ok, I was going to do meat birds but am now chicken!

[LoneCowboy]

Yep, I built it. I read several books on chicken tractors and adapted mine to what I thought would work well for us. I need to make a few modifications to make it easier to move, but it worked out great. The fox couldn't even get in, and he did try.

 

[MissPrissy]

L&Schickens :

We don't have to buy "Meat Birds" to have a nice table chicken for dinner do we? I do have some meat chicks now (Broilers) but I see there are a lot of "Duel Purpose" birds too that may have plenty of mean on them. I might try some of them next time and get straight run RIR or something.

You can eat a dual purpose bird but you have to remember a few things -

The birds, while big, will still look scrawney compared to what you are used to buying from the grocery store.

Anything over about 12 weeks of age (no more than 14 weeks) will be good for nothing much more than stewing.

You will spend a lot of money feeding out a dual purpose bird to get something for the table.

The only thing dual is the fat the hens can lay eggs and be stewed.

The males don't do anything much but eat.​

 

[Mrs MIA]

Miss P... how do you prepare an older bird for the stew pot? Is there a way to get them a little more tender, or do you just have to simmer the cr@p out of them?

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

-Feed them corn the last week (someone here told me that, and yum!)

Feeding corn the last week prior to slaughter should not be done as the birds are still growing muscle and the amino acid content is woefully inadequate in straight corn to support the potential muscle growth the broilers have, even in the last week prior to slaughter.

Providing straight corn will result in increased fat content of the carcass compared to birds fed complete feeds with the correct concentrations of energy, amino acids, and other nutrients.

Jim​

 

[dangerouschicken]

Read "Cornish Crosses, Never Again" here first.

Better a Freedom Ranger/Red Bro than a CC, methinks.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Hmm... that's good to know, thanks! We did include corn in the last 5 days on the first batch, but I don't have anything to compare it to. So no corn at all?

 

[MissPrissy]

I feed mine out on corn the last 2 weeks. Nice fat pads in the chicken for rendering smchaltz.

I have read alot about freedom rangers. Good and bad experiences. I'll stick with cornish crosses. The entire rangers thing in general has put me off them as a whole.

 

[dangerouschicken]

Well, what I have heard about FR is that they have leg issues just like CC. I guess it just depends if you need free ranging meat birds or not. The CC depress the crud out of me. I just can't deal with them.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
I guess it's not a matter of what's best for the birds, because they're going to be put in the freezer anyway, right?

 

[MissPrissy]

Exactly. I am feeding them out to serve my better interest not their own.