- Jul 27, 2011
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I decided I would try a little meat bird project. I picked up 4 cornish X from TSC when they finally got chicks in on the 28th. They were $1.99 a piece plus a bag of pine shavings and a 50 lb bag of Dumor 20% Starter/ Grower came to: $31.50 My plan is to slaughter them when they finish that 50 lb bag of feed. If that works out I will have $7.77 into each bird...next time I will use the surplus of leaves I have and not buy pine shavings and that will put the cost to $6.40 per bird.
According to the manager at TSC they will continue to recieve chicks each week for nine weeks then stop for the hottest parts of the summer and will resume with nine more weeks of chicks at the end of the summer. I worked out a schedule on paper that will allow me to buy three batches of 4 chicks on a rotational basis within that nine weeks which will allow me to put 12 birds in the freezer.
All is well so far and today they are 10 days old, almost a quarter of the way to slaughter. I weighed them on the 7th at one week old and they weighed 7 oz each. I have been taking them outside everyday for some exercise for 30 minutes to an hour, they don't move much at all so I seperate each one to all four corners of my small backyard and let them walk to one another...it takes them a little while and I do this twice otherwise they would just stand there or lie there in a huddle. I have tried feeding them treats, small pieces of bread and today I put a banana in their brooder...they will have none of it and eat only the commercial food. They do peck at the grass when I have them outside a little. At the beginning of the second week they have really turned up the eating and pooping. They are consuming at entire quart mason jar of food in 12 hours and are pooping twice as much as last week. I have not been limiting any food, I think I will let them fully feather, move them in my grow out pen at night and then begin to take up food for the night. They are some pretty nasty birds, quite a culture shock from my layers. They don't poop, they squirt. You gotta really keep fresh shavings down to keep them clean and from laying in their poop . First picture is first
week and last picture is second week. their .
According to the manager at TSC they will continue to recieve chicks each week for nine weeks then stop for the hottest parts of the summer and will resume with nine more weeks of chicks at the end of the summer. I worked out a schedule on paper that will allow me to buy three batches of 4 chicks on a rotational basis within that nine weeks which will allow me to put 12 birds in the freezer.
All is well so far and today they are 10 days old, almost a quarter of the way to slaughter. I weighed them on the 7th at one week old and they weighed 7 oz each. I have been taking them outside everyday for some exercise for 30 minutes to an hour, they don't move much at all so I seperate each one to all four corners of my small backyard and let them walk to one another...it takes them a little while and I do this twice otherwise they would just stand there or lie there in a huddle. I have tried feeding them treats, small pieces of bread and today I put a banana in their brooder...they will have none of it and eat only the commercial food. They do peck at the grass when I have them outside a little. At the beginning of the second week they have really turned up the eating and pooping. They are consuming at entire quart mason jar of food in 12 hours and are pooping twice as much as last week. I have not been limiting any food, I think I will let them fully feather, move them in my grow out pen at night and then begin to take up food for the night. They are some pretty nasty birds, quite a culture shock from my layers. They don't poop, they squirt. You gotta really keep fresh shavings down to keep them clean and from laying in their poop . First picture is first
week and last picture is second week. their .
