First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[duluthralphie]

I figure my feed costs on the total grow out period using 14.5# per broiler. So I multiply that by the amount of birds I have ordered and only buy that much feed before processing day. I have seen some people say 9 weeks will take 13.3# feed per broiler, but I don't know if they are restricting feed or not. Both of those figures (mine and the one I saw recently) were based on dry feed, not fermented. I will say that it's more than 8-9 weeks that the 14.5# lasts my broilers, but I can't remember exactly how much longer.

I have read that laying chicks (who consume less feed than the broilers, all things being equal) will eat only 1/2 the amount of the same feed when it is fermented. I would imagine you'd see a similar tradeoff with the broilers. If I were you, I'd budget for buying up to 1450# feed for your flock (max), but only buy the feed weekly and track their consumption should you ferment - and share your results with us, too. If the tradeoff is the same, you might get away with only buying 800# of feed or so! And wouldn't we all love that? I may try it this year as well, but I have a lot going on at the moment chickens and otherwise.

I raise about 25 per 8'x8' chicken tractor, especially towards the end. There is a period where they're all in one or two pens right out of the brooder, but you will need the equivalent of four 8'x8' portable pens for 100 mature birds, and you'll still need to move them almost twice per day when they get close to market weight. So make them easy to move!!

I second, third, fourth, etc., the tips above about bringing the food out a few times a day, positioning of feeders & waterers, and pasturing them as soon as & as much as possible. Even bringing garden bugs and clumps of grass with the dirt and roots and all into the indoor brooding setting right away (provide chick grit) give these birds the idea that bugs and grass are food & fun.

OR free range them...

But if you free range make sure you give them lots of areas to hide.

I keep them in the tractor until 9 am or so and back in by 7pm... Stay away from the shoulders of the day predators love CXs...

 

[holm25]

Ralph can u get some more pics of the babies all fluffed up?!?! I can't wait I gave ANOTHER broody 7-8 eggs today!! I can't wait and we r getting some chicks from landm fleet. Hoping to get more EEs and Silkies.

Got some pics of the broody BO today. She was more than willing to be moved for the hatch...

 

[1zooman12]

Hello Chad Cool,
Frankly, I am at a loss to see any advantage in feeding fermented food to livestock of any species, unless of course some distillery is donating spent mash just to get rid of the stuff. To purposefully ferment perfectly good foodstuffs (largely carbohydrates) bought with funds from your own pocket seems silly and a waste. If a body had a course in high school chemistry the realization would be that the complex carbohydrate is reduced to sugars which are then converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide with a loss of energy in the process. Loss of energy (key phrase) that does not find its way into your birds! Where is the sense in that? Any good basic chemistry textbook will demonstrate the molecular conversions. It's a strange phenomenon that Americans often latch onto any hype and fad which is promoted by the uniformed hucksters for whatever agenda; usually to raid your pocketbook. So grab your pocketbook and head for the hills! Enough said?
Neal, the Zooman

 

[Chad Cool]

Hello Chad Cool,
Frankly, I am at a loss to see any advantage in feeding fermented food to livestock of any species, unless of course some distillery is donating spent mash just to get rid of the stuff. To purposefully ferment perfectly good foodstuffs (largely carbohydrates) bought with funds from your own pocket seems silly and a waste. If a body had a course in high school chemistry the realization would be that the complex carbohydrate is reduced to sugars which are then converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide with a loss of energy in the process. Loss of energy (key phrase) that does not find its way into your birds! Where is the sense in that? Any good basic chemistry textbook will demonstrate the molecular conversions. It's a strange phenomenon that Americans often latch onto any hype and fad which is promoted by the uniformed hucksters for whatever agenda; usually to raid your pocketbook. So grab your pocketbook and head for the hills! Enough said?
Neal, the Zooman

1zooman12, I'm glade to see you have your opinion on fermented feed everybody does. Please do your own research and don't just go on book literature. I guess what I'm saying is don't knock it till you try it.

 

[LindaB220]

What do you feed them? Oats?

Hey. Chad. A very wise decision to feed fermented feed. You can find directions on any of the fermenting threads. I use a combo of 2 or three scoops of layer or grower. For CX's maybe a gamebird along with the same of crimped oats. A couple of cups alfalfa pellets and some Boss..

Going home from rehab this am. Stoked

 

[LindaB220]

I figure my feed costs on the total grow out period using 14.5# per broiler.  So I multiply that by the amount of birds I have ordered and only buy that much feed before processing day.  I have seen some people say 9 weeks will take 13.3# feed per broiler, but I don't know if they are restricting feed or not.  Both of those figures (mine and the one I saw recently) were based on dry feed, not fermented.  I will say that it's more than 8-9 weeks that the 14.5# lasts my broilers, but I can't remember exactly how much longer. 

I have read that laying chicks (who consume less feed than the broilers, all things being equal) will eat only 1/2 the amount of the same feed when it is fermented.  I would imagine you'd see a similar tradeoff with the broilers.  If I were you, I'd budget for buying up to 1450# feed for your flock (max), but only buy the feed weekly and track their consumption should you ferment - and share your results with us, too.  If the tradeoff is the same, you might get away with only buying 800# of feed or so!  And wouldn't we all love that?  I may try it this year as well, but I have a lot going on at the moment chickens and otherwise.

I raise about 25 per 8'x8' chicken tractor, especially towards the end.  There is a period where they're all in one or two pens right out of the brooder, but you will need the equivalent of four 8'x8' portable pens for 100 mature birds, and you'll still need to move them almost twice per day when they get close to market weight.  So make them easy to move!! 

I second, third, fourth, etc., the tips above about bringing the food out a few times a day, positioning of feeders & waterers, and pasturing them as soon as & as much as possible.  Even bringing garden bugs and clumps of grass with the dirt and roots and all into the indoor brooding setting right away (provide chick grit) give these birds the idea that bugs and grass are food & fun. 

This is interesting. Knowing that I couldn't do the fermented feed while Clint was taking over for me while I was out of pocket, I bought 2bags of layer only for the adults and a bag of starter for the 4 two month chicks. After a couple of weeks he had to buy more. They are eating twice the amount of feed that I used before. It's a learning process for me, too because they have only had fermented from day one.

 

[duluthralphie]

Holm..

Your wish is my command..

I have not taken the lid off the incubator yet so the picture is through the glass making it fuzzy...




They are cuties!!!

I think the dark one is Ernie's and the other 4 belong to Ole they have his eyes......


I placed 19 eggs in the incubator. I have 5 babies and 2 that have cracked holes in the eggs, the other 12 have done nothing. That includes the $3,000 diamond encrusted creamettes. I may have to make paper weights out of them they are too costly to throw away if they do not hatch.


Hatch day is suppose to me tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed there is still hope.

 

[holm25]

Ralph they're so cute!! I have not checked my eggs that r do on Saturday and Sunday. I set 1 dozen eggs yesterday I gave 7 to a broody another broody so I will have lots of chicks.

 

[duluthralphie]

I am going to confess stupidity here and now....

I found a nest with 3 eggs in it the other day, I took al three eggs and did not put a "nest egg" back in the nest. I took two eggs out of the nest the day after. My thought process was flawed, maybe I had been drinking Mike's lemonade.

I thought to myself " Self, the chickens well keep laying here or go back to the coop to lay".


Why did one of you not correct me? The chickens have moved the nest. God only knows where. I now have to hunt for a nest. DUMB ME!!!


And on the same front. My DW decided Ethel was sad in the pen and I had to let her and JJ out. MM has a couple Ethel eggs and I have a couple Ethel eggs. I hope they hatch as we are now at the mercy of nature on whether we get more Ethe and JJ offspring. Ethel is very grateful to be free again though. She is holding no grudges. I was watching chicken TV while sitting on the back of a trailer, when she came over and talked to me, I picked her up and held her on my lap, petting her and she cooed a few minutes and fell asleep. I also picked up JJ and petted him but he did not coo. It is harder to hold JJ and pet him. It can be done but he is just so darn big. He also finds being held to be beneath his status in life. He tolerates it from me, I doubt he would from anyone else.

I wish I had some kind of tracking device I could put on Ethel to find her nest. Do not tell my DW but I have thought about using duct tape and taping her IPhone to Ethel and using the "find my IPhone" feature to find Ethe's nest. After all, she is the one that made me set them free.

The slate Blues left in the pen are not happy, but I will at least get to collect their eggs. In a couple weeks I can be assured they are pure and not JJ's chicks. I am going to put Bert and his Dixie chicks into the pen today with the turkeys they should get along fine.

MM let us know when the eggs get there, take pictures of them I want to see there condition before you put them under the broody... and GOOD LUCK!

 

[1zooman12]

Mr. Cool,
Let's simply use logic and science to analyze the fermented feed situation as proposed by you. First know that I have spent my life as a chicken hobbyist as well as having served as a practicing curator of birds at the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian and as a general curator (all species) at an additional zoological park. Then there are my years as a classroom instructor. So I think I have earned my place to make qualified scientific statements regarding avian dietary requirements. Keep in mind that we know more about the nutritive requirements of the chicken than we do of our own species. And no, not everybody has an opinion regarding fermented feed. That is a ridiculously specious position to take since in fact, most folks have no need to have an intimate knowledge of the dietary requirements of any species much less those of the chicken. And I have personally done an array of research investigations with respect to several animal species. As for your disdain for, as you so rustically put it, "book literature" as if there were any other kind, I fail to grasp just what you might mean. And that it is a tenet among many of those unfamiliar with facts and systems that one has to try out a hypothesis in order to ascertain its validity is simply another poorly thought out fallacy. One does not swallow arsenic to determine its toxicity, i.e., its ability to do great harm and to possibly even kill the questioner. Major purposes of archived knowledge include preventing others from making unnecessary errors or repeating work already accomplished. I gave you and any who care to think about the lack of utility for using foodstuffs spent by fermentation, a rational and scientific reason based in fundamental organic chemistry to demonstrate my informed and tested position.
Neal, the Zooman