Doubling my production

[willheveland]

I wondered where you have been hiding,haven't seen you here in awhile. Sounds like you're enjoying your hobby and that's what it is all about. My friend has one of those Harbor freight concrete mixers and loves it.You can't beat the price.they'd be perfect for mixing feed or even making your own potting mix for starting plants.Kinda too nice to put concrete in.If you had to use it for concrete I wish they'd put plastic barrels on them so they would wash out better. Will

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
Yeah, I measure out 30 lbs of feed at a time, and by the time I'm done measuring, the last batch is ready to dump. With 3 buckets and a few trash cans to put the mixed feed into, I can mix 400 lbs of feed in about an hour. At this point, 400 lbs only lasts about 6 days. So for a few hours of extra labor, I'm saving quite a bit on feed. Plus, I can always mix-in other supplements, although I haven't done that yet.

"Meat birds" is about the only place I really post, so I guess I just don't have much to say over the winter.

 

[willheveland]

Quote:
Yeah, I measure out 30 lbs of feed at a time, and by the time I'm done measuring, the last batch is ready to dump. With 3 buckets and a few trash cans to put the mixed feed into, I can mix 400 lbs of feed in about an hour. At this point, 400 lbs only lasts about 6 days. So for a few hours of extra labor, I'm saving quite a bit on feed. Plus, I can always mix-in other supplements, although I haven't done that yet.

"Meat birds" is about the only place I really post, so I guess I just don't have much to say over the winter.

If your mixing your own you should look into a product called ProvAAL. To raise some monster meat birds. Will

 

[halo]

Where did you get your Cornish X from? Are you satisfied with how they are growing (or how they grew) out?

 

[UncleHoot]

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They are "Hubbard White Mountain Broilers" from Townline Hatchery here in Michigan. They seem to grow faster than just about everyone else I've tried, but still with the occasional leg problems and heart attacks. Out of 150, I've lost 9 so far, 4 of which seemed to be a heart attack (after 5 weeks). I also have 2 that can barely move, due to leg failure. I'm just keeping them alive long enough to get them processed.

Last fall, when I raised 50 of these, I had a couple birds dress at over 8 lbs at 8.5 weeks. I think the average was somewhere around 6 or 6.5 lbs. I'm sure I posted it here somewhere, but I'm too lazy to look it up. I raised one to 10 weeks, and it dressed at over 10 lbs, but after 8 weeks, they start dropping dead of heart attacks left and right, so I don't plan to try that again.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
I'd be afraid if they got any bigger than they already are.

But, yeah, I've also thought about trying the Fertrell Nutri-balancer, basically just because that's what Joel Salatin mentions worked well for him. For my layers, I also mix-in some chopped-up egg shells with their feed, in addtion to them having access to oyster shell in a separate feeder.

I'm also pretty happy with the feed concentrate that I buy. I'm honestly afraid to switch to any other type of feed, simply because it works so well, and the chickens taste so good.

For whatever reason, mixing the feed is fun.