Thoughts on letting one of our meaties just live out its life????

[Naturegirl44]

An old man down the road said one year he kept a few meat hens that he never fed grower and the following spring they started laying. I find this hard to believe as they were made to live short lives.

BUT we just received our batch of Cornish X meaties from Frey's 4 days ago and one has attached to me he/she wants to sleep in my hand and, unlike the others, always runs to me when I show up and wants to be held and petted. Sooooooo I thought of the old man down the road and wondered if I could just keep him/her and let it be a chicken with our layers to see what happens.

My man seems to think it won't live long but I want to know. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Stiggy]

We have meat birds here and out of the 10 we kept as hens to lay for the past season we have 7 left. they can last a few years as long as you don't over feed them ( they will eat till they die) and as long as they don't get to stressed/ hot/cold then they should be fine. if you can give them plenty of space to roam, little 'normal' chook food and plenty of veges/fruits then they can live a long time for a meat bird. yes they were designed to live short lives but that's because they are designed to eat and eat and eat, grow then die because of the amount of food they are offered. if given a chance a meat bird will just sit there and eat all day which is not god for them

 

[Naturegirl44]

Thank you Stiggy. I will give it a go. We get really cold winters here in North Ontario, Canada but our coop is well insulated and heated in the colder months so I think I am going to keep 1 or 2 of the meaties and save them from freezer camp.

 

[Stiggy]

Nice! how do you heat it/ is it like a converted shed/stable? it sounds pretty cool. yeah as long as you don't over feed then then you should be fine, also remember that they are slow to feather/ moult and thus will feel the cold more than others as they seem to have less/ thinner feathers than the average bird, but it sounds like you have it all sorted out for them. we kept our 10 to put over my mothers huge white Plymouth rock boy to get more meat birds, it worked but they were usually slightly smaller but feathered up better ( they still got to 5 kg killed and processed weight)

 

[Naturegirl44]

Our coop was an old 4x8 playhouse that was my stepson's. We removed the back wall and added an 6x8 room to it then insulated the floors, walls and ceiling. We put 2 heat lamps and a small electric heater in it and it never went below -3 on the coldest days. Our coldest days were -35c or lower as we had a seriously cold winter this year. we also stacked straw all around the outside to help as well. Hopefully next winter will be a it nicer.

Joe is concerned about keeping 1 or 2 over winter because he wants to make sure we do it right and they don't suffer. I think we will just go with the flow. If it gets really cold and it/they seem to be struggling then I think we will process them and end their suffering but if all goes well maybe we will have 1 or 2 next spring

We are new at everything to do with chickens. We rescued our layers last spring and fall from not so nice homes so we are just finishing our first full year as chicken parents lol Its been wonderful and we love our ladies They are part of the family. We got our first meaties last year at 6 weeks old from a friend who had 100. This is our first time with day old chicks and I know I will struggle when its time for freezer camp. lol But I rather feel these emotions than buy the grocery store birds...poor things. I know in my heart that my meat had a happy life and were properly and lovingly cared for. That means everything.

 

[Coralietg]

We just processed 9 of 10 Cornish on Saturday. There was one smallish female left, and I figured she deserved a reprieve with all the effort she had put into dodging our hands all day.

I put her out with the layers and younger chickens, and she is being picked on mercilessly. It's so sad watching her try to run away. Hopefully they all settle soon. Starting to think I didn't do her a favour after all.

 

[Stiggy]

I assume you are talking farrenheight ? or celcius? but you are correct, at least you know that they had happy lives where they were well looked after. also you know what you've feed them thus if you've given them any hormones or not etc. what very lucky chickens to have a nice warm coop like that, here it gets really cold but weve never used heaters ( way to pricy, its bad enough keeping ourselves warm) but mine all have a nice warm dry coop, they had a tunnel house last winter and this winter there will be a new coop, which will be like a bigger version of the tunnel house but with vents so that it can be used year round as a coop

 

[Arielle]

Here was my experience with raising up a few pullets to be alyers-- wanting the fast growth in a bird that I could use in a meat project pen.

I ad just a few deaths as I raised up my meaties, a little slower than the super fast rate typical of being raised for meat. I kept a few of the pullets, about 3 and then one failed to thrive and was culled. THen the next. ANd left with one for a while that also started to decline. When I processed her, she was gushy on the insides-- very odd. ANd she was about 9-10 months old. I was able to hatch 3 eggs to start my meat bird project.

I cant' say if this is typical of the cornishX , just my limited experience.

 

[Naturegirl44]

I assume you are talking farrenheight ? or celcius? but you are correct, at least you know that they had happy lives where they were well looked after. also you know what you've feed them thus if you've given them any hormones or not etc. what very lucky chickens to have a nice warm coop like that, here it gets really cold but weve never used heaters ( way to pricy, its bad enough keeping ourselves warm) but mine all have a nice warm dry coop, they had a tunnel house last winter and this winter there will be a new coop, which will be like a bigger version of the tunnel house but with vents so that it can be used year round as a coop

It celcius here in Canada. Our average temp in Jan, Feb, Mar was -30c with much colder for period of time. bbbrrrrrrrrr coldest and snowiest winter in a very long time. We use organic grower. It was recommended to us by our friend to use medicated starter for 4-6 weeks to give them a chance as some will not do well and maybe not make it. So we have done that this time around and put them on organic grower and free range them at 5-7 weeks.

 

[Naturegirl44]

We just processed 9 of 10 Cornish on Saturday. There was one smallish female left, and I figured she deserved a reprieve with all the effort she had put into dodging our hands all day.

I put her out with the layers and younger chickens, and she is being picked on mercilessly. It's so sad watching her try to run away. Hopefully they all settle soon. Starting to think I didn't do her a favour after all.

oh poor thing hopefully she gets on with them soon and given a chance to grow a bit a more. It will be interesting to see how our layers do with our meaties once we let them start free ranging.