Meat Chix from S&G

[farmboy238]

I am currently working 100 Johnny Grays, 50 Red Ranger and 50 Dixie Rainbows from S&G, this is the first time I've used them. I've tried to contact them about some concerns that I've had and only got blown off with one fluff e-mail back from them. I've written and even sent them pictures to no avail. Has anyone raising their birds had problems with size consistency? I have a BIG difference in bird size and weights within the three breeds. I have several birds that are still in "fluff" at 5-6 weeks! My other problem was death loss. I feel that it was too high, for the first 4-6 days I was losing 4/5 birds a day. That adds up quick when you are raising them for market. My margins are tight enough as it is! The death loss seems to be related to those small, "bad-doing" birds most of which died. Has anyone raising larger numbers of these birds had the same problem? To be fair though I really like the Grays (Kosher Kings ?)and will probably reorder them on the next batch, unless I can find better customer service.

 

[OSUman]

are the johnny grays size like to the barred rocks

 

[Brunty_Farms]

The problem with these are they aren't an established breed yet. There is a lot of inbred birds so to speak. Which makes them die for no reason and explains the inconsistancy in sizes.

Your best bet is to do you best with what you have. No meat breed is as consistent as the cornish x rocks... reason being is they have been bred for over 70 years now. The colored broilers or Kosher Kings in your case havn't been around but just a few years. After more research and test eventually the kinks will be worked out of these breeds. Until then you have to accept the fact or in your case if your tight on capitol and need a uniform weight I would switch to some x rock broilers.

Good luck...

 

[zephyrcreek]

I just received my second batch of Dixie Rainbows today. I have been very pleased with my results. I did have a size difference that concerned me at the 3-5 week mark, until I realized that it was a management issue on my part. I feed my birds 2x a day, just enought to eat and then they are on pasture. As soon as I added extra fee troughs the size difference quickly closed. It seems that some of the more aggresive birds were hogging the feed. My fault. There is still a size difference, but nothing like before.

I have been very happy with the birds and the customer service I have received. One thing to keep in mind is that they is a smaller family owned business vs the large hatcheries that most of us deal with. My guess is that there business has quadrupled since their mention in the "alternative" article earlier this year. Probably some growing pains.

Keep us infomed on your progress!

 

[farmboy238]

Thanks for your replies.
Zephyr, I wish it were management issues but I keep feed in front of them 24/7 and all the birds have full crops. Quantity/quality of feed isn't the issue, all the birds are getting good nutrition. A percentage of the birds just weren't (thrifty) and most of those died early on. I have weight ranges from less than a pound to 4+pounds at 5/6 weeks. This concerns me. Also the high death loss is an issue; 10-15% is too high. Brooder management isn't really the issue, I've been raising chickens since the 80's so I am not a rookie at brooding chicks. If the problems are attributable to my management then I have NO problem admitting that and improving it but I am not doing anything different than I've done for the last 30 years. I intend to market meat birds for many years to come and I want/need to work with a company that works with me, S & G hasn't done that ..... at all, growing pains or not. I just wanted to see if any other MARKET growers that use S&G were having the same issues.
Brunty, The genetics for these birds isn't new; they've been around Europe for a while now and grown under market conditions; at least that's the marketing schtic that they are using, "Label Rouge". It isn't cash flow that I am concerned about , it's margins. I've payed for 10-15% of my product that I will never see a return on.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Brunty, The genetics for these birds isn't new; they've been around Europe for a while now and grown under market conditions; at least that's the marketing schtic that they are using, "Label Rouge". It isn't cash flow that I am concerned about , it's margins. I've payed for 10-15% of my product that I will never see a return on

Yeah but white broilers have been around 70 odd years... the ones from France have proven their capability in the meat market only the last 10 or so. They may have been around but they weren't good meat birds. The stock here in the states has been "tainted" to say the least. It's hard to get fresh stock in from Fance so a lot of small hatcheries like the one your dealing with can not pay to have new stock brought in. It's way too expensive so you get a lot of inbreeding...

I'm not saying this is the case but it wouldn't be unrealistic to believe. With poor managment or if your "run too thin" with new buisness... the birds will not produce if they are neglected. When I say neglected I mean by just hatching out new stock from your same breeders year after year....

But they may however just buy the eggs from somwhere else which is a possibility too. If this is the case they have no control over breeding stock which would explain why they were short with you over the phone... because they have no clue what's wrong.​

 

[zephyrcreek]

I'm kind of bummed for you since I've had such a good response with them. I only lost 5 chicks out of 100, and 4 of those were on the same day during an unexpected heat spike when they were only a few days old. My fault. I will say that I did find more consistency in size with my J&M colored range birds. Out of 100 I have one super size roo, one tiny hen. All the others are either hen size or roo size.