We got 5 CX and 5 Black Broilers at the end of June, which we just processed the other day (all except one of the broiler roos I kept to see if I could use him over my DP hens to make some meatie chicks).
I wanted more than 9 birds in the freezer because I would sincerely like to not ever have to buy chicken (if that is what you want to call it - water logged chicken maybe?) in the store again and our family eats at least 1 chicken a week.
Sooo, I went ahead and just placed another order for 15 more CX! I didn't really want to raise more chicks this year, but felt I needed to.
We didn't process the last batch until they were 10 1/2 weeks old and I am guestamating the CX were in the range of 7-9 pounds each, and were healthy, no leg problems, etc. I like that large of a chicken, but I don't want to go that long with this batch because it will be starting into pretty cold weather come November, so I am hoping they will be big enough by 8ish weeks.
In the spring I plan to do another 25-30 in two separate batches - the reason for the smaller batches is I want to be able to process all the birds in one day and our last 9 took us 3 1/2 ours to do - but those black broilers were harder to to pluck clean than the CX were, so hopefully we can do 15 CX in the same amount of time (hey, I can dream, right?
)
Anyone else raise chicks in colder weather? We are down to the mid-40's at night now and I use a Brinsea EcoGlow for heat. I will probably start the chicks in the house for the first 2 weeks then move them out to the coop (we have a little brooder/grow-out pen in there). I don't know if they EcoGlow will provide enough warmth, they say it is best above 50 degrees if I remember correctly.
If I have to I can put them under a red-heat lamp as well as having the EcoGlow.
I half think I am nuts for raising chicks this late in the year, but 9 chickens are not enough to get us through until the first spring batch will be ready.
I wanted more than 9 birds in the freezer because I would sincerely like to not ever have to buy chicken (if that is what you want to call it - water logged chicken maybe?) in the store again and our family eats at least 1 chicken a week.
Sooo, I went ahead and just placed another order for 15 more CX! I didn't really want to raise more chicks this year, but felt I needed to.
We didn't process the last batch until they were 10 1/2 weeks old and I am guestamating the CX were in the range of 7-9 pounds each, and were healthy, no leg problems, etc. I like that large of a chicken, but I don't want to go that long with this batch because it will be starting into pretty cold weather come November, so I am hoping they will be big enough by 8ish weeks.
In the spring I plan to do another 25-30 in two separate batches - the reason for the smaller batches is I want to be able to process all the birds in one day and our last 9 took us 3 1/2 ours to do - but those black broilers were harder to to pluck clean than the CX were, so hopefully we can do 15 CX in the same amount of time (hey, I can dream, right?
Anyone else raise chicks in colder weather? We are down to the mid-40's at night now and I use a Brinsea EcoGlow for heat. I will probably start the chicks in the house for the first 2 weeks then move them out to the coop (we have a little brooder/grow-out pen in there). I don't know if they EcoGlow will provide enough warmth, they say it is best above 50 degrees if I remember correctly.
If I have to I can put them under a red-heat lamp as well as having the EcoGlow.
I half think I am nuts for raising chicks this late in the year, but 9 chickens are not enough to get us through until the first spring batch will be ready.
