago, we were driving across the Central Valley and saw a trailer stuffed, literally stuffed, with broilers off to the butcher. It looked horribly uncomfortable for those birds, and was quite upsetting to see. My husband and I looked at each other and agreed we would always raise our own, as long as it was physically possible for us.

My long-term goal is to start breeding a true dual purpose flock, so as to by-pass the hatcheries all together. I just drew up plans for a new coop and construction will start in a month. I'm thinking of doing a dorking-red ranger cross like what @Compost King has detailed in his thread.

In the meantime, I have got 3 broiler eggs in the incubator that are due to hatch fl) this weekend that I will give to a broody hen. I really hope those eggs make it as I'm dying to see how a CX does being raised by a broody hen in a normal flock setting.

Thanks for the comments!

Where did you get your broiler eggs? We’re they shipped? I hope you’ll pop in and let us know how that goes, I’m really curious about using other chickens to increase their movement! I’m hoping @LilyD ’s follow her DP cockerels soon!


Moyers has been so helpful and encouraging, which is pretty cool when they hatch hundreds of thousands of eggs a week and I’m a drop in the bucket. Today they sent me all the growth metric charts for all of their specialty broilers! It will enable some fun comparisons of how these birds do with access to pasture.

I’m setting up a little space I can take growth photos with a consistent setup and background for comparison so at the end of this batch I’ll have side by side week by week photos of growth for each set of broilers.

 

[Morrigan]

Where did you get your broiler eggs? We’re they shipped? I hope you’ll pop in and let us know how that goes, I’m really curious about using other chickens to increase their movement! I’m hoping @LilyD ’s follow her DP cockerels soon!

I got the eggs from Dunlap Hatchery out of Idaho. It's been a tough hatch so far. The 3 eggs are what's left of an order of 10 (mix of CX and Red Rangers). They sent 10 (no extras), 8 arrived intact and 2 were broken. The box was wall labeled and the eggs carefully packed, but it looked the like the postal service had played kickball with the box. It was a 3 day ship, and the day I got them, I had to leave town unexpectedly, so that sat on my counter for 3 more days before I could fire up the incubator. Then, 16 hours after I started incubation, I lost power for several hours. So, I was expecting a total washout, and was thrilled to find that 3 eggs were alive and made it to lockdown. The air sacs are a mess, so I'm nervously awaiting to see if any hatch. Today is day 19, so I will know soon enough, and will keep you posted.

A week ago, I order 6 turken eggs from the same hatchery. Again, the labeling and packing was good, but 3 eggs were smashed to smithereens, and 3 were intact. The 3 intact eggs were coated with yolk, so I had to wash them before setting. So far, Day 7, all appear to be developing and the air sacs actually look OK.

I haven't contacted the hatchery about the broken eggs, because it seemed unfair to blame them for the roughshod treatment given by the postal service, but if these hatch, and I decide to order from them again, I will mention it, as maybe they could beef up the packaging even more.