Done With Meat Birds

[CARS]

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His price is $10.75 per 50#, that's about normal in my experience, unless you're talking about organic feed.

I get my feed 1/2 ton at a time so I am at $6.something for 50#. But I look at the local farm and fleet stores. $14.00 is the norm. If I chose to have the feed mill bag it instead of bulk it is around $8.00 for a 50# bag.

 

[Kassaundra]

Caponizing is neutering the cockrel, like all neutered males will grow bigger, and more docile, and if done early enough no crowing. But be advised everytime the "C" word comes up people get mean! I've been doing a lot of research on it and the threads are constantly getting locked.

Speaking of crowing, salt and light, have you considered the amount of crowing you will have to deal with? Like several people that have already posted, I think it boils down to what your goals/needs are. I haven't raised my first batch either way, meaties or DP. I intend to start this spring, but have been doing A LOT of research and planning. My goals are more sustainable also, but my situation is complicated by town living. When I first started researching I thought my only option was meaties b/c of the crowing thing. But, I really didn't want to be locked into purchasing my chicks every time, and I also wasn't to excited about the mass processing since I already know my husband will not have any part of it and I will need to process on my own. I really looked at our eating as a family and what we would need for the amount of chickens, and the amount of space I had to devote to it, and some alternative options I didn't know existed when I started this search, (the "c" word) based on that I think I've come up w/ a plan to keep roughly 20-24 chickens until 6 months old, adding either 4/month or 8 every other month for a total of 1 chicken a week, and process the oldest out each month at 6 months old. Keeping a breeding trio for hatching eggs. If I can coax one of the capons to brood even better, (if one shows a disposition for that he will earn his keep that way instead of the pot) if not a small incubator. I'm sure I will have bugs to work out, and it may not even work, but this is my plan for now. Oh and I forgot to mention while they are growing out, they are my hired gardeners in a rotating garden plan. And if they (the breeding trio) go through a dry spell w/ eggs (like winter) there is a hatchery, or a lot of hatchaholics within 50 miles of my home.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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DP's cost way more.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

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Following up on TimG's comment, what is the AVERAGE expected loss for birds? Out of every batch of meat birds, how many normally die?

For newbies, it can be as high as 20%. The more experience you get, the less your mortality rate goes down. 4% is ideal.

 

[Salt and Light]

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Why do you say this?

 

[CARS]

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Why do you say this?

I'm not answering for Jeff, but I can see it.

The chicks cost over twice as much, up to 5X as much for good breeder stock which is what I would start with if you want a dual purpose bird. May as well get the biggest, best available right?

You will feed them longer than Cornish X's, and since you want them to grow as big and healthy as possible, you will be feeding a high protein feed throughout their first season. You may reduce the feed content a bit once you have separated out the layers you are going to keep. But if you are breeding them, you'll keep the high protein.

One big item for me (until I maned-up and did it myself) was that all the local processors refuse to do "colored" birds. They claimed the birds were too much work for them

That being said, I am still going to give Buckeyes a shot this year but I will have Cornish X's till I figure out how to raise a DP flock.

 

[TimG]

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Why do you say this?

Feed conversion rate and length of feeding time, for starters. The dual purpose birds will end up eating a lot more feed in their 6-8 months than the Cornish Crosses eat in their 7-8 weeks.

 

[bigredfeather]

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Why do you say this?

Feed conversion rate and length of feeding time, for starters. The dual purpose birds will end up eating a lot more feed in their 6-8 months than the Cornish Crosses eat in their 7-8 weeks.

Not to mention the feed that the parent stock eat year round, even when they are laying slow or quit laying all together. Hatching out eggs from a DP for meat always seems tempting as a cheaper solution, but in the long run isn't any cheaper. Sustainalble, yes, but not cheaper.

I'm not sure how long you have been raising the CX, but you will find once you perfect your process, you will lose very few. I lost more this past year to stupidity (running over w/ tractor, squishing w/ feeder/waterer) than anything else. I usually consider a loss of less than 5% acceptable.

I will also say, if you like the carcuss size and shape of a dressed CX, you will be very disappointed when you start processing DP's. Most of the time, they are not even close in amount of meat and meat-to-bone ratio.

 

[Keara]

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This. Also, they are for the person who does not wish for chicken that is tender to the point of softness, and who looks for a stronger flavor of "chicken" when cooking.

(Posting as I'm making up some chicken soup out of some older banties I picked up from CL).

I am going to dissagree with the meat not "being tender to the piont of softness". We ate two of our 15wk roos for xmas eve dinner. I brined them for about 6hrs before cooking and it was the most tender chicken I have EVER eaten! I will brine all my won birds from now on.

Ps we also let them age in the fridge for a week.

 

[booker81]

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This. Also, they are for the person who does not wish for chicken that is tender to the point of softness, and who looks for a stronger flavor of "chicken" when cooking.

(Posting as I'm making up some chicken soup out of some older banties I picked up from CL).

I am going to dissagree with the meat not "being tender to the piont of softness". We ate two of our 15wk roos for xmas eve dinner. I brined them for about 6hrs before cooking and it was the most tender chicken I have EVER eaten! I will brine all my won birds from now on.

Ps we also let them age in the fridge for a week.

Oh, I'm not doubting that! I love eating older chickens....because they CAN be tender, but they aren't....spongy. Even the 8 month old roo I cooked last night was tender, could pull him apart with a fork, but it still had a meat texture

There's a vast difference in the meat texture of an older bird than any 8-12 week old bird, and that is what I like