Starting to get excited! Spring plan discussion!

[Tre3hugger]

My first batch or Cornish X is coming March 1st from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. Getting excited! This month is a short one after all.

I am planning for snow on the ground, and am going to be brooding these guys in my old layer coop that is 8x4 for their first month of life. This will require a bit more work with poop management etc but hopefully the snow will melt by a reasonable date and I will get them on grass before it's an issue. I am considering building a second tractor and processing all 25 for myself this time. My hold up was always freezer space, but I have been loving my pressure canned chicken and have no problem storing all my not whole birds that way. Pair that with the fact that I have been saving money for a plucker all winter, I can't think of a reason not to raise them all. I am going to start a meat rabbit program soon and doing 25 birds would give me the opportunity to skip a couple months of raising meaties and focus on the buns.

This post is basically a result of looking out the window at snow, day dreaming about spring. What are your plans for the spring? What have you been thinking about on those snowy days? Anything new this year you didn't do last year?

 

[iwltfum]

Love it. I just ordered 20 muscovies from fifth day through freedom ranger. Scheduled for the week of april 20th. I havent made my broiler schedule yet. It's on the list, and I need to do it this week so I can make my order. I usually order all my birds at once for the whole season in feb including turkeys and replacement layers. I think we will be raising about 650 broilers this year - five batches of 130 spread out by 3 week intervals. Each bach of 130 will arrive at once but half will be butchered at week 7.5 and the other half will be butchered at week 8.5 or 9. So butchering 65 in one day, which is what we did last year and the butchering day was about 7am until 4pm for me. And 10am to 3pm for the rest of the crew.

We are raising the ducks as a trial run for a super fancy shmancy restaurant. They are going to run a special for one weekend only with our ducks and see how they do, so they may potentially want quite a few more next year.

Gotta still figure out how we are going to work the replacement layers in next season with the brooders going full bore. Probably will raise more late August hens. The ones we started at that time last year are just starting to lay- perfect timing for us.

Construction-wise. I'm building alot of structures this year. A new brooder shed 5x8ish, four more salatin style pasture pens 10x10. And to top it all off, I am in the middle of building a goat shed for our new milking goats AND I just ordered the materials to put up a 9×21 greenhouse for starting seed mainly. Lots going on around here. I was thinking yesterday how my winter is pretty much over. So this wind and snow and cold we are getting right now is actually very nice in my book. Keeping me inside a bit more than normal.

Cant wait to follow along with your progress this season @Tre3hugger !

 

[Xouie]

It’ll be a while before we get CX again. Due to folks around here not doing big holiday meals, we ended up with a couple of turkeys and a couple of hams at can’t-pass-up prices, so we’re still very well stocked for meat. If the freezer empties before late spring, I’m heading back to Welp hatchery this year for another 25 birds. If not, maybe autumn again. That worked really well.

The grocery egg ducklings are jumbo pekins, so those are also on the menu. Not really anything new to build, just moving birds around.

 

[3KillerBs]

We've got a space in the new coop-to-be reserved for our first meat birds. Not sure when, we've got to get the layers underway first.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Love it. I just ordered 20 muscovies from fifth day through freedom ranger. Scheduled for the week of april 20th. I havent made my broiler schedule yet. It's on the list, and I need to do it this week so I can make my order. I usually order all my birds at once for the whole season in feb including turkeys and replacement layers. I think we will be raising about 650 broilers this year - five batches of 130 spread out by 3 week intervals. Each bach of 130 will arrive at once but half will be butchered at week 7.5 and the other half will be butchered at week 8.5 or 9. So butchering 65 in one day, which is what we did last year and the butchering day was about 7am until 4pm for me. And 10am to 3pm for the rest of the crew.

We are raising the ducks as a trial run for a super fancy shmancy restaurant. They are going to run a special for one weekend only with our ducks and see how they do, so they may potentially want quite a few more next year.

Gotta still figure out how we are going to work the replacement layers in next season with the brooders going full bore. Probably will raise more late August hens. The ones we started at that time last year are just starting to lay- perfect timing for us.

Construction-wise. I'm building alot of structures this year. A new brooder shed 5x8ish, four more salatin style pasture pens 10x10. And to top it all off, I am in the middle of building a goat shed for our new milking goats AND I just ordered the materials to put up a 9×21 greenhouse for starting seed mainly. Lots going on around here. I was thinking yesterday how my winter is pretty much over. So this wind and snow and cold we are getting right now is actually very nice in my book. Keeping me inside a bit more than normal.

Cant wait to follow along with your progress this season @Tre3hugger !

Wow. Really steppin up operations! Where in Maine are you? If you're on the southern end, maybe I can give you a hand processing/building one of these days! I would love to see your setup in action.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Due to folks around here not doing big holiday meals, we ended up with a couple of turkeys and a couple of hams at can’t-pass-up prices

Can't argue with that!

 

[Tre3hugger]

We've got a space in the new coop-to-be reserved for our first meat birds. Not sure when, we've got to get the layers underway first.

Exciting!

 

[3KillerBs]

Exciting!

I've started my coop-build thread, though we're still in the earliest planning stage.

 

[Tre3hugger]

I remember seeing that thread. Gonna be awesome.