Ginormous monsters

[freerange freaks]

I thought someone may be interested to see the size difference between my layers and my meat birds. These birds are the same age (four weeks). And have had access to the same starter and same out door foraging. The meat birds are huge unnatural monstrosaties...

 

[jjthink]

And I find it sad that their lives are usually so brief

JJ

 

[Nupine]

Weird huh??

 

[hcammack]

Yum

I want to do meat birds but my mom won't let me.

Henry

 

[chickens4jojo]

Wow, that is a huge difference. Thanks for showing us~~I had no idea. I want to raise some meat birds~~is their feed bill really high or do you free range? I can't stop saying, "Wow!!"

 

[freerange freaks]

This is my first time with meat birds and I am shocked every morning when I let the birds out for the day.

I do let them range but they are not nearly as energetic as the layers. They layers run around and try to catch flying insects. The meat birds walk around and then lay down and eat the grass around them. They also take frequent naps through out the day. They drink so much. I cannot believe the amount of water they go through. I would say 25 meat birds drink about 12 litres of water per day at four weeks old. I buy two bags of food every week and a half. Right now, chicken in the grocery store is on sale for $0.99/lb. I figure when this is all said and done these chickens will cost me $3.00/lb.

So far it has been worth every penny! I can't wait to taste one of the monsters.

 

[mmajw]

In years past mine have cost me about $3/lb. it was definately worth every cent and I can not wait until slaughter day this year either. You will never have better tasting chicken than what you raise yourself, even if it does cost a little more.

 

[UncleHoot]

I've got 2 white leghorns (as well as 8 other layer chicks) that I'm raising with my meat chickens. They're over 2 weeks older than the meat chickens, but by the time the meat chickens were 2 weeks old, they were already much heavier than the 4 week old leghorns. It's kinda weird how they otherwise blend in with the meat chickens, however, until all of a sudden someone goes flying out, and you never saw it coming.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
IMHO, the best chicken I've ever had.

At this point (almost 8 weeks old), my 48 meat chickens (and 10 layers) are going through a bag of feed every 2 days, which works out to around half a pound of feed per meat bird per day. The layers don't eat nearly as much. Next week the meaties will be gone, so it will be interesting to watch the layers adapt to life without them, before I eventually try to integrate them with my other hens.

 

[greyfields]

That is why it's difficult to brood the two for more than a couple weeks. You'll start to see trampling.