Our first meat bird (chicken) adventure

[Parront]

Turns out the water temperature does make a difference, thank you for this! I've tested moving the water buckets to different areas and adding some ice to it on the really hot days we have had recently. They definitely prefer the cold water, so I'm using more ice routinely on the hot days to keep it cool and moved it to a heavier shade area.

All of my birds here in AZ get ice in their water when it gets over 90. We have been in the 100's for several days already this year, very unusual for milt-high Prescott. I am sorry to see that even in Ontario you have to do the same! I have raised the Cornish-X in the hot desert of California, but only in the spring. They were done with their 8 to 12 weeks lifetime by it was so hot. I used misters and lots of shade when they were starting to get big and slow down. Lots of us in Arizona use misters for the heat, you might think about trying that if you have the water available.

 

[Captain Quark]

All of my birds here in AZ get ice in their water when it gets over 90. We have been in the 100's for several days already this year, very unusual for milt-high Prescott. I am sorry to see that even in Ontario you have to do the same! I have raised the Cornish-X in the hot desert of California, but only in the spring. They were done with their 8 to 12 weeks lifetime by it was so hot. I used misters and lots of shade when they were starting to get big and slow down. Lots of us in Arizona use misters for the heat, you might think about trying that if you have the water available.

Thanks. I was misting them during the heat wave we had. They did not like it but it helped! I've also dug out some of the ground in the shaded area so they can be cool against the soil.

Then the rains came and it turned cold, so I went in and reinsulated those areas with some straw. They are all getting big and happy except for one rooster that came to us with some challenge from birth, and I have one hen with diarrhea that isn't going away. She eats and drinks and forages well like all the others.

I'm going to reduce my spice mixture a bit in the next ferment bucket to see if that helps her. I did run out of organic garlic early on so I stopped putting that in the water and was forced to use powder in the food instead. My guess is that's not helping so I may cut out the powder.

We've had a big increase in the number of house flies that have made it in to join us this summer I think this must be a side effect of having the coop only 50 feet away from the house. I'm going to get one of the fly strings the dairy farm up the street uses to stop the influx in the house.

 

[Parront]

Thanks. I was misting them during the heat wave we had. They did not like it but it helped! I've also dug out some of the ground in the shaded area so they can be cool against the soil.

Then the rains came and it turned cold, so I went in and reinsulated those areas with some straw. They are all getting big and happy except for one rooster that came to us with some challenge from birth, and I have one hen with diarrhea that isn't going away. She eats and drinks and forages well like all the others.

I'm going to reduce my spice mixture a bit in the next ferment bucket to see if that helps her. I did run out of organic garlic early on so I stopped putting that in the water and was forced to use powder in the food instead. My guess is that's not helping so I may cut out the powder.

We've had a big increase in the number of house flies that have made it in to join us this summer I think this must be a side effect of having the coop only 50 feet away from the house. I'm going to get one of the fly strings the dairy farm up the street uses to stop the influx in the house.

They are looking good! Fly traps work better than the strips, we have several. Moisture brings the flies, running the misters here always makes them worse. Our chickens are right next to our house, we only have 1/2 acre, so fly traps are a must! They smell so awful that the flies check in and they do not check out.
These guys prefer it cold, but not rain right on them so they get wet. They do not have enough feathers yet to get wet! You have a good house for them, but they might not have the sense to come in out of the rain.

 

[Captain Quark]

They are looking good! Fly traps work better than the strips, we have several. Moisture brings the flies, running the misters here always makes them worse. Our chickens are right next to our house, we only have 1/2 acre, so fly traps are a must! They smell so awful that the flies check in and they do not check out.
These guys prefer it cold, but not rain right on them so they get wet. They do not have enough feathers yet to get wet! You have a good house for them, but they might not have the sense to come in out of the rain.

We had a big thunderstorm here today (tornado hit just 30 minutes north of us) and they were all hanging out outside so I did go gather them all up and put them back in the coop. I trained them from day 1 to come to a certain call (when I was nervous about free ranging and them running away ) so it's helpful that they are getting conditioned to come when called. We all stayed a lot dryer because of that today.

Pics of the two red ranger boys we are trying out. One is very underdeveloped. The other is on par with the smaller of the Cornish girls. You can see the one boy still has his baby fluff around his head. He's got a lot of catching up to do. One of the larger girls. They are just over four weeks here and weighing in around 5 lbs.

 

[Parront]

We had a big thunderstorm here today (tornado hit just 30 minutes north of us) and they were all hanging out outside so I did go gather them all up and put them back in the coop. I trained them from day 1 to come to a certain call (when I was nervous about free ranging and them running away ) so it's helpful that they are getting conditioned to come when called. We all stayed a lot dryer because of that today.

Pics of the two red ranger boys we are trying out. One is very underdeveloped. The other is on par with the smaller of the Cornish girls. You can see the one boy still has his baby fluff around his head. He's got a lot of catching up to do. One of the larger girls. They are just over four weeks here and weighing in around 5 lbs.

Are the Rangers the same age as the Cornish-X? They are slower growing than the Cornish-X by several weeks. They are more feathered out now than the first photos, but no sense letting them get chilled in a thunderstorm if you can help it! They grow so fast that they don't have energy for anything else, and can die for the slightest reason, it seems. When they get big, the heat is usually the reason.

 

[Captain Quark]

Are the Rangers the same age as the Cornish-X? They are slower growing than the Cornish-X by several weeks. They are more feathered out now than the first photos, but no sense letting them get chilled in a thunderstorm if you can help it! They grow so fast that they don't have energy for anything else, and can die for the slightest reason, it seems. When they get big, the heat is usually the reason.

The one boy was genetically defective from day one. They were all the same age according to the hatchery. We processed everyone at 8 weeks and that boy was under 4 lbs dressed. The other red ranger was just under 8 lbs. He grew fairly close to the same speed as most of the female Cornish x. We had planned on processing at nine weeks to give the red Rangers a bit more time, however, we had one Cornish girl that was massive and was no longer tolerant to the heat. We had a chance to switch our date so we did. The smallest bird (other than the one red ranger that should never have been grown out) was just under 7 lbs. We averaged 7.7 lbs overall, the largest girl just shy of 11 pounds!

The processors were very kind and compassionate. I sat in my truck and cried a good cry until it was our turn to unload. I went out and made my little chicken call that would wake them up each morning and they all did the happy good morning chicken noises back to me. It was less than 5 minutes from then that they were all dispatched. I was impressed with the way it was all handled. Overall a good first experience for us.

We ended up saving money on feed using the fermented food and free ranging them. It cut down on the water amount but they really do prefer cold water and I used more ice than I had expected.

I moved my quail out into the coop after cleaning it out and not even two days later found a mouse in there. Curious to see what happens with the quail now that mice have found an opening that we can't see.

 

[Parront]

A hungry chicken will eat a mouse, I guess that quail can't do that!
Some Cornish-X get processed as young as 42 days. I have kept them as long as 10 weeks in the past, but I only raised 10-15 at a time and only in the early spring in California. Perfect outside weather there in Feb & March, cool but not cold, not hot yet either -- mostly 70-80 daytime and 50's at night. By Mid-April it is starting to be too hot mid-day for these guys, over 85, I put the misters and shade up to get them to 10 weeks, they would dress to 10 pounds or so. Worth holding some to that size to me, I cooked one like a small turkey for Thanksgiving that year. Very good eating!
I wish I had had a processor to take them to, I would have done them more often. The processing never gets any easier, for me at least.

 

[Xouie]

A hungry chicken will eat a mouse, I guess that quail can't do that!

Quail will sometimes give it the ol’ college try.

 

[Captain Quark]

First bird going in the oven tonight. Stuffed it like a turkey for extra tasty chicken broth when I make the broth after the roast. This is one of the smaller ones, at 6.9 lbs.

 

[Parront]

First bird going in the oven tonight. Stuffed it like a turkey for extra tasty chicken broth when I make the broth after the roast. This is one of the smaller ones, at 6.9 lbs.

Looking good!