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

[Sandrachx]

My Ideal black broilers ship date 8/29 - 26 arrived and several appeared to have walking problems. They didn't appear to be getting over the problem after 2 weeks and started Sav a chick in the water but I had already lost three and put one down . Some just started gasping and died. Lost another yesterday. The rest except a runt now appear to be doing alright . The runt is hobbling to water and feed, but feet turned and
walks on the side of them. One that we dubbed 'Big Bird" is almost 150% the size of the next largest and six times bigger than runt. Seems like I am losing more than normal but don't know what the problem is.
These were the $.90 Black Broilers from Ideal - has anyone else had problems.

i bought mine from ideal when they had that sale and haven't lost any or had problems. received them august 3rd, so maybe it was the heat (???). mine are in with some freedom rangers and have managed outside foraging and pelleted feed/grain. so sorry about your losses - it's a real bugger when you count on them for sale or for family freezer.

 

[SIMZ]

We processed about 25 of our chickens the other night. We tried to pick chickens that were in the middle of the group on size and most were between 3 1/2 - 4 pounds. Not too bad for 6 weeks. We'll be doing 20 more on Friday.

We also processed our 20 week old White Rock rooster. He was so much longer than the broilers, but only weighed in a little over 4 pounds. Pretty disappointing...... I'm glad I decided to keep the marans rooster for our meat breeder instead.

 

[colburg]

I'm getting my first 25 meaties on September 6. I've raised laying ducks and chickens and meat turkeys, but these are my first meat chickens. Standard Cornish Crosses. When they are old enough, I will be putting them in an 8X12 foot PVC tractor. When are Cornish X feathered out enough to be outside? (I mean outside with shelter from the wind and rain, and moved inside at night to a heated area.) Of course I know this will depend on the outdoor temps, which in autumn in SE Michigan can vary widely. Just need a general idea. Thanks!

We've had our 50 layers and 2 creepy meats outside since day 1. At about 2 weeks some night temps got down in the 50's, but it was no problem. We use an 8' stock water tank with the bottom cut out and move it every 3-4 days. A couple of galvanized pipes welded in to support fending and boards. Completely covered with the plastic poultry netting. I just used 1/4" bolts to "hook" the netting on. Put boards on top if it's windy and at night. 1 red heat lamp until they're 5 weeks old then it gets shut off and they go to the tractor. The 2 meats will stay in the stock tank until butcher time.

Oh yeah, that's a 100# tractor weight to make sure a couple of the boards stay on no matter what the wind does while at work.



The meat birds are a trial and to get acquanted with raising them. I think we might try some rangers or overstocked cockerels in the spring and this is where they'll start.

 

[pichuris]

Well I got my Ideal red broilers a day earlier then expected. Yay!

My 2nd time ordering from there and most likely my last. Ordered 25 received 26, one has a spraled leg. Five of them stand on their tippie toes and lean backwards and fall over if they arent leaning up against the wall to brooder although eating and drinking ok. Three of them have several toes severed off but some toes dried and still hanging on. I dont know if this happened in shipping or at Ideal because their shipping boxes are not good. They are flimsy and the air openings are too big.

However, they all appear happy and healthy. They were very thirsty and took to the fermented starter imediately. I took weight right out of the box but I forgot my notebook at home so Ill update later. Tried to number them with labels lol but it didnt work so I will just do total weights. Of course my chick bands didnt get here till this afternoon. And I needed them this morning.

Ill keep you updated.

 

[EggGardener]

I got Ideal red broilers while they were on sale about four weeks ago. Eight of them are with a broody hen & the rest are in a chicken tractor. The two groups seem pretty comparable in size. Two of my lowest IQ chicks decided they wanted to volunteer at the Raccoon Family Food Bank(aargh), and one died within a day of shipment. We currently have 22.

I was n't sure about buying them b/c of hearing about problems, but I have to say, mine are healthy, active & so different from the cornish. When I had cornish x's, i felt mildly horrified by how difficult it was for the Cornish just to exist...walking, scratching, breathing, etc. My broilers are pretty meaty when you pick them up, but active & healthy. I will post some weights when I butcher. They're on 20% chick starter and grass, sometimes fermented feed.

I'm considering keeping one or two as part of the layer flock, if they seem like good candidates at the time, I read somewhere that they are great layers, although Ideal doesn't reccomend them as dual-purpose.

 

[pichuris]

Update on our 25 red broilers hatched 9/25
Day 1 - very thirsty little buggers drank 1qt
Weights pre- brooder wasnt sure if to do in grams but ended up in ounces
12 @ 1.1
5 @ 1.0
4 @ 1.2
3 @ .9
1 @ 1.3

Day 2
Drank 3/4 qt
I weighed the only 3 chicks that still had their number on them. All 3 started weight was 1.1 and all weighed today at 1.4

Had Fermented 4 cups (dry) feed and they are still working on that. They took to ff immediately.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Our fall broilers are getting big. We have a light on a timer to extend their eating time and boy do they eat. This is our first time raising our own. So far, only two losses-one DH stepped on as he was trying to finish up a part of their pen (he felt so bad) and then one that broke its leg somehow (not a clue how that happened since there isn't anything for them to get hurt on and their pens are locked up from our kids).

Yesterday, it was barn cleaning day and I put some fresh bedding down in an empty pen then moved them in so I could clean up the pen they had been in

. What I thought was interesting is how different their weight seem to be. Some are quite heavy and others not bad, maybe 4 pounds, but definitely smaller and lighter than others. It sounds like that is normal though. Is it that they are hens or maybe that they are lower in rank and don't eat as much?

 

[SIMZ]

HEY Pearce Pastures...........LOL I started to respond when Wanatah caught my eye! Funny!

I'm not sure why there is a difference. It seems we always have a few that end up much smaller and the rank difference seems like a good explanation.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Hi!! Yeah, I think it might be that-I was watching them for awhile tonight and it does seem that the small ones eat last. I might put another trough in for them just to see if it helps, or I could just use another pen for them since we have three available.

Got our butcher station all ready. We have our entire old kitchen from when we remodeled set up out in the poultry barn. Tried it out tonight on a barred rock rooster that needed to go and it went great (minus my scalding water not being quite hot enough but we will make sure that it is next time).

 

[SIMZ]

Got our butcher station all ready. We have our entire old kitchen from when we remodeled set up out in the poultry barn. Tried it out tonight on a barred rock rooster that needed to go and it went great (minus my scalding water not being quite hot enough but we will make sure that it is next time).

That sounds like a great set-up! What a great idea!!