Help me! 4H Broilers. First timer

[Cara Carter]

@duluthralphie are you familiar with 4H standards for broilers?

@Cara Carter what part of the country are you in? What's your weather like now?

It’s about 38 degrees during the day. We are in Elgin, TX close to Austin so the weather fluctuates. About to go get more feed now and fresh shavings. They are 2 days shy of 4 weeks should I start them on a finisher?

 

[junebuggena]

Keep them on the higher protein feed till judging. No need to separate cockerels from pullets. There isn't much point in separating genders, especially with broilers that will be processed long before hormones ever become an issue. Besides that, they are still a bit too young to be certain of which are males and which are female.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yeah, I'd get another bag of the 26% or preferably something lower like 20-22% and gradually mix it with the finisher.
IMO, many people don't have a good grasp of amino acids. The protein percentage on the bag is crude protein and not necessarily the amino acid makeup.
As with most things, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
They can only utilize so much. The excess is excreted and ends up contributing to ammonia in the bedding.

 

[Cara Carter]

Keep them on the higher protein feed till judging. No need to separate cockerels from pullets. There isn't much point in separating genders, especially with broilers that will be processed long before hormones ever become an issue. Besides that, they are still a bit too young to be certain of which are males and which are female.

Okay I’ll keep them on the starter. Should we stop giving them the supplement? Someone also asked if we were putting electrolytes in the water. We are not. Should we?

 

[Cara Carter]

Okay I’ll keep them on the starter. Should we stop giving them the supplement? Someone also asked if we were putting electrolytes in the water. We are not. Should we?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't think you need electrolytes, especially at those temperatures.
I'd cut back on the supplement a bit. Again, it is easy to overdo things.
What is their feather condition like?
Besides size and muscle, overall condition would be judged.

 

[Cara Carter]

I don't think you need electrolytes, especially at those temperatures.
I'd cut back on the supplement a bit. Again, it is easy to overdo things.
What is their feather condition like?
Besides size and muscle, overall condition would be judged.

Let me send you a picture

 

[Cara Carter]

Yeah, I'd get another bag of the 26% or preferably something lower like 20-22% and gradually mix it with the finisher.
IMO, many people don't have a good grasp of amino acids. The protein percentage on the bag is crude protein and not necessarily the amino acid makeup.
As with most things, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
They can only utilize so much. The excess is excreted and ends up contributing to ammonia in the bedding.

Great! That’s what I will do. Do you think we need to do this supplement too? Here’s a picture

 

[junebuggena]

Great! That’s what I will do. Do you think we need to do this supplement too? Here’s a picture

Not needed. The feed is all that is really needed at this point.

 

[rjohns39]

Can you show us a picture of your average bird without the heat lamps? Sorry I haven't been any help, but after getting drug into a 4H teaching session, I've learned to read their material first and then go from there. I was kind of volunteered by my local ag guy to provide birds for parts identification and carcass grading class. I had to go to the author of the course to figure out how to properly cut the parts as they didn't match any common butchery definitions. Carcass grading was pretty straight forward, but we had to inflict intentional damage to the birds I provided because we don't have any defective birds in the freezer.