I ordered 200 chicks- It's Promiselandfarm & Perfectly_polish's fault

[Quail_Antwerp]

Ok so I read this thread, followed the link to MtHealthy...almost fainted at the bargain deal...thank god my mom was here to prevent me from ordering 200 chicks!!

First my husband would have

then he would have packed my bags!!

Or made fixed me a bunk in the hen house!

LOLOL

 

[moodusnewchick]

is this a common end of the season sale to start seeing from hatcheries? does mthealthy have this bargain all the time w/ a variance on what birds you get?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Ok here is what I'm thinking:

The birds should hit my house 9/9/08.
Me and Drum will already have the brooders set up capable of handling 250 chicks
for at least 2 weeks.
We will start them on HIGH PROTEIN chick starter or broiler and then switch them
all over to pure broiler.

If anyone wants to try to integrate a comet with layers or attempt to caponize that
is great. All of the ones I keep will be force fed until ready to explode.

We should plan a tractor party. I'm toying around with some PVC tractors. They
will be cheap, light, and able to disassemble for storage.

By that time the Colored Range Broilers (Red Bros) will be ready to begin culling.
I plan to cull a few of mine each week until the end of October.

Now, another biggie: My house is for sale so I need to compact these chickens
into the smallest space possible. Of course it will be humane. My 12x24 barn
will be have nothing in it but chickens. I'm gonna have fun with integration. I'm
gonna cut the laying flock down to 8 birds and my silkie/spitz flock needs to just
go. This is our last hurrah before becoming chickenless.

If someone comes along and makes an offer on my house things will get really
interesting.

We have 33 quail in addition to all this.


I know people think I'm crazy but this is exciting and my kid is going nuts over it.
This will be something we will never forget and I intend on making it fun.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Most people raise meat birds in the spring and cull in the fall. The Comet deal they
have is probably something they are doing to eliminate loss or maybe they lost a
contract with a snake farm or something.

 

[SandraMort]

Please explain.. the birds are cheap but does the fcr make them affordable?

 

[moodusnewchick]

I would like my ration

as soon as I can get out to your place. i wonder if we could rough draft a pvc tractor for me. I was just trying to think out a cheaper/lighter version of the playhouse coop i have for the layers. do chickens sleep in tractors or do they get moved to a more stable/predator proof coop at night? i might not need a tractor. my run is pretty big. what i need is safe sleeping space.

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
I found a couple PVC tractors, I'm sure you can adjust the size and what not:

http://www.queenacresonline.com/chickentractor.html
http://farmchronicles.wordpress.com/2006/09/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=73635
http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/2007/08/talkn-bout-my-chicken-tractor-part-2.html

The last one is my favorite

 

[perfectly_polish]

Look:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=907976#p907976

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Since meat birds are bred for a good feed to meat ratio the Comets will
most likely cost more so it isn't really a great deal. From my experience
raising other standard cockerals I'm hoping for plump little 3 to 4 pound
soup birds by 10 weeks. We'll see what feeding them a high protein feed
will do.

The real reasons for this project is the fun of it all. How many of us will
get 250 chickens in the mail. I feel like a kid. I'm also looking forward to
comparing their growth with the Cornish that are coming with them.
It's a hobby, experiment, and source of food all wrapped up into one project.

We've hatched a lot of Leghorns and culled from 10 to 16 weeks. They
were small but still made great soup. My turkey fryer will get a workout too.

 

[tattooedchickenlady]

You people are BAD!!!! Bad I tell ya!
As Dh and I were coming home from dinner tonight I casually mentioned that y'all were trying to get me to order the 200 bird special. ( I know, I had to drag y'all into it! Don't be mad!) So he called his parents and grandparents and asked if they would make/have room for 20 or so birds in the freezer. They all said yes, and we have a few friends who will make room too. So needless to say, we will be ordering tomorrow!
We will build a whole new run for these guys in the next couple of weeks and after they are gone, we'll use it for breeding and expanding. We'll keep careful track of what our expenses are, so they we really know if this endeavor makes us come out ahead.

Oh and on top of that I had already ordered 3 golden campines, 3 golden laced wyandotts, 2 RIR, and 2 EE that will be coming in next week. And on MPC they have Welsummers again, so I ordered 10 of those, and 4 Dominiques. So I will be overrun with fuzzy butts really, really soon!
And my current flock is 1 BO, ! BR, and a RIR Roo, 9 White leghorns, and 5 Bllackstars!