- Mar 22, 2013
- 6
- 0
- 7
First time raising meats. We decided on 25 CX females, received 26. We ordered second week of Feb thinking our normal Mar weather would allow the birds outside on grass in a tractor. We had snow and cold in Mar this year which isn't really normal so they never made it to grass. Lesson learned. Order in Mar next year. So these were pen raised.
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The birds will be butchered next Wed at 9 weeks. These girls really grew well even through the bitter cold. Live weight we are averaging 8#'s. I will weigh again and figure out a dress percentage. We fed 20% protein of Flock Raiser all the way through. The first 2-3 weeks the birds were fed 24/7. Then they went to 12 on 12 off. The last 2 weeks we decided 4 on 4 off then let them finish what was left in the feeders which were only half filled compared to full feeders feeding 12/12. Thought they were getting to big.
We have one bird that started to splay but not bad. All of them are very active when its feeding time of course. We did feed vitamins in the water but pulled the vitamins last week in case friends of ours who are getting some birds dont like the idea of vitamins. Not that it matters really.
Our next batch will be here end of May. This time we ordered 15 Red Rangers and 15 CX. Summer might be tough but our county fair is end of July so the kids will have some meat pens to show. Im betting the Red Rangers will do better just from reading about them. Time will tell. Excited to have some fresh chicken.....Thought Id share my story...
Cheers.....
The birds will be butchered next Wed at 9 weeks. These girls really grew well even through the bitter cold. Live weight we are averaging 8#'s. I will weigh again and figure out a dress percentage. We fed 20% protein of Flock Raiser all the way through. The first 2-3 weeks the birds were fed 24/7. Then they went to 12 on 12 off. The last 2 weeks we decided 4 on 4 off then let them finish what was left in the feeders which were only half filled compared to full feeders feeding 12/12. Thought they were getting to big.
We have one bird that started to splay but not bad. All of them are very active when its feeding time of course. We did feed vitamins in the water but pulled the vitamins last week in case friends of ours who are getting some birds dont like the idea of vitamins. Not that it matters really.
Our next batch will be here end of May. This time we ordered 15 Red Rangers and 15 CX. Summer might be tough but our county fair is end of July so the kids will have some meat pens to show. Im betting the Red Rangers will do better just from reading about them. Time will tell. Excited to have some fresh chicken.....Thought Id share my story...
Cheers.....
