The chickens are 39 days old today. We had a cold snap last week and wanted to keep the birds together a little longer so they could take advantage of each others' heat. We've not had to use a heat lamp on them for almost a week, so they will be fine being separated.
Today, we weighed them and separated them in to their own tractors so we will now begin the side-by-side comparison of fermented vs dry grains for their food. Up to now, they have all eaten fermented grains. While they are pooping quite a bit and destroying the grass in their tractor every 3 days, the smell is still not as bad as it used to be.
Tractor A will received fermented feed. It will have 6 white broilers and 7 red rangers. Tractor B will receive dry grains. It will have 7 white broilers and 7 red rangers.
Here's where we are. These weights are in ounces.
Total Weight
Average Weight
Weight Gain
Smallest Bird
Largest Bird
White Broilers
392.7
30.2076
375.7
23
35.6
Red Rangers
327.0
23.357
309.1
17
26
The birds gained a total of 684 ounces by eating 238 cups of feed, or 1118.6 ounces. They realized a weight gain of 61.15% of their total feed intake - a little less than our last measurement.
One thing we did notice between our meat birds and the egg birds, there is no wasted food with the meat birds. They do not scratch the fermented feed onto the ground. They eat it all. Regardless, we will keep track of how much food we feed each group and not necessarily how much each eats - regardless of if the birds eat the food, it is still a cost to us.
We've been giving the birds treats, but they really don't "go" for them like the other birds do. Other than their grains, we will give each group the exact amount and type of treats to keep the experiment valid.
