How do you put weight on your birds?

[BreeShu]

I have a few roosters I've transferred a couple of weeks ago to a smaller enclosure to give my main flock a break and to hopefully plump them up for butchering. They range in ages from 7 months to 4 months old. I processed two of the older roosters Sunday that looked pretty big, only to find they were pretty lanky. These boys are fed a never-ending feed of corn and mix grain. What are ways to fatten up roosters before they get too old?

 

[FunClucks]

A lot of it is determined by genetics. I don't know of any good ways to fatten them. They pretty much are how they will be. Having less room to run around and doing less running around can help a little, I know if works for CX but I don't know how much of an effect it will have on non-CX birds.

 

[LaFleche]

Potatoes, corn, dairy products/milk powder and lots of protein will create nice and tender meat.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Breed makes a difference & feed ... That's why there are "meat" birds & feed for them

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

The corn/bran is a good "finisher", but before that, did they get some high-protein feed of some sort? Just like in humans, protein is what muscles (meat) are built off of. Maybe they didn't have enough protein to bulk up, so maybe try supplementing their diet with protein.

But, like others said, breed matters too. You won't get a large carcass off of certain breeds no matter how hard you try. What breed are these guys?

And also, what was the dressed weight of the first one you processed? Maybe your expectations were too high because you're used to the big Cornish Xs at the grocery store. Maybe post a photo with the weight.

 

[BreeShu]

The corn/bran is a good "finisher", but before that, did they get some high-protein feed of some sort? Just like in humans, protein is what muscles (meat) are built off of. Maybe they didn't have enough protein to bulk up, so maybe try supplementing their diet with protein.

But, like others said, breed matters too. You won't get a large carcass off of certain breeds no matter how hard you try. What breed are these guys?

And also, what was the dressed weight of the first one you processed? Maybe your expectations were too high because you're used to the big Cornish Xs at the grocery store. Maybe post a photo with the weight.

This year and last year I used combination of chick starter meatbird crumble, I did have CornishX chicks raised with my own hatch. The older birds get high protein layer and scratch grain. The two roos came out around 4lbs. My roosters last year were average of 5lbs. Between the one pound difference and how much meatier they seemed, I was surprised by how small the roos were this year. My flock is mixed genetics mostly consisting of Easter eggers and brahmas and marans. I have no idea what my frizzle is. He's the skinniest of them all! He's separated off too because he was the worst about harassing the hens.

 

[BreeShu]

A lot of it is determined by genetics. I don't know of any good ways to fatten them. They pretty much are how they will be. Having less room to run around and doing less running around can help a little, I know if works for CX but I don't know how much of an effect it will have on non-CX birds.

I'm hopeful the corn diet and not free ranging will help. This isn't the first time I've butchered my birds, but it's is the first time I've butchered CornishX. I was definitely flabbergasted on how much bigger they were than my slow growing mixed birds.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

This year and last year I used combination of chick starter meatbird crumble, I did have CornishX chicks raised with my own hatch. The older birds get high protein layer and scratch grain. The two roos came out around 4lbs. My roosters last year were average of 5lbs. Between the one pound difference and how much meatier they seemed, I was surprised by how small the roos were this year. My flock is mixed genetics mostly consisting of Easter eggers and brahmas and marans. I have no idea what my frizzle is. He's the skinniest of them all! He's separated off too because he was the worst about harassing the hens.

4 lbs isn't too bad! Still a nice size for dinner, but I understand that you're disappointed it was a whole pound lighter than your other one. Since your birds are of different breeds, it could be that. Do they all breed together as barnyard mixes? Do you selectively cull them to breed for size? If not, they may just be averaging out as a slightly smaller bird since the bigger and smaller birds are breeding together. I'm no genetics master though, so don't quote me on it. Maybe try consulting the genetics thread if you want to breed for bigger heritage birds. There are a lot of people there who can help you.

 

[BreeShu]

4 lbs isn't too bad! Still a nice size for dinner, but I understand that you're disappointed it was a whole pound lighter than your other one. Since your birds are of different breeds, it could be that. Do they all breed together as barnyard mixes? Do you selectively cull them to breed for size? If not, they may just be averaging out as a slightly smaller bird since the bigger and smaller birds are breeding together. I'm no genetics master though, so don't quote me on it. Maybe try consulting the genetics thread if you want to breed for bigger heritage birds. There are a lot of people there who can help you.

They are all breeding together as a barnyard flock. A few are the same parents as last year, with two additional roosters and hens (chicken math) to add more diversity to my flock, so they could be putting off a leaner gene. I am holding back some hens and one or two new roosters that appear to be getting bigger faster than others. Maybe next year I'll be a lot more proactive on controlling who's breeding with who. The skinny frizzle never seems to successfully mount the females despite his constant trying, and not a single chick showed any of his color or frizzle traits.

 

[mandelyn]

Definitely take some time time to sort/select your way through your flock looking for "table traits" to help the genetic side of how meaty they may get. That's all done through feel of the bird and getting hands on with the feel and structure. Going into dual purpose, I didn't know how varied it would be from bird to bird and breed to breed. Most of the breeds have not had hands-on selection breeding done for the table in quite a long while, with most lines becoming decidedly "egg bred"..

This picture shows a lot of structure differences, these birds are the same age at 18 weeks. American Bresse on the left and a Bielefelder on the right. Body length is about the same, but the width and depth are dramatically different, as well as the fleshing.

Diet does play a role in helping them gain, but the genetics need to be there too. I use a 20% all-flock for the duration of growth and may or may not do a special finishing with confinement. When I do the special finishing, I use 1/3rd cracked corn, 1/3rd whole wheat berries and 1/3rd of their regular feed. I make sure they have grit as well, to aid in digestion. I do that for a 4 week period, leading up to processing day.

This picture is one of my favorites. Same age at 16 weeks, same weight, different breed and different structure. Marans on the left after I spent several seasons on breeding selection for table traits. American Bresse on the right.

Once we got serious on breeding, I've found that I really only keep 10% of what we grow out. That's generally all that makes the cut after we account for as much as we can. It takes me about a year to get down to the best, since I account for rate of lay and egg size as well in the females. I don't want the flock to become "table bred" and lose their laying ability for the sake of size.

4lbs isn't a bad weight at all, depending on the age of the bird. There's more to what makes up the weight as well, such as meat to bone ratios. It's entirely possible to get a large framed bird with thick bones, that implies size, but then there's not much meat at all. Then on the flip side, if a bird has fine bone and a lot of meat, the table results would be dramatically different between that one and the larger boned one.

We've been dual purpose for almost 8 years now, there was a lot of trail and error in getting to where we are now with it. We ended up dropping down to just the American Bresse, so that I could use our pen space for them and breed them up better. Though I did recently add white Chantecler, to give them a try. The first trio are late bloomers and grow structure first, meat later. So I know that first season of chicks will need selected hard for early fleshing, so that I can fix that.

After we've gone through so many types and varieties that were touted as "dual purpose", the neglected traits always seemed to be body width, depth, fleshing and growth rate.