thinking about meaties for Spring? answer some questions for me???

[sonew123]

I got my cackle book yesterday

I only hatch eggs out and not by hatchery birds but the meatied intrigued me. I would love to purchase like 25 of them.

From what I read they reach full maturity in 6 weeks-to butcher?? 6 weeks?? how much does each chicken eat-anyone care to help me figure out how much it would cost to feed 25 birds until butcher age? DO they lay eggs? if they did when would they lay eggs? I would love to keep a few to just get their eggs and keep incubating them for fresh chickens all Summer and fall...I have never raised these and heard they are smelly messy monsters and never ending garbage pits! Can someone give me an honest dummied down version of what I would need to have to do this? Am I nuts for thinking I can get eggs from these guys and continue to incubate -raise- butcher them-like a cycle for 6-9 months?

Thanks guys

 

[TimG]

You should be able to answer all these questions by looking through existing threads in the "meat birds etc" forum. Most of your questions have been addressed this month, if you can't find the answer by quickly browsing through the current threads, the search engine here is pretty good.

 

[Burbs]

At 6 weeks they will have eaten about 250 pounds of food and weigh somewhere around 6 pounds live weight. Most people keep them to around 8 weeks when they butcher out at ~5.5 pounds dressed. Your looking at about 425 LBs for food at that age.
As for the rest........they don't breed true even if they live long enough to reach breeding age.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
Funny you should pipe up here! I just got done reading a 12 page thread with you and your meaties Im trying to read up on it as much as possible before I turn to posting for help... I havent seen anything yet this month but I will look right now--still reading a long thread on raising them and how much they cost and such Thanks Tim

 

[TimG]

I didn't mean to be (very) snarky; this forum could use a pinned thread that covers many of the questions you've asked.

These two threads ought to answer your questions about breeding:

Why not breed broilers?

Ok.. so I'm not buying the whole.... you can't breed broilers thing

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

They get REALLY big; by about 8 or 10 weeks one of the three I raised last summer couldn't even walk. I doubt they'd be able to reproduce naturally even if they did make it to egg-laying/breeding age.

They're specifically designed to live no more than a few weeks... Their legs and organs begin to go after that, and it is really not pretty.

Having said that, they are delicious and definitely worth trying to see if you want to do it again. I bought six chicks, lost one at a few days, another at two or three weeks old and another at 4 or 5 weeks old, so I processed three when they were about 8 or 9 weeks old. They were BIG and YUMMY.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
Im all good-didnt take it that way at all

Thank you for your help~

 

[TimG]

This one has a nice chart in the 2nd or 3rd post about average weights and feed consumption at different ages.

 

[chickenjoe]

Quote:
If your looking to get to raise broiler to get eggs, you might want to get rangers. corish X they can be dirty and smell if you don't have them a in tractor or off the ground. rangers take a long to grow then cornish X.





=]

 

[willheveland]

Quote:
I see the catalogs are rolling in from the Hatcherys. Good sign, winter is going to end shortly. Not sure about where I'm at because It's still pretty cold.

I always figure 2lbs or a little more of feed per 1 lb of chicken weight.(so a 5 lb chicken probably ate about 10+ lbs of food)
I'm sure they'd lay eggs,but not very well and to be honest never kept them long enough to find out.They won't give you back the same chicken hatched.(buy your chicks from a hatchery, breeders spent $$$$ to get the results. It would be hard to copy it in your backyard) They were developed to produce meat fast then to be processsed. Another reason why I love them. You may like to take your family on vacation,you won't spend all summer raising these. I know some people think it's cruel raising an animal that should be processed before reaching sexual maturity but to me that's one of the biggest reasons to choose them. Why would a chicken developed to be raised in a short time need to have a long life span.(no different than veal,beef cattle or pigs) They really are perfect for the person who is really raising chicken for eating. We like our chicken on the rotisserie,so we like them bigger than most. Some will argue that keeping a meatie longer than 8 weeks your wasteing feed. Maybe if you are selling for profit where every penny counts. But the way I see it, if feed costs $.16 per pound whats a few more lbs. of feed compared to a lb. of chicken. To save any more than that and you'd be eating the chicken feed instead.
Some will argue why would you need 8-10 lb birds? Well for us if we didn't we have to cook 3 @ 2-3lbs to get our dinner and our rotisserie won't hold three. I'd rather raise 25-30 meaties for 8 -10 weeks than 100 dual purpose which would take our summer away.
Your best bet is to try many and see what works for you the best. No two people are the same as far as taste and being practical. You can't compare chocolate and strawberry icecream and say which one is better flavor. It's no different with chicken. I will say they will taste different and have different texture(any older bird with be tougher,stringier and have different flavor) but figuring out which one you like can only be done by you. People can tell you what works for them,but can't tell you what works for you.
Hope you enjoy looking through the hatchery books as much as I do. let us know what you decide. Will