Meattie order from Central Hatchery ... great price

[Swampfarmer]

I suppose I can shed some light on this since I've spent over $9 a bird on the two batches I've raised.    Amazingly, in one of those batches the chicks were only $.99 each. 


I lose it in shavings every time.  I had to add $2 per chicken the last time in shavings alone.  So, right off I had $4 in shavings, chick price, and $1 per bird to butcher.  Even this time, I have a great plan going, but that pen STINKS, so I'm going to have to add more shavings. 

I'm desperately hoping to only spend $4.75-$5 to raise each one to 3.5-5 lb. dressed weight.  We'll see...........

How many do you raise at one time and how much do you spend on shavings?

Ralph

 

[SIMZ]

My first batch I only raised 7 and didn't understand that I didn't have to keep their area sterile. I'm not sure how much I spent on those, but I'm sure it was alot.

The next batch was 20 birds. I spent $40 on shavings - so 8 bags. .

Now I'm raising 53 birds. I've spent $40 in shavings this time, too. I put six bags in their 9X8 pen to start and just added two more bags yesterday. Hopefully it will help that they're now outside during the day. I'm hoping to start processing them in two weeks.


Any advice?

 

[Beekissed]

I can think of one piece of advice. If you are processing in two weeks I'm assuming you have some 6 wk old birds? Fifty-three CX in 9x8 ft. of space is way too many birds for the space unless they have another area in which to roam and get out of this tiny space. I can see why you are having a smell problem.

Now that they are out of that space you may see some improvement.

I've got 53 CX at 2 wk. of age in a similar space of 8x10 but they have a 41x41 electric paddock fence in which to get out of their coop and they are taking advantage of that. I don't intend to add any more shavings than the one bag I've already used. My coop is movable and will be moved to another spot as soon as they have worked this paddock well. That means fresh coop floor, fresh grass on which to poop outdoors. If I use any bedding in the next location, it will be strictly mulch hay that will later be placed on the garden.

I'm also going to be mounting low roosting situations and attempting to train them to use these instead of bedding down on the floor...I'll let you know if it works. If it does, it will sure eliminate birds lying in poopy floors each night.

Maybe the next time you could also try to change the nature of their poop to create a healthier output that smells less offensive.

 

[SIMZ]

They're only 3 1/2 weeks. We're going to start processing them between 5-6 weeks when some are hopefully around 3.5-4 lbs. That will help bring down the number until we have 4 left to grow to 7-8 pounds for roasters.

They still have enough room in the pen NOW, but I'll probably make it a bit bigger as they grow. They do have a large area outside as well that they're finally spending the day in (as long as the weather cooperates). The pen will now just be used at night.

Our plan was to do tractors this time to eliminate the shavings expense, but we didn't get that far since my husband is already working on a coop addition. LOL Maybe this fall. That would certainly help with the shavings cost! Your plan sounds great! Thank you for sharing what you're doing!

 

[Beekissed]

Wow...then you ARE using a lot of shavings in a short amount of time! How deep are they by now? Yours aren't much older than mine but are probably larger as I'm using the slow growing methods. I remember that smell, though, so I can sympathize...that's one of the reasons I wanted to change the nature of their poop. I think that smell and mess really turns people off from having these little monsters, so if one could take that out of the picture more folks may want to try it.

Swamp found a broiler feed that had probiotics added and I noticed in his pics that their poop looked pretty normal and he said it smelled less bad.

 

[SIMZ]

I've tried it with changing shavings and adding and was using a ton, so the deep method seemed like a good idea. I started with about 6 inches of shavings and am probably just a little over that now since they've compressed.

I should also mention that they just trashed the section of grass they've been on the last two days. It seemed like a pretty big section. 50 is a big jump from 20, isn't it? Looks like things need to be adjusted a bit!

 

[Swampfarmer]

Do you have access to round hay bales? That is what I use for the coop litter. I pay $55.00 for a 4x5 foot roll. Sounds like that may be cheaper than buying shavings.

Ralph

 

[Beekissed]

I paid $12 for 12 square bales of old barn kept hay and have only used part of a bale. Used the rest to form my brooder walls and they will later be used for mulching the garden. One bale of shavings at $5 and that is all she wrote....no more bedding for these chickens. I've only fluffed it once and then threw down some BOSS for the chicks to do it for me.

 

[SIMZ]

Hi all! How are your chicks doing? Mine are 4 weeks and doing great! They're back in a cute stage where they're all feathered out and doing their sumo wrestler dances. We're going to start processing a few next week. Time seemed to go so fast with these........which is definitely a good thing!

The smell has gone down when I expanded the pen to about 10X10 and added some more shavings. I won't add anymore at this point. They're also right on scheduled with what I budgeted for feed, so I should be keeping my cost around $5 a chicken, especially if we can process some at 3.5 lbs next week.

 

[Beekissed]

Mine are doing great, turned 3 wk. old today and are foraging like crazy. I've lost 4 chicks to accidental deaths, which is unusual for me...I've only ever really lost one chick in all these years to such a thing. Just weird circumstances all falling into line....hated that. Biggest chicks I had too...isn't that always the way? The birds you lose to such things are usually your better specimens.

The fermented feed is still being consumed well though I've found they do not like wheat...my layers preferred the wheat over all the other grains but these chicks will leave it to the last and will only clean it up if I deprive them of further feedings until they do.

I'll try to take some pics today while I'm out working on my plucker upgrades.