Freedom Rangers and Fermented Feed - A Pastured Poultry Experiment

[travifive]

And another...

 

[ChickenoftheVI]

They look nice! If you're going to use those buckets for the chicks life span, then you should drill holes about 1/3 the way up the bucket... They will be EATING as they get closer to freezer camp!!!

 

[ChickenoftheVI]

I'll be sending my 10 cockerels to freezer camp tomorrow morning... 11.5 weeks... Will post their final weights as well

 

[travifive]

They look nice! If you're going to use those buckets for the chicks life span, then you should drill holes about 1/3 the way up the bucket... They will be EATING as they get closer to freezer camp!!!

Thanks! I was curious about that while I was doing it. I'll have to add more when I build the other two.

Looking forward to hearing your final weights too. Can you post pics as well?

 

[ChickenoftheVI]

Well I dispatched 8 Roos this morning, the final live weights at 11.5 weeks are the following: 8, 7, 6.12, 6.11, 6.10, 6.7, 6.1, 6. The total pounds of meat was 35. Here a couple picks right before they went off to freezer camp.

 

[ChickenoftheVI]

These were Picts of the 8lb live weighted. The other 14 gonna give them another week or 2 then they'll visit their comrads in freezer camp!

 

[travifive]

That's a good looking batch. Thanks for the info.

The chicks are still doing very well. They made the transition to FF quickly. This morning they came running up to the trough. I'm going to start adding more and more to their daily amounts until I see some being left behind. I want to make sure that they have feed 24hr a day.

 

[ChickenoftheVI]

If they have ff 24 hours they should grow faster than mine for sure! They don't really forge themselves, when their crop is full they go back and lay down and eat grass... And go back periodically... But the assertive ones will eat more than any of them and bully the others away so they can get to the feed they want. The left overs will be eaten by the not so assertive bunch.

 

[travifive]

UPDATE: This was taken this morning. I am amazed at how fast they are feathering out.

This is the same chick from my first picture of them.

I found one dead yeasterday so now we're down to 25. Hopefully it was just a fluke.

 

[travifive]

Sorry. The chick in the picture was the same as the one in the second pic. In the first pic he is in the background. He has a little stripe on his head so its been easy to keep track of him.