Back with almost the last update on my meaties. Of the 32 I received from the hatchery, 2 died within days, one was limping when I locked them in and dead the next morning, 2 more wheezing at night and dead in the morning. Ended up processing 26. Results were not that good, I'm wondering if the limited growth is part of the altitude issue as well as the heart and lung problems. The biggest one in the bag is ust over 4 lbs, the smallest is just over 2. Average is 3.5 lbs. They were 8 weeks old. When I do more I'm going with a slower growing bird and giving them more space for a run.
lessons learned: Give them as much coop space as you can. Plan on cleaning the coop more than once a week. The fast growers do poop alot. Lower expectation for size. I bought 5-8 lb shrink bags. Had lots of extra space this time.
Sorry about the spotty reporting. Full time job and a part time job and 40 plus chickens running around leaves little time for regular reports. I thought about it a couple times a week, but never had the energy to break out the laptop.
Oh yeah, the slower growing birds will give me options. I had a migraine all day yesterday, while processing and beyond. Didn't want to try to let them go any longer for fear of losing them all in the night to health problems. So had to happen all at once.
Everyone have a great summer.
I know I said June 1st but I put my tomatoes out in their summer home today. What can I say? Oh, right, I became a Grandma on Thursday for the first time so all rules/ bets are off. Now I have a Grand excuse for everything I do not quite ordinary!
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