meat birds

[Carson213]

friends, i’ve got my first round of meat birds coming. i’ve grown up doing this but it’s the first time i am in the driver’s seat. i have 60 white bresse, 15 blue and 15 black. i have brooder set up with a heater for 90 birds that hangs from the ceiling in a room that’s roughly 8x13. then they will go in a coop about 18x30. i am going to harvest them at 4.5 months with the milk/corn protocol at two weeks prior.

questions for you peeps that harvest a lot of birds:

1. should i divide up the chicks in the brooder house?
2. if i buy feed in bulk, what’s your guesstimate on 4.5 months of feed? i have an auger...it would be cheaper to buy in bulk.

any other advice? i already have twelve kill cones, 2 scalders and 2 pluckers. i ordered heat shrink bags and extra knives. we have tables.

anything i’m missing?

 

[3KillerBs]

like said above...you wouldn’t caponize birds that you harvest in 8 weeks...only dual purpose birds that you raise until the girls start to lay. supposed to be better. i don’t know...but i am a dentist and do a lot of minutia type surgery...so it looks easy and figured i’d caponize half the cockerels and do a side by side taste test. if it doesn’t taste different, why bother?

It would be great if you'd document the experiment and write up an article when it's finished.

 

[Carson213]

like said above...you wouldn’t caponize birds that you harvest in 8 weeks...only dual purpose birds that you raise until the girls start to lay. supposed to be better. i don’t know...but i am a dentist and do a lot of minutia type surgery...so it looks easy and figured i’d caponize half the cockerels and do a side by side taste test. if it doesn’t taste different, why bother?

 

[Carson213]

Hope you have a few friends to help with all this. Me plus 1 friend only use one cone. My helper will grab a bird, behead it and rinse while I eviscerate and pluck. I find you don't want them sitting in the cone longer than necessary for draining or they'll stiffen up and get harder to work with. We can do about 6 per hour. You could probably do better with more experience and may do fewer until you get into the groove.

For scalding I have a 60 gallon tank I use for getting a lot of water up to 150-160 and draw that off into a 5-6 gallon stainless pot for dunking, changing the water after every 3-4 birds. I'd recommend more burners if you're only doing a small pot of water at once. The water gets disgusting fast and I like frequent changes.

I would avoid getting 4-5 months of feed at once unless you are very confident in your storage. A bit of mold and your feed is ruined (and your birds' health can be ruined as well) and it may attract rats or other vermin which can chew through/into a lot. I buy 1000-2000 pounds at a go and split it up with a neighbor.

i have a big family...2 catchers, 1 killer, 2 scalders, 2 pluckers, 3 eviscerators, 3 packers.

 

[RoosterML]

So we have two dentist on this site that I know of. Is it time to open a BYC client only practice? I could just see the slogan in the window. No chickens no service. @muddy75
Payment by bags of feed accepted would that be a redneck form of EBT??

 

[Carson213]

I'm guessing a bit over a ton of feed, just a guess

i contacted a local hatchery. i’ll need 1800 lbs of feed. i also got the instruments to caponize the cockerels. i bought hog feeders like i use for my laying hens. hog feeders hold 200 lbs and cost half the price of chicken feeders that hold the same amount.

if you want to leave your chickens, back roll outs, hog feeders, 50 gallon waterer, and auto door..

 

[3KillerBs]

Hello, random person who has never done meat birds before, you're planning on caponizing them? :0 does that effect the meat? I don't think I've heard of doing that for meat birds before, I'm curious!! : D

Caponizing is what people did in order to get meaty, tender roasting birds before the Cornish X was developed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hello, random person who has never done meat birds before, you're planning on caponizing them? :0 does that effect the meat? I don't think I've heard of doing that for meat birds before, I'm curious!! : D

The idea of caponizing is to remove the male reproductive organs before puberty so the hormones don't affect the meat. It's a standard process with many meat animal males. You have to do it before puberty hits.

With Cornish X meat birds there is no need if you butcher them at 6 to 8 weeks. That is before puberty hits.

Whether there is any benefit with Rangers is questionable. It depends on when you butcher them and if they have hit puberty by then or not. I don't do Rangers so I won't offer an opinion.

Many of us raise dual purpose birds and don't butcher until well after puberty has hit. The hormones affect the flavor. Some of us like that extra flavor, some don't and consider it a gamey flavor. The hormones also affect texture which can affect how you can cook it. The hormones also affect behavior, an intact male is much more likely to fight and bother the girls. Caponizing keeps the meat tender, the flavor mild, and prevents the vast majority of fighting between the boys and mating with the girls. You can still have some pecking order issues just like with a flock of all hens but behavioral problems are much less likely.

The OP is raising Bresse, a trending breed with a trending protocol on how to raise them. It's supposed to make the meat special. I'm not familiar with that protocol but would not be surprised if caponizing the males is part of it. From the OP's post I think they are trying to follow that Bresse protocol.

 

[Kirkwooder]

If you can find bulk feed it certainly should be cheaper. Bagged feed bough in pallet quantities, which would be roughly a ton, should be cheaper as well.

I find that I have better luck with pelletized feed rather than the fine ground stuff. They waste the grind by spreading it around the ground around the feeders, whereas the pellets that get scattered around, tend to get picked up by a passing bird.

 

[Carson213]

will do

i plan on not having a single bird die. the surgery is simple. the question is how long it takes. i plan to do it with my actual surgical assistant.