Well, it has been many years since I have been involved in meat birds.
We moved last year and now have more room, things started innocently enough, ordering up 30 RIR for eggs for the family. I has been down hill ever since (or uplifting as the case may be).
We ordered up 100 Cornish Cross from Central Hatchery, received 106 in good health. Lost two as chicks, one was injured somehow, and the other failed to thrive.
Knowing 106 was way too many, and as part of the master plan we listed chicks on Craigslist and sold 36, leaving 70. We did loose 8 more along the way, and ended with 61. Two were lost in the last two weeks when the temperatures spiked up into the nineties, which came after a week of 60 degree weather. Those two birds were a disappointment to loose, as the were in the 8 lb on the hoof category.
We started processing last weekend, did 20. Things went reasonably well, it took a bit to get in the swing of things. We spent Sunday canning, freezing and making stock.
This weekend, I did the balance of 41, processing times are much omproved. We did build a whizbang plucker during the 7 weeks it took them to grow out, and what a blessing. After getting the scald down, 30 seconds to squeaky clean birds.
We did not loose any to leg problems, fed a broiler starter grower from day one to today. We calculated feed going into the batch, and ran out yesterday. 1040 lbs, 13 80 pound bags from X-Cel Feed in Tacoma.
The birds cleaned out between 5.5 lbs for the hens, and 8.5 pounds for the roos.
I feel this was one very positive experience.
I would like to thank those on this board for all of the information that is available, I probably would not have gotten in quite this deep without you. BTW, the freezer is looking pretty full, and we have chicken stock in the pantry. We have also canned seral quarts of bonelss meat and will be needing to get the rest put away tonight and tomorrow.
Total cost is about $7.09 per bird including chicks, feed, and bedding materials. My guesstimate of about $1.29/lb or so. We will definately do it again, but not until next year........ we have a lot of chicken to eat first.
We moved last year and now have more room, things started innocently enough, ordering up 30 RIR for eggs for the family. I has been down hill ever since (or uplifting as the case may be).
We ordered up 100 Cornish Cross from Central Hatchery, received 106 in good health. Lost two as chicks, one was injured somehow, and the other failed to thrive.
Knowing 106 was way too many, and as part of the master plan we listed chicks on Craigslist and sold 36, leaving 70. We did loose 8 more along the way, and ended with 61. Two were lost in the last two weeks when the temperatures spiked up into the nineties, which came after a week of 60 degree weather. Those two birds were a disappointment to loose, as the were in the 8 lb on the hoof category.
We started processing last weekend, did 20. Things went reasonably well, it took a bit to get in the swing of things. We spent Sunday canning, freezing and making stock.
This weekend, I did the balance of 41, processing times are much omproved. We did build a whizbang plucker during the 7 weeks it took them to grow out, and what a blessing. After getting the scald down, 30 seconds to squeaky clean birds.
We did not loose any to leg problems, fed a broiler starter grower from day one to today. We calculated feed going into the batch, and ran out yesterday. 1040 lbs, 13 80 pound bags from X-Cel Feed in Tacoma.
The birds cleaned out between 5.5 lbs for the hens, and 8.5 pounds for the roos.
I feel this was one very positive experience.
I would like to thank those on this board for all of the information that is available, I probably would not have gotten in quite this deep without you. BTW, the freezer is looking pretty full, and we have chicken stock in the pantry. We have also canned seral quarts of bonelss meat and will be needing to get the rest put away tonight and tomorrow.
Total cost is about $7.09 per bird including chicks, feed, and bedding materials. My guesstimate of about $1.29/lb or so. We will definately do it again, but not until next year........ we have a lot of chicken to eat first.
