Feeding 'non-meat' birds for meat

[SlipsWife]

When raising chicks that aren't necessarily dual purpose or meat birds for meat, how do you feed them? Do you feed them as you would meat birds? FF on a schedule, free feed FF , FF on a schedule with dry food available all of the time? If they are free range, do you pen them up for a week or so before process and feed them differently? Even if not free range, do you change what/how much you feed before processing? Do you feed corn to add fat before processing?

We have chicks we know we won't be keeping but instead of selling them all (like the packing peanuts for warmth) we want to keep them around for a little while and see what we end up with. I've thought about setting them aside in their own pen/area (so we don't view them as pets) and 'growing them' for meat.

 

[DraigAthar]

I raise them all the same. We raise Dominiques, and each year we hatch some eggs. The hens get to grow up and become part of the layer flock, and if we have extras we sell them to someone else who needs layers. The roos we raise up and keep one for the next year's breeding. The rest of them we eat. They live and eat exactly the same as the hens (just in separate quarters toward the end so they don't pester the girls too much). We feed them grower pellets along with the young pullets, and then they stay on grower feed after the hens get switched over to layer feed. We pasture everyone. We don't change the diet at all before slaughter. That's just our approach, other folks may do it differently.

 

[LilRedRoo]

Anytime we have "extras" they are treated the same as the ones we keep, and we just take them as we get around to it.

 

[SlipsWife]

I raise them all the same. We raise Dominiques, and each year we hatch some eggs. The hens get to grow up and become part of the layer flock, and if we have extras we sell them to someone else who needs layers. The roos we raise up and keep one for the next year's breeding. The rest of them we eat. They live and eat exactly the same as the hens (just in separate quarters toward the end so they don't pester the girls too much). We feed them grower pellets along with the young pullets, and then they stay on grower feed after the hens get switched over to layer feed. We pasture everyone. We don't change the diet at all before slaughter. That's just our approach, other folks may do it differently.

Anytime we have "extras" they are treated the same as the ones we keep, and we just take them as we get around to it.

So basically, I'm over thinking it!

I'm glad to know we don't have to do anything special. We are going to have no choice but to keep them separate though...if not we will get to attached and not be able to process them. I swear my kids do a head count every time we have chicken for dinner...

 

[DraigAthar]

So basically, I'm over thinking it!

I'm glad to know we don't have to do anything special. We are going to have no choice but to keep them separate though...if not we will get to attached and not be able to process them. I swear my kids do a head count every time we have chicken for dinner...

Heh, I find it a lot easier to butcher roos once they get older. Keep a dozen of them together to 20 weeks of age and see how long you can stand the crowing ...

 

[oldrooster]

Quote:
Just think how your great-grandmother would have done it. more than likely 1 pen 1 food and butcher when they get big enough. but if your hens start laying you need to give them feed with oyster shell free-choice untill the boys get butchered because too much calcium is a bad thing (if it's like under 2 weeks to butcher don't worry just give them layer because they would be dinner before problems arise).