Need some broiler advice

[Mary Of Exeter]

Well, I'm doing a pen-of-3 brolier thing for the county fair this year. Problem is, I don't think these girls (yes, girls. This time they told us to pick out hens instead of roos do to the expected heat or whatever

) are growing fast enough... Last year we didn't have big enough feeders/drinkers so that stunted them while I was at school. This year things are going more smoothly with everything the way it's supposed to be, I thought. But, everyone else's are still a tad bigger than mine. I think it's safe to say I bet mine are the same size as their smallest birds. Any tips on what I can do/feed them to help them put on more weight? They've got the food they gave us and water 24/7, along with light in the night to keep them doing their business. I put an electrolyte/vitamin mix in the water occasionally to help them out. Someone said something about...buttermilk? I didn't think milk was good for birds to drink...

 

[skywatcher]

Start feeding them corn & greens like clover, grass & make sure they have grit ,sand is the cheapest grit.Add to feed 6% phosphorus all purpose mineral. You could feed them canned fish mackeral every 3 days.I think your chickens will out grow the others soon.

 

[cassie]

We feed ours out on turkey starter, turkey grower, and turkey finisher. We butchered ours at ten to twelve weeks of age and they dressed out between 11 1/2 and 13 1/2 pounds at that age. I don't know if this helps.

There is nothing wrong with buttermilk. Farmers used to feed chickens skim milk and buttermilk all the time. And I currently know some fellas that have quite a market for their milk fed turkeys at Thanksgiving.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

I don't think they'll need grit much as this stuff hardly has anything of edible size by looks

But of course you know how chick feed is, most of the time you pay for more powder than you do crumbs, haha.

Good idea on the turkey feed. I think I'll try that. They're fixing to run out of the bag they first gave us. But they said 'as long as it isn't medicated feed, you can buy your own'. So we'll just go get something better

I may try the buttermilk as well, since it won't hurt them.
I give them a little red cell in the water occasionally to help with the vintamins and minerals as well. Forgot to add that part.

 

[Winsor Woods]

Yeah I think turkey starter would be a good idea. The Turkey starter in our area is 28% protein and the guy at the ranch store calls it "Rocket Fuel" for birds.

Dan