First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[Morrigan]

It's cooled down a bit here to be in the low 90s. All my birds made it through the heat wave, but I only have the heritage birds in the coop right now. The heat is tough on meaties for sure. I'm glad Sunny found a cool spot in the garage.

Speaking of culling, I'm already dreading the heartbreak of having to start culling from my laying flock. The birds are in their 3rd year and there are 1 or 2 who haven't laid an egg in quite some time. I was hoping I wouldn't have to worry about this until they were 5 or 6 years old. I'm still getting enough eggs for my needs (although my friends and family are disappointed that they no longer get my extra eggs), but I am going to want a couple of new hens next Spring and am going to have to make some space. I knew when I got them they were livestock, not pets, but I do tend to get attached.

 

[mountain mom]

JR- After we processed the batch last fall that we kept Pearl from, we just put her in the coop with everyone and she ate when she wanted. She had learned good eating habits and didn't sit at the feeder and gorge herself. BUT, she may have been an exception to the rule.

As far as turkeys, depends on which type. I would say of course, they can all be brought up together, BUT if you are getting any Broad Breasted breeds they will grow very fast and certainly need to be fed separately. I guess all the turkeys would need to be fed separately. They need a higher protein feed and not to be restricted.
Really, I should not be answering this, Ralphie knows better!

Jessica- I did mean synovitis. I am really good a guessing how to spell stuff and not caring if it is right
Sunny is a smart one! It is cute she waddles over now.

Kippy- Were you asking how many you should order?
Last year we (a family of four) processed 19 (14 of which were CX and 5 were Red Rangers) and it sort of lasted us the year. Once you have your home grown chicken, you will not ever eat chicken from the grocery again. So for us, we actually started eating a little less chicken because I wanted it to last!!
This year we only did 18 but they were all CX and I am certain we will have more meat because there are no Rangers in the mix.
I would love to do 30, but honestly it is too much for my hands and doing it more than once with all the set up and clean up is not worth it to me. We did 2 processes last year, the one in the fall was a complete disaster. The chickens were freezing on the table. Fall in Colorado is certainly hit or miss. The week before we processed it was 75.

 

[holm25]

Morrigan its normal to dread the cull. Hope it goes well.



It is 60 degrees here today!! Its so nice to get a break.

 

[mountain mom]

It's cooled down a bit here to be in the low 90s. All my birds made it through the heat wave, but I only have the heritage birds in the coop right now. The heat is tough on meaties for sure. I'm glad Sunny found a cool spot in the garage.

Speaking of culling, I'm already dreading the heartbreak of having to start culling from my laying flock. The birds are in their 3rd year and there are 1 or 2 who haven't laid an egg in quite some time. I was hoping I wouldn't have to worry about this until they were 5 or 6 years old. I'm still getting enough eggs for my needs (although my friends and family are disappointed that they no longer get my extra eggs), but I am going to want a couple of new hens next Spring and am going to have to make some space. I knew when I got them they were livestock, not pets, but I do tend to get attached.

We were just talking about this. My girls are totally and completely pets. I love them.
I am going to have a hard time making this call. Luckily I have a year or two, they are only a year now.

Our neighbors are disappointed to no longer be getting eggs as well (because of the fox). And it is kind of sad going to the coop and only seeing one egg sometimes.
Oh well. We will get more baby chicks in the spring... for 4H, of course. Not because I want them.

 

[duluthralphie]

Now the thing I do wrong, I do not feed my turkeys separately from the Guineas and Chickens. I know they need more protein, but it is just too much hassle trying to keep each bird in it's own feeders. Mine all free range so I figure the turkeys can catch bugs for more protein. I know, I am bad...


I doubt I will cull any hens, unless they bother me and I have had too much Mike's. Eggs are incidental to me and I found egg customers are fickle and pains in the rear. They think I should have eggs for them all the time. Most lack the understanding that the chickens are pets and a hobby. I may or may not have extra eggs, what they get is extra eggs. I am not a commercial producer and if I was trying to make money on my eggs they would not be paying 3 bucks a dozen. Heck, free range eggs in the store are almost twice that and those are not real free range eggs..


And another that makes no sense subject, my DIL has a friend that wanted some of my CX's this fall, she had one at my DIL and loved it. Said it was the best chicken she had ever eaten. Of course, she is a city person and has never had a home grown bird. She asked my son if the birds were "organic". He said I doubt it he buys his feed."

He added but they run around free all day long eating bugs and stuff.

She then said she did not want any if they are not organic... I sell the birds at cost to friends and family, Where do you think you can get a free range (real free range not 30 minutes a week) organic birds for 2 bucks a pound?



Geeesch People! arrrgh Is it any wonder I LIKE being a hermit regardless of what Shrinks say about us hermits...



MM I am down to somewhere between 22-27 birds, they refuse to hold still so I can count them.. and I sometimes only get 10-12 eggs, Other days I get 24.. makes no sense. I think mine are getting ready to molt.

 

[mountain mom]

Now the thing I do wrong, I do not feed my turkeys separately from the Guineas and Chickens. I know they need more protein, but it is just too much hassle trying to keep each bird in it's own feeders. Mine all free range so I figure the turkeys can catch bugs for more protein. I know, I am bad...


I doubt I will cull any hens, unless they bother me and I have had too much Mike's. Eggs are incidental to me and I found egg customers are fickle and pains in the rear. They think I should have eggs for them all the time. Most lack the understanding that the chickens are pets and a hobby. I may or may not have extra eggs, what they get is extra eggs. I am not a commercial producer and if I was trying to make money on my eggs they would not be paying 3 bucks a dozen. Heck, free range eggs in the store are almost twice that and those are not real free range eggs..


And another that makes no sense subject, my DIL has a friend that wanted some of my CX's this fall, she had one at my DIL and loved it. Said it was the best chicken she had ever eaten. Of course, she is a city person and has never had a home grown bird. She asked my son if the birds were "organic". He said I doubt it he buys his feed."

He added but they run around free all day long eating bugs and stuff.

She then said she did not want any if they are not organic... I sell the birds at cost to friends and family, Where do you think you can get a free range (real free range not 30 minutes a week) organic birds for 2 bucks a pound?



Geeesch People! arrrgh Is it any wonder I LIKE being a hermit regardless of what Shrinks say about us hermits...



MM I am down to somewhere between 22-27 birds, they refuse to hold still so I can count them.. and I sometimes only get 10-12 eggs, Other days I get 24.. makes no sense. I think mine are getting ready to molt.

City people. I really don't get them. I also get so frustrated and annoyed with people who are hung up on the buzz words and don't actually do any research to see what it is that they are truly getting.
Like this nonsense about chickens being fed a vegetarian diet. Are you kidding me?! Chickens are not vegetarians.

Sorry, I will be done now.

I feed my turkeys wild game feed once a day, away from the chickens. The chickens always get to it eventually. The turkeys eat the layer pellets too. I sort of try. When they were babies though, they got all the wild game feed they wanted.

 

[duluthralphie]

I just use a "all-flock" starter which claims to be for all species. Not sure if it is, but seems to work.

Once they get to free range, they find the layer feed and go crazy on it. I am kind of lackadaisical with my flock, I remember my grandparents feeding their birds just the corn and grain they raised on the farm and the birds did fine. I am sure I am not getting "optimum" growth and production ,but I really do not care about that. Heck, I feed them like I eat, junk food and fast food, mixed with real food. I do keep them out of the alcohol.

I just checked on the Mommys and their kids. The BA has all 10 of her keets and Ethel has all 5 of her poults. I was a tad worried.

 

[JRNash]

I'm with you Ralph. The last batch of chickens I had free ranged and the only feed they got was scratch. I did give them oyster shell and scraps. I had more eggs than I could give away off of 20 chickens. This time I'M going to try the Correct way and see how it works. I think alot of people get caught up in the " ME TOO" crowd. I don't doubt the chickens benefit from a balanced diet. I just think they do better on a more NATURAL diet. My great great grandparents lived into their mid 90s. Their parents were similarly long lived. Introduce processed food and my grandparents made it to their mid 70s

 

[duluthralphie]

I'm with you Ralph. The last batch of chickens I had free ranged and the only feed they got was scratch. I did give them oyster shell and scraps. I had more eggs than I could give away off of 20 chickens. This time I'M going to try the Correct way and see how it works. I think alot of people get caught up in the " ME TOO" crowd. I don't doubt the chickens benefit from a balanced diet. I just think they do better on a more NATURAL diet. My great great grandparents lived into their mid 90s. Their parents were similarly long lived. Introduce processed food and my grandparents made it to their mid 70s

Did any of the gator ponds play a role in your grandparents demise?


BTW is there any truth to the rumor you lost your arm to a gator this weekend?

 

[JessicaThistle]

I totally think the idea that our chickens, turkeys etc NEED this feed in the bag or they will not lay proper eggs and such is crafted by the feed companies. Those feeds were devised for commercial caged operations because they need a balanced feed when you never go outside?

I know of a farm that has many chickens that were "dropped off" by kind people that didn't want to take care of those chickens anymore. They do not feed those chickens a lick of layer ration. They are a cattle farm and didn't want chickens. Those chickens forage around and find all of their own food. They lay a ton of eggs, hatch many chicks and no one ever dies of malnutrition. The chicks do get lost to predators but not malnutrition.

Sometimes if my hens run out of feed and they have to wait a couple of hours for me to get to the feed store, I remind myself about that farm as well as the days when the chickens got fed in the morning and at night. The rest of the time, they foraged. Man has our "world" changed.

I also don't get people. I love how everyone loves to get your extra eggs but never thinks about what producing those eggs cost you. I had a woman say to me that she really wished that she was able to buy local eggs at the store that weren't over $5 per dozen. Her words "I don't ever want to pay that kind of money for eggs"! I said to her, you will never find that because it costs too much money to produce them to sell them for that. You can drive around neighborhoods looking for Eggs for Sale signs for $2. You don't get to go to a grocery store and get that. We have to build a special clean egg washing room, be licensed to sell the eggs, subject to inspections and follow certain guidelines, use new cartons and specific labeling, plus deliver to your area grocery stores and you think it should cost less than $5?