The Importance of Proper Feeding and Maintenance For Your Meaties

[barrybro]

Quote:
I had between 60 and 65 in my 10x10 this last batch. I did not feel they were overcrowded but they did not have a lot of extra room. I will do between 50 and 60 during the summer heat but the fall I felt the 65 was great.

Barry

 

[averytds]

How much of a factor is the weather?

We've got ours on a 24% feed available 24/7 (tractored since 3 wks) at almost 7 weeks they don't look anywhere near processing ready. Some still have a lot of bare spots. Lots of bare bottoms. I weighed a few of the biggest looking ones last week and they ranged between 3 and 4 lbs.

We've had variable weather. Everything from nice 80's to pouring rain 40's during the day, 60's to 30's at night. They eat, drink, lay around and poop pretty much constantly. We're up to 1/2 bag of feed per day for 30 of them. I keep the water and feed topped up throughout the day, but never remove the feed as daylight is pretty well 12/12 here anyways.

What are we doing wrong?

 

[litterbitt]

Mine are exactly where yours are at almost 7 weeks. I realized mine were running out of feed while I was at work... but it doesn't sound like yours are!
Maybe they are just a slower batch. I figure I'll just keep growing them till they are at 5 or 6 pounds at least. I have FR's coming this Friday, doesn't sound like they'll be any longer getting big enough!

Liz

 

[Missy3b]

I had found a thread here about estimating how much feed a bird would go through in 8 weeks. It was a total underestimate. I have 30 birds and am at the bottom of my 8th 50 pound bag and they are 6 weeks. They are in the 3 pound range right now. I was trying to go 12 on and 12 off but couldn't believe how much they can consume in 12 hours. I am definitely NOT feeding them enough. I will just suck it up and buy more feed if needed to get them through the next 2 weeks. I honestly don't think I will do meat birds again. They seem un-natural with the amount of food they consume.

Thanks for the information.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Look at what the fryers at the store weight..........if you want alot of weight, go to 9 or 10 weeks. Those last few weeks they put alpt of weight on, but they sure can eat. I butchers a few at 12 weeks, looked like small turkey

.....just don't go over 12 weeks unless you want roasters.

 

[averytds]

I'm home all day and outside doing other things, so it's not hard to keep them topped up. I haven't kept track of how many bags of feed I've bought total, I just know I'm currently buying 2 bags and having to buy more every 4 days. I expected them to eat a lot though, so I'm not worried about that. I swear they drink as much if not more than they eat. 4-5 Gallons/day currently. I hear a lot of sloshing and squirting noises coming from them when I tend them.

I bought assorted sizes of the heat shrink bags and had planned to butcher 10/wk over a 3 week period. I'm prepared I think for any size. I just don't think they're in line with what others are reporting growth wise. I also expected them to be fully feathered out. What happened to them looking nice again at 6 wks?

To get 4 lbs dressed by next Wed, well they're going to really have to get with it. I'll probably just let them all go longer. No way are they anywhere near the fluffy white birds in all the vids. Mine are all dingy yellowed and half naked. I guess the plucking will be easier.

 

[litterbitt]

Averytds, I swear we are having the same experience... mine are dingy and dirty and naked-butted. To top it off, it has rained for the last two days, and they are mostly staying in and rolling around in poop. ACK.

Liz

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Weather has a huge part in it and so does lighting. If your not adding supplemental lighting in your tractor they are not getting enough feed. Daylight has been decreasing a couple a minutes a day for a while now, so I think it's around 10 hours of daylight. Say they are out of feed for at least an hour out of the day, that's only 9 hours of feeding time in a 24 hour day. It's best to give them 18 hours especially when it's cold out because they don't grow anywhere near what they would in the summer time. However the same holds true for when it get too hot. They don't eat for the majority part of the day because they are trying to cool off. So they really only eat about 10 hours a day in the dead heat of summer as well. 6 hours is the maximum I would go without feeding because the birds do better, they seem to not fight as much for feed, grow more uniform, and feather in faster.

Secondly, if they are dirty, move the pen an extra move during the day. Depending on their size depends on how much you should move them... size of tractor and stocking density factors in too. But a sure sign of them not getting moved enough would be the yellow / brown tinge feathers from the manure. It's best to move first thing in the morning and right before they go to bed. If you can squeeze in a move around 1 it always helps.

If I were you, I would get a couple of those battery operated push lights and stick them on the inside of your tractor. Pop them on at dusk and if you have time go back out and turn them off at 9 or 10. That will give them at least 12 hours.... way better than 9-10.

Good luck...

 

[litterbitt]

Thank you Jeff, good point about the hours of light during this time of year. Mine are in a coop and big run, not moveable tractors. I have an extension cord run to it, so extra light will be possible...hopefully it won't be pouring rain again tonight, so I can get the coop cleaned out good. Between the rain and a sick billy goat and a full-time job, I haven't been able to clean daily like I should...and those messy meaties need it EVERY day.

Liz

 

[averytds]

I hadn't thought about there being too little light in the day. I was more worried about overfeeding since I keep the feeder full and available 24/7. I have a battery powered lantern that I could hang in there and let them go longer into the evening. TY, Jeff.


I'm out at around 730AM for their first move and topoff. Then I topoff again around 11AM when I let the roos out. Again around 230PM before I head out to get the kids I topoff and move. Around 5PM to topoff and now around 6PM for a final topoff and move.


I know the dinge is from overnight. There's a huge mess of poo at one end from the overnight and then the tractor lengths of minimal mess from the daytime moves. Basically they all pile together and poo all over each other all night at the one end.



If I let the light go into the later evening I could push back their evening move to help a little with the dinge. Once it's dusk and they've settled in at the end I couldn't move them for anything, even with one of the kids knocking at the end to try and motivate them to move. I always thought about the truckdriver joke about beating on his trailer so the birds would fly around and he wouldn't be overweight on the scales. Once our CX park it for the evening, they're really hard to move.