The Grand Experiment

[rjohns39]

10/14/2018: Still at 48 oz per side.

 

[rjohns39]

10/15/2018 - 10/16/2018: still at 48 oz per side
10/17/2018: up in feed to 56 oz per side
I've been observing drinking habits. The ross have been going through 3 gallons every two days and the cobb only one. The ross will gang up 3-4 chicks per nipple and peck away at it until they make a puddle and then drink from the puddle. Many will still drink from the nipple, but I think that explains the excess water. The cobb will peck at theirs to fill the tray and then drink from the tray. So the excess water appears to be waste.

 

[rjohns39]

OK, 10/18/2018: We crossed the 100 pounds of feed mark and I can now re-calibrate my scoop. This will always be an approximation, but close enough I think. When I bought the scoop it was sold in the dog food Isle of TSC. Dog food is not as dense as starter/grower. Therefore, even though it holds roughly 8 oz of my avatar's food, it holds more chicken feed by weight. If you'd like me to walk you through the math I used, I'd be happy to, but for now I've adjusted the approximate weight of a scoop in the table below to reflect what they've really consumed per day. I've also gotten beyond fractional scoops and feed to the nearest whole scoop. BTW, I now estimate that a scoop holds 12.6 oz of feed and will be using that and the spreadsheet to do the math going forward.

This brings total feed as of yesterday to about 109 pounds. This gives the birds an average consumption/bird Ross: 1.37 lbs Cobb: 1.36 lbs. That's still light but not bad at all given our crazy weather. Cumulative feed consumption below the chart Ross: 2.95 Oz Cobb: 6.3 Oz. This is cumulative feed consumption by day 17. They're starting to show some decent growth and I'll take pics tomorrow day 19.

 

[rjohns39]

10/19/2018 & 10/20/2018: 88 oz per side.
To date, we've lost 7 Cobb total and No Ross.
Ross

Cobb

 

[HuffleClaw]

10/19/2018 & 10/20/2018: 88 oz per side.
To date, we've lost 7 Cobb total and No Ross.
Ross
View attachment 1567013

Cobb
View attachment 1567012

Adorable little ones!

 

[rjohns39]

They've graduated to 101 oz per side per day as of this morning. Feed chart will be inserted below. I'm at a decision point and would like your thoughts on how to proceed. BTW I'll fill in the loss column later as DW is tracking that. Ok for the decision... They should have gone on grass last Tuesday, but I was out of town. The weather right now is crazy, way too cold for this time of year. Plan was to put them on pasture Tomorrow or Sunday. But lows are "predicted" at 44, 43, 43, 60, 54, 47, 43, 40 starting Saturday (mind you that the two 30* days were predicted at 45). I still find them huddled under the heat lamp in the mornings. And we've had crazy weather, the worst was 103* in the day and 30* at night. So the question to you all is: Should I put them out on pasture on Saturday or wait until Tuesday? Keep in mind that Tuesday morning will be cold. I can wait until the sun comes up and the temp is reasonable to put them out. I'll be taking pics of them in the AM, but their feathering isn't great. I've been here for three years and never had temps like this.

Here's the feed data...

My Goal here is to get 450 lbs of meat for the winter... Also the Ross are still going through about 3 gallons per day of water, but I'm convinced it's the way they use the nipples. I'm gonna have a ton of moisture in the bedding. Cobb's are going through a gallon per night. You'll see in the pics tomorrow that the cobbs are starting to develop breast muscle and in general always have a full crop. The Ross are behind them in that area. I can also tell you that a friend who's been following pastured poultry for a long time was surprised at my previous results and looking forward to the results of this experiment. His theory was in the end I wouldn't find much of a difference basted upon other studies. But this one is focused on my crazy environment.

 

[Morrigan]

Thanks for sharing all the details. I'm surprised to see that there have been fewer losses with the Ross. Do you know the cause of death for the Cobbs?

 

[123RedBeard]

Maybe you could try putting them out only for a few hours in the afternoon while it is the warmest, and see how they do?

 

[ShellyBlanco]

We are almost finished processing our CX meatbirds. I purchased 12 of them on 8/2 and 10 more on 8/9. We started processing them two per day on 10/15. They are dressing out over ten pounds each. We fed them about 1/2 c of feed each three times a day, all organic. At week four, we fed them from 7:30 a.m until 6:30 p.m., with no food at night, only water so that their skeleton can catch up with the muscle mass. They have been "ranging" in a tractor being moved several times a day since week 4. I trained them with a light to go in and out of their coop at night. The last three weeks they have been ranging with our flock all day and they go into their tractor when we put down feed for them. No matter how I look at it, it is worth it, to know the quality of what we are consuming for our own health. They are delicious!
I want to try another breed next fall, so I'll be searching the threads for some ideas. Thinking about Giant Brahmas. Anybody have experience with them?

 

[aart]

Maybe you could try putting them out only for a few hours in the afternoon while it is the warmest, and see how they do?

That was my thought.

Thinking about Giant Brahmas. Anybody have experience with them?

Would be good to start a new thread about the brahmas for meat:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/meat-birds-etc.21/create-thread