starting broilers---best feed?

[silkiechicken]

Take the guts out unless you like gut flavored birds. Just once the bird is all prepared, instead of cooking that day, set the whole prepared bird in the fridge over night and cook the following evening.

 

[unionwirewoman]

Oh skeeter ....you're too funny ! Not making fun of you but what silkiechicken wrote after it ! My weight is refering to after the bird has been cleaned . We usually keep them in big coolers with blocks of ice and water . Even though we have 2 refridgerators , we don't have room to keep 12 a day in them .

 

[nadams4]

Quote:
For the vitamins in the water do you use a standard poultry electrolyte???...or something different???

 

[nadams4]

What if you were freezing the birds to sell to friends and family???

How long should you wait after processing to freeze them???

 

[greyfields]

The stringy texture is what happens to muscle when allowed to actually be used. This is actually a sign of higher quality meat than you can get at the store.... but it's a little 'weird' at first. Pretty soon you will be craving real meat and find the grocery store stuff too wet and insipid. Commercial broilers are housed with roughly 4 birds allowed the space of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. FOUR birds. That's why their muscles are hardly used.

I freeze my chickens the day of processing if they're intended for the freezer. The Food-Savr is your friend.

 

[BirdBrain]

Quote:
I think the brand I got at the feedstore was Vital. I used 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Thinking about freezing, we did that the same day we butchered. Some we froze whole in foodsaver bags and others we cut up in their parts and froze on large cookie sheets so I could separate them into bags of thighs, drumsticks, breasts, etc.

Our last bird we thawed in the frig and then left it to soak in salted water over night. I think someone here suggested that. Boy was it nice. It seemed like that helped the texture of the meat somehow. We roasted it whole.

I am sure I don't "make any money" on these birds, but it is nice to know that what my family is consuming has been treated humanely and butchered in a clean environment (ie. not soaked in water with feces sludge). We try to make sure that no poop ever gets on the meat. To get the birds clean (I am probably over the top on this) I wash them with a hose after they have bled out well. THat got off a lot of the junk they had in their feathers. Then I dunked them in the hot water (added a drop of soap here) and plucked them. I had withheld food the night before, so they weren't very full of p**p and their crops were empty. That made cleaning out the guts so much easier.

Greyfields, 4 birds per notepage size of ground...that's criminal. My birds must think they are in heaven. They have lots of room. 53 birds generates a ton of poop. I guess in commercial opperations they don't clean out the shavings with that many birds in there. I cleaned the pen today and it was a real project.

Oops, I just realized I have been "waxing eloquent" and now I should go back to gleaning useful information from all you wonderfully knowledgeable people.

 

[tomsgonefishin]

Question about V&E for these cornish X birds. Mine are 5 weeks old tomorrow and have been on V&E the entire time. Am I over doing it? Out of 7, I now have one bird with a sore leg and am thinking about processing him at 5.5 weeks to keep him from suffering.

They are now on Flock raiser 20% feed, and the largest is 4lbs 6oz live wt.

This is our first time with meaties. Should I take them off the V&E or use it the entire time?

Thank you!
Tom

 

[BirdBrain]

Tom,
The Vitamins and minerals I am giving says to give it every other week for 3 days in a row. Some vitamins are for daily use. It probably depends on what you have.

I had one flip today. He didn't look like he felt very well when I went in to feed them and add shavings. He just sort of stood there with his feathers ruffled up. An hour later my mom was in checking on the birds and getting some gardening stuff and she heard a distressed sound and looked over to see this bird on his back flapping. By the time I came running it was dead. I know these are just meat birds, destined to be harvested in a few weeks anyway, but I hate to lose one. I ordered 50 and got 54. I'm down to 52, so I guess I am still doing fine.

We are changing over to the Flockraser from game bird and they sure love it. I am wondering if it has to do with the taste or the fact that it is a bigger bite for them.

 

[nadams4]

BirdBrain,

Do you start yours on game bird starter??

 

[nadams4]

How long do you keep them on it?