My Spring 2013 Meat Bird Journal

[Anna-MN]

I cleaned out the brooder yesterday and brought in the second one. From the one large brooder, I hauled out a 30 gallon garbage can full of shavings and poo. It was quite the project! But they are separated and much happier now. Each brooder has one lamp and I have a space heater in there to keep the over all temp up. I walked in a couple mornings ago and they were panting at 78 degrees in their brooder- we have that taken care of now!

Average weight totals so far:
1 day- 1.6 ounces
7 days- 6 ounces
13 days- 10.7 ounces

Here are the pictures! Sorry it took so long to get these on here. It has been hectic around here to say the least!


One day old. They weigh about 1.6 ounces.


The first brooder set up in the storage room in the basement.


Here is how it is set up now. This brooder is up off the ground about 2 feet.

Here is the new set up on the floor. I have cardboard around the outside now to help prevent drafts.


Some of the chicks at 13 days old.

They are feathering out nicely!

Getting pretty big!

Their heater. They are pretty spoiled for meat birds.

This is the scale I have been using to weigh them.

 

[lizanne]

Mine turned 2 weeks old yesterday, and I have been letting them run around outside during the day in a chain link dog run. They love it. I'm suprised how much they run and jump around. When I weighed one yesterday he was 1 pound 3 oz. I wonder if I should cut back more on the feed.

 

[Anna-MN]

I take the food away from my birds at night because they can over eat. If I left food out for them they would eat themselves to death. Weigh out some of the others and do an average. Sometime you can have a freakishly big one in the bunch.

 

[Anna-MN]

I have not forgotten about this thread! I have been hand writing down the information because my internet hasn't been working. I will hopefully be posting some pictures and the updated weights, purchases, and loses tonight or on Wednesday. Stay tuned!

 

[Anna-MN]

A LOT has happened since my last update. We purchased an automatic plucker and did a huge expansion on the coop. I lost 13 of the chicks to piling after a stray cat scared them. That was really disappointing, but it may have been a blessing in disguise. Caring for 100+ birds is a lot of work that I had not been planning on! The birds are now 1 week from butchering and are HUGE! Here are some pictures.


This is the sectioned off portion of the garage where they lived once they got most of their feathers.

Here they are on moving day before they got to go to the big coop out back.

Here they are a couple weeks after moving into their newly expanded coop.



And the new plucker

I still have to take the protective plastic off the outside. I am soooo excited to finally own one of these!!!

 

[pichuris]

A LOT has happened since my last update. We purchased an automatic plucker and did a huge expansion on the coop. I lost 13 of the chicks to piling after a stray cat scared them. That was really disappointing, but it may have been a blessing in disguise. Caring for 100+ birds is a lot of work that I had not been planning on! The birds are now 1 week from butchering and are HUGE! Here are some pictures. This is the sectioned off portion of the garage where they lived once they got most of their feathers. Here they are on moving day before they got to go to the big coop out back. Here they are a couple weeks after moving into their newly expanded coop. And the new plucker I still have to take the protective plastic off the outside. I am soooo excited to finally own one of these!!!

Where did you get your plucker? It looks compact. Ilike that

 

[Anna-MN]

I ordered it directly from the EZ Plucker manufacturers during their spring sale. It worked fabulously! Search for one of their videos on YouTube.