Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[vehve]

Oz, how much does it cost you to raise to what the local customers consider butchering size? And when is that?

 

[ozexpat]

Oz, how much does it cost you to raise to what the local customers consider butchering size? And when is that?

I have never broken it down to those sorts of levels.

I am not producing meat birds so I dont need to. Compounding this is we sell birds at all ages.

Based on a 20 week culled cockeral.

My average feed cost is around $0.34 per kilo. If the average chicken ate 8kg to get to then it would cost 2.72 in feed to get to 20 weeks and 3kg.

By 20 weeks I spend aprox 40 cents per chicken in labor.

By 20 weeks aprox 20 cents per chicken in vaccines

So $3.32 without capital costs and utilities.

 

[ozexpat]

Today was musical chicken day.

As we had sold of several juveniles we managed to clear out the coops.

the two coops with mixed breeds are now in one coop. There are a few too many roosters in there but they will get eaten over the next month,

two of the coops with near POL juvies ended up in the empty coop. they will start laying in 4-8 weeks, Some of them will then get transfered to their breeder coops. I have to do some sorting as a bunch of them were not legbanded by Dominic when they hatched but that is pretty easy with the main breeds,

half a doz POL RIR were moved to the breeder coop.

The biggest birds in the brooders received coryza vaccine and ended up in one of the outside coops.

We now have empty coops and brooders......

but not for long!

 

[XxMingirlxX]

 

[anjovi6]

I thought everyone might find the following article interesting. It is looking at the types of feed fed to layers based on particle size versus pellets. It is from the World Poultry organization.

http://www.worldpoultry.net/Layers/...e-balance-in-layer-feed-composition-1666920W/

 

[ozexpat]

I thought everyone might find the following article interesting. It is looking at the types of feed fed to layers based on particle size versus pellets. It is from the World Poultry organization.

http://www.worldpoultry.net/Layers/...e-balance-in-layer-feed-composition-1666920W/

interesting

my feed is faily fine mash. the alternative is pellets but my feed bill will jump 70%

 

[scottcaddy]

I thought everyone might find the following article interesting. It is looking at the types of feed fed to layers based on particle size versus pellets. It is from the World Poultry organization.

http://www.worldpoultry.net/Layers/...e-balance-in-layer-feed-composition-1666920W/

Yes, I do feed pellet to the laying hens, for the less waste reason. Nice to know about the others also.
How to unboil an egg, what a thought!

Scott

 

[Tomtommom]

I give my birds 1 part crumble, 1 part water twice a day. It soaks the water up real fast and expands, so it has them eating less. It keeps them from being so fat... Mine would eat all day if they had free choice feed.

 

[anjovi6]

Yes, I do feed pellet to the laying hens, for the less waste reason. Nice to know about the others also.
How to unboil an egg, what a thought!

Scott

I feed mine a combination of natural grains, natural forage seeds, and pellets. I comes premixed like this and the first bag was eaten like they were starving. They loved it. BUT, on the second bag they got lazy and picky. They will pick the grain and seeds out and leave the pellets. So mine waste feed. Now I'm changing to a different feed with less grain in it that is crumbles. Hopefully this will solve the waste problem. And who knows what will happen to egg production. Unfortunately I won't be around to see the results. Because on Saturday I leave for the Philippines and my wife's very long "Honey do list."

I skipped reading the article about unboiling eggs. Didn't want to hear what chemicals they would use. ???

Jimmy

 

[ozexpat]

I feed mine a combination of natural grains, natural forage seeds, and pellets. I comes premixed like this and the first bag was eaten like they were starving. They loved it. BUT, on the second bag they got lazy and picky. They will pick the grain and seeds out and leave the pellets. So mine waste feed. Now I'm changing to a different feed with less grain in it that is crumbles. Hopefully this will solve the waste problem. And who knows what will happen to egg production. Unfortunately I won't be around to see the results. Because on Saturday I leave for the Philippines and my wife's very long "Honey do list."

I skipped reading the article about unboiling eggs. Didn't want to hear what chemicals they would use. ???

Jimmy

enjoy your flight Jimmy

do you have an unlocked cell phone?

I am not sure what you use there but smart has good data plans that are cheap.

the "always on" series is good value you can check them out at smart website

I get an ON99 package thats good for a month then top up data with ON30 as top ups. You can just get 2GB for 500p with ON499 or unlimited for ON999

text to 2200 from smart phone

then turn data on

be careful, if the plan runs out, it will suck all your load quickly.