Hello Again.. I thought I would post my resultsThis was my first time raising meat birds. I used the info in this thread to feed my Cornish X. We processed them this last Wednesday. they were 9 weeks and 3 days old.
I had 36 birds and had only lost one when it was 3 days old.
I had NO health issues like I had been warned about. They were good looking birds. No leg problems.
When we processed them I was really pleased to see that their insides were healthy looking. Nice pink and healthy looking organs. No signs of parasites or other issues.
Since it was my first time, I asked the older guys that were helping me process them how they looked. They told me the birds were really healthy looking. They were bigger than they were used to processing. and they had quite a bit of fat.
They told me it was likely that I just fed them too well
Like I said this was my first time so I figured it a learning process. I fed a 20% feed fermented mixed with a mix of Oats, Barley, and scratch (wheat, corn, milo), and a hand full of alfalfa cubes added to Ferment. Once the birds were old enough to free range I fed once a day at night.. they free ranged during the day and if they couldn't go out for some reason I added grass or loose alfalfa or grass hay to their run for the day. They also got a few scraps when I was canning this season.
I used 11 bags of feed at $19.00 a bag.. Then approx 100lbs of grain mix... about $45.00 so about $254.00. Also when they were babies I fed Game bird Chow at 30% protein for the first few weeks. I wasn't fermenting that food so I used 2 bags of that at about $25.00 per bag. I likely wont do that next time. Simply because they just pooped it out and it was just too fine a crumble for me to ferment. So I fed it dry. Next time I will feed the 20% feed and ferment from day one. Also since it was my first time I listened to lots of people and spent money I now know I didn't need to spend.. Buying water additives, food additives, vitamins, etc etc etc.
As far as my birds being fat.. Id love some feed back from some of you guys about that. I'm thinking that perhaps I just kept the birds too long... rather than fed them too well like I was told. I think they could have been processed at 7 week or 8.... to have gotten 5 or 6 lb birds.. Mine averaged 7 to 8 lbs.. With several 10 lb birds and one Chunky 12 lb Roo. I had been told that if I fermented the feed it would take the birds to 9 or 10 weeks to get to size... Also I admit because I'm new to this I knew the birds were big... but I wasn't sure what actual Butcher weight was... I was thinking alot of the bulk I was feeling was feather and legs...Now I know better
I will defiantly Ferment next batch feed rations. I may leave out the scratch since it was heavy on the corn. I may stick with Barley and Oats and add a bit of alfalfa. I will likely process them earlier... maybe at 8 weeks..
As far as health I was really proud and pleased with the birds. Also as far as care for them. The fermented feeding and free ranging was a great mix. My birds never smelled bad or created alot of litter. This was a HUGE PLUS for me. Over all I am really proud of my chunky birds. I had a great experience learning this process and will defiantly do it again.
So glad you had such success with your birds! I too had birds with quite a bit of fat, but these were the roosters that I culled early because they were so much bigger than the others and were hogging the food. I cut back a little the next couple of weeks before I butchered the rest, and they seemed to have a little less fat. So in my opinion, yes, they were just getting fed too well. Remember that they will eat as long as you keep putting it out there.
However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. You might consider just keeping the extra fat and rendering it down to make what is called schmaltz. My understanding is that it is common in Jewish cooking, but gourmet chefs also use it in some recipes instead of butter. I have a bag of fat in my freezer right now waiting to be rendered. Waiting for my son the foodie to come visit, as he wants to be in on this process.
