Is anyone else raising fall broilers? Our chicks came today: 8/18

[Hideaway Farm]

We are raising Cornish Giants. I sorta forgot to order them earlier in the summer and couldn't face a year without chicken in the freezer so I got two batches of 25 birds in September, staggered by two weeks (my brooder won't fit all of them at once). I'm also not using a tractor this year, instead they have a run and so far they are behaving much more like "real" chickens than the tractored ones. I will post a thread on my method.

 

[pichuris]

For those interested in FF. See the link below for my setup.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds/1500#post_9727751

Hope everyone is having a beautiful chicken day!

 

[all4him13309]

Hi Gary,

All six of your hens are excellent layers. I would save them and get roos or cornish cross to eat. I have 15 laying now but my only RIR has not stopped laying from her first egg. The Golden Comets are supposed to be the very best layers of large brown eggs-mine have yet to mature they are about 7 wks old. I am puting them in the coop next week. 9 cornish cross hens are there now and are doing fine without a heat lamp. I won't butcher them for another 4 weeks maybe as they are only around 2-3 lbs each. Hens don't get as big as roos but give a nice eating bird. Hope this helps you out.

 

[greenhorn]

Found out there are Red Broilers and Black Broilers. They're crosses of Jumbo Cornish and RIR (Red ones) and Jumbo Cornish and Austrolorp (Black ones). They grow a little slower, can be good layers, and have fewer heart and leg issues. Looked online and found them on the Ideal Hatchery web site at
https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/selectproduct.aspx?qty=1&ID=RDBSP&Product=1597
and
https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/selectproduct.aspx?qty=1&ID=BLKB&Product=1604

They're on special now between $0.90-$1 ea if you buy 25, but you better get them while you can. Hope this helps and take care.

The black broilers might be a better choice for cooler months. It would be kind of cruel to keep them during the hot months, then again that kind of goes for all broilers...

Have my interest though, might try them after we are done with the 25 cornish cross birds we just got in on Tuesday.

 

[greenhorn]

Found out there are Red Broilers and Black Broilers. They're crosses of Jumbo Cornish and RIR (Red ones) and Jumbo Cornish and Austrolorp (Black ones). They grow a little slower, can be good layers, and have fewer heart and leg issues. Looked online and found them on the Ideal Hatchery web site at
https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/selectproduct.aspx?qty=1&ID=RDBSP&Product=1597
and
https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/selectproduct.aspx?qty=1&ID=BLKB&Product=1604

They're on special now between $0.90-$1 ea if you buy 25, but you better get them while you can. Hope this helps and take care.

Thanks for the links.

The black broilers might be a better choice for cooler months. It would be kind of cruel to keep them during the hot months, then again that kind of goes for all broilers...

Have my interest though, might try them after we are done with the 25 cornish cross birds we just got on Tuesday.

 

[SmokinChick]

Sorry, been busy.
I have 35 5 week olds in a tractor getting dragged thru the backyard. All doing well. Using a 19% broiler mash from a local mill $16 for 50 lbs. Was given 28, 1 week olds last Saturday. They are in the garage brooder doing well also. Hopefully I can remove the older ones and replace them with the younger ones the same day. Only have one tractor!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

We have a batch going into the freezer next weekend. Nervous and excited too. I have done a few roosters before but this will be first time we have raised a batch to butcher. I have our butcher room all set up (we reused our old kitchen, set it up inside our poultry barn on the other side of the dividing wall of the pens.






Question for you more experienced folks. When I did the roosters, they were older and we learned that we needed to let the meat settle for a few days in the fridge to soften up before either freezing or cooking. Given these are so young, do we need to do that or can they go straight to the freezer?

 

[Celie]

Hi Gary,

All six of your hens are excellent layers. I would save them and get roos or cornish cross to eat. I have 15 laying now but my only RIR has not stopped laying from her first egg. The Golden Comets are supposed to be the very best layers of large brown eggs-mine have yet to mature they are about 7 wks old. I am puting them in the coop next week. 9 cornish cross hens are there now and are doing fine without a heat lamp. I won't butcher them for another 4 weeks maybe as they are only around 2-3 lbs each. Hens don't get as big as roos but give a nice eating bird. Hope this helps you out.

Cornish Cross Hens will get as big as the roosters, but take a little longer to get there, so if you have enough room, you can butcher the roos first and the hens a couple weeks later. I have 3 hens and 1 roo about a year old and plan to AI as soon as they finish their molt and start laying again. They started laying at about 8 months, are not prolific layers, but I think it will be interesting to see the results. I have 50 White CornishXrock coming next week. I don't know if Meyers will send all Female, all Male or straight run. They were on special for 83 cents each on lots of 25.

 

[CluckyCharms]

Other than the intended purpose of the chicken according to the buyer, is there any difference between chicks used for backyard pets/egg-layers and chicks used for meat birds?

All of our incubating eggs and chicks we have now are for the specific purpose of pets and/or egg-layers. I'm just curious if the chickens we've been buying and the hatching eggs we've been buying are used by other people for their dinner...or if there are only specific breeds that are used for the purpose of eating?

 

[SIMZ]

Other than the intended purpose of the chicken according to the buyer, is there any difference between chicks used for backyard pets/egg-layers and chicks used for meat birds?

All of our incubating eggs and chicks we have now are for the specific purpose of pets and/or egg-layers. I'm just curious if the chickens we've been buying and the hatching eggs we've been buying are used by other people for their dinner...or if there are only specific breeds that are used for the purpose of eating?

Just about any chicken can be used as a meat bird, but some are much more suited to that purpose. There is a good chance that other people are using those same chickens/eggs for their dinner somewhere - especially the roosters.