Miss Prissy, when can I put these stinky meat birds outside?

[MissPrissy]

Are you restricting their feed so the growth rate isn't as intense?

I raised 27 jumbo cornish cross last fall and did not have any with leg problems and they grew out to 12 weeks and some were 13 lbs each.

I had no casualties or sickness. Every bird shipped to me made it in perfect health through the fall.

 

[LoneCowboy]

I'm restricting mine, that's what lead to the morning feeding frenzy.

LilRalphieRoosmama you should take it away at 7pm and give it back to them at 7am. They will probably do better

I think I'm going to fill a trough with food to slip in while I put their other feeders in place in the morning. Maybe that will calm down the crazyness and I'll be able to get the feeders in place without chickens jumping out of the brooder in the process.

That's the only drawback to the commercial brooders I've seen so far. I don't like the wire floor, but it's easy to clean each day, they aren't wasting food, but the feeders are hard to get in place each day.

 

[MissPrissy]

Trough feeders do work better. I kept my feed in long pans so they all could belly up to the trough.

 

[jaku]

Wow, am I glad I read this thread. I'm sick of mine stinking up my garage. I'm going to start lowering the temp. in the morning!

 

[newdock]

After about 2 weeks, I put the meat birds out in a tractor during the day when it's warmer and then back into the garage at night with a heat lamp when it's cooler. Mind you, last year I only had 6 and this year I'm only getting 12 so it's easy to move them around (5 kids plus me, 2 hands each!)

That helps with the stink

 

[ZykloniaDark-GothikRanchr]

mine have filled up their coop with poo TWICE!!! I give mine the broiler booster, and none have leg issues. They are 7 weeks old, and pretty heavy. I have been letting them free range for the last 2 days, and now everytime I come out to the yard, I have a stampede of broilers and goats wanting to be fed!!!!! imagine 22 chickens and 14 goats standing around you wanting to be fed, but not letting you move!!

 

[UncleHoot]

Restricting feed...

I have a couple friends that also raise broilers (up to 200 at a time), and neither of them restrict feed. I never have either. I heard a story about someone who let the feed run out at night, and then when they gave them feed that next morning, several of the chickens suffocated in the feeding frenzy.

They both use a 20% protein mix from start to finish (mostly corn and soybean), so that's what I've been using. So far, none of us have had chickens with leg problems.

 

[MissPrissy]

The jumbos really do need a feed restriction. If given unlimited feed all the time they will eat themselves to death. I have seen a few broilers in the past packed so tight with feed the crop was stretched and nothing else could go in. Sips of water would come back out of the beak. They died within the next 2 days.

I have never expeienced leg problems nor seen them so I can't recommend feed restrictions on that acct.

I raised the Jumbo Cornish. 27 birds eating 25 lbs of feed a day under restriction. If given as much feed as they could freely eat I know they would have eaten a whole 50lb bag of feed. Not only does that create leg problems as they grow even faster but it adds huge costs to the effort of growing out your own meat.

Right now feed is going for $11.78/50lbs where I am. I do not intend to feed out chickens this fall and have them eating nearly $100 of feed per week in the end.

Now I am not one of those people that raises my own meat looking to get by cheaper but it makes no sense to put that kind of money in a bird. If I want to eat highon the high I'll raise me a few more piglets or a bigger flock of geese. Putting that kind of money in chicken meat isn't worth it to me.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Wow! That's a lot of feed. I'm raising 50, I could be in the poor house really fast. I'm not raising the Jumbos though. And my feed here is more expensive than yours. I think it's $14 something.

This could get really ugly really fast here. Of course, our piggy's have been a nightmare too. Sold to us too young and they got sick twice. Med bills aren't cheap either.

 

[MRNpoultry]

Quote:
Where did you order from?