Trials And Tribulations Of Suburban Meat Bird Production

[Birdinhand]

Well, yesterday was harvest day. It went well, took about 5 hours to process 28 chickens. I don't have hard numbers on the weights yet but these are by far the largest birds I've grown, one topped out at 9 lbs dressed, should be looking at 200+ lbs of meat. they remained healthy and happy throughout. below is a photo from last week.

At this point there are a few successes to report on:
- the litter. I finally feel like I have had a breakthrough, I used garden mix from a nursery and let it dry over the summer. it has some wood chips in it but not too much and the chickens seemed to like it. I will probably also dry out and bag up some of the garden mix for future use, so I have a nice dry substrate to use when I need extra during the grow out. currently I just do a big deep litter layer, then peel off the clods as they form and huck them in the composter.
- feed: I used payback grower formula for the bulk of the grow out and finished with scratch and peck grower. scratch and peck is more expensive but a very high quality. The birds were nice and lean and very healthy from a necropsy point of view, I only saw one heart sack that had fluid in it.
- I continue to feel that the fall is the best time to grow out, since it's warm when the chicks arrive and cools off as they feather out. I'm actually thinking I may switch to growing out in the fall only, just more birds at once or multiple batches.

 

[biophiliac]

Nice healthy looking birds sir!

 

[Morrigan]

Excellent harvest. Wow, that's a lot of meat.

I've got 22 CX from Jenx hatchery that will be 8 weeks old today. We are going to butcher our first group this Friday.

I read back about your experiences with your spring chicks. Were these birds also from Jenx? I have always used Jenx for my meaties and typically have gotten really strong, active chicks. This year, however, they have been a bit off, and reminded me of your experience early this year. It was a 3 day ship for me, and they came of the box stressed. I lost 3 in the first two days, which was the first time I have ever lost more than 1. One died in the heat of the day, and 2 others got too cold at night I think. A fourth had to be put down early due to sour crop -- something I've never had before in a meat chicken. The 22 left are in reasonable health and growing well, but several are sluggish and have runny droppings and dirty bottoms. There are also a few pretty runty ones in the mix, but they are at least clean and active.

Like you, I feel bad for them and have been questioning myself. I've always prided myself on keeping the meaties like "normal" chickens, and giving them a good life. Quite frankly, some of them look a bit gross, and I've never felt that way about my meat birds before.

I've been puzzling over these birds for weeks. I've kept them in the same way, in the same space and using the same type of food as before (fermented flock raiser and sprouted grains). I would question the food, but my laying flock gets the exact same food and look to be in good health.

I am thinking that maybe this years CX strain at Jenx wasn't quite as strong as in year's past. Anyway, thought I would share my experience. Maybe your Spring problems might have been due to something other then leaf litter and chilly weather.

 

[Morrigan]

Well, we butchered 4 of the more sluggish roosters today. Two were 5+ lbs and 2 were 6+ pounds, so their weights were good for a little over 8 weeks. Innards looked normal and healthy, so I can't complain.

 

[Birdinhand]

Well, it's that time again, the chicks have arrived. I grew out enough birds last time to have them last us a year and this time I ordered 33, my largest batch yet and I have waited till all the stars aligned for the perfect temperatures and I got the litter in place in the spring so it had plenty of time to dry out, I went with potting soil this time. that may sound strange but it has the right amount of wood in it to make what I hope will be the perfect combination with the droppings to compost out nicely, into an excellent soil booster for my garden and orchard. her is a

shot of the garden/potting soil that I am using this go round as bedding. It seems that this years bumper crops of grapes, peaches, plums and mulberries is a testament to the value of good fertilizer, so I'm taking it more and more seriously. the circles keep overlapping here, my need for new ways to enjoy our abundant fruit led me to delve into the wonders of fermenting this summer, particularly using a kombucha culture. the myriad flavors of fermented drinks and the way it has improved our health has been kind of revolutionary in our household and finally made me start seriously thinking about fermenting chicken feed for my chickens. if you want to read a little bit more about the details, I wrote a lengthy post about the possibility of using a kombucha culture to ferment feed for my cornish cross chicks: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/anyone-feed-kombucha-to-chickens.1312242/page-2
here are some photos of the chickies when they arrived about a week and a half ago:

so far this year, things are going swimingly. I have only lost 1 chick, which is outstanding. the temperature has bee perfect, in the 70's. I am using a mother heating pad and going down each night to make sure they get under it but pretty quickly they seem to be feathering out and motivated to make their own little overnight sleeping area away from the heating pad. it's been warm day and night so I am trying to allow them to do what they want. I'll post some new photos in the next couple of days and add more details.

 

[biophiliac]

Well, it's that time again, the chicks have arrived. I grew out enough birds last time to have them last us a year and this time I ordered 33, my largest batch yet and I have waited till all the stars aligned for the perfect temperatures and I got the litter in place in the spring so it had plenty of time to dry out, I went with potting soil this time. that may sound strange but it has the right amount of wood in it to make what I hope will be the perfect combination with the droppings to compost out nicely, into an excellent soil booster for my garden and orchard. her is a View attachment 1901172

shot of the garden/potting soil that I am using this go round as bedding. It seems that this years bumper crops of grapes, peaches, plums and mulberries is a testament to the value of good fertilizer, so I'm taking it more and more seriously. the circles keep overlapping here, my need for new ways to enjoy our abundant fruit led me to delve into the wonders of fermenting this summer, particularly using a kombucha culture. the myriad flavors of fermented drinks and the way it has improved our health has been kind of revolutionary in our household and finally made me start seriously thinking about fermenting chicken feed for my chickens. if you want to read a little bit more about the details, I wrote a lengthy post about the possibility of using a kombucha culture to ferment feed for my cornish cross chicks: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/anyone-feed-kombucha-to-chickens.1312242/page-2
here are some photos of the chickies when they arrived about a week and a half ago: View attachment 1901174 View attachment 1901175 View attachment 1901176 View attachment 1901177

so far this year, things are going swimingly. I have only lost 1 chick, which is outstanding. the temperature has bee perfect, in the 70's. I am using a mother heating pad and going down each night to make sure they get under it but pretty quickly they seem to be feathering out and motivated to make their own little overnight sleeping area away from the heating pad. it's been warm day and night so I am trying to allow them to do what they want. I'll post some new photos in the next couple of days and add more details.

Oooh BABIES! Love your robust little chicks. Great to hear from you again with more novel ideas for raising happy healthy meaties.

 

[aart]

garden/potting soil that I am using this go round as bedding.

Interesting that potting soil has wood in it, can be a nitrogen 'stealer'.

I have only lost 1 chick, which is outstanding. the temperature has bee perfect, in the 70's. I am using a mother heating pad and going down each night to make sure they get under it but pretty quickly they seem to be feathering out and motivated to make their own little overnight sleeping area away from the heating pad

The CX heat up pretty fast.

I can't remember.....
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[Birdinhand]

Hey Aart, I put in a general location. as for the wood robbing nitrogen, yes, that can be a concern. This mix is pretty well broken down and the concentration of manure to soil is pretty intense, combining that to a controlled hot insulated composter seems to cook it down enough to be ready for prime time in the garden. Now that we breed bunnies and end up with a broader variety of compostables, I also add in other things to the final compost to top it off to match it's various uses. around fruit trees I use it more as a top dressing and allow for more wood chips to help keep the weeds down. For garden amendment I aim for a more fully broken down mix, basically dirt with worms. For a top dressing around potted plants and for a boost around garden veggies, I go somewhere in between.

 

[igorsMistress]

I'm going back to read through the whole thread, just marking my spot here. My birds are dual purpose, but I'm also in the suburbs.

I kept quail in an aviary with similar soil on top and then a layer of hay as mulch and now the plants in there are going crazy with growth. I may try it in my mini coop when I put chicks out there. I thought maybe it was my imagination.

 

[Birdinhand]

We are at day 14 today, I had one loss in the first few days but everyone else seems happy. They've gone through their 40lbs of starter formula and are on to grower formula. I have stopped going down every night and putting them on or under the mother heating pad (MHP), figure they are feathered out enough and the weather is warm enough that they can figure out what they need temp wise. some are choosing to sleep the night through it appears, piled up in a corner away from the heat source. They are little eating machines and generate lots of heat as usual so I figure they must be OK. they have 24/7 access to food and water, but since the MHP does not emit light, they get a solid nights sleep, which seems to be enough to keep them from over eating and as I've mentioned in the past, the extra sleep really does help keep their growth more healthy. the one significant change I did this time that may be helping is that I did not drape a towel over the MHP to keep heat in. With this large a group of chicks, they just don't seem to need it. I came to the conclusion that maybe it was traping them in or keeping to much heat in and maybe that contributed to the higher fatality rate last time around. I figure that since it's not windy or cold, that leaving the MHP open is better and that the ones that get cold can burrow deeper under if need be. I do get the distinct feeling that they are out of the woods in terms of heat. we had quite a lightening storm last weekend, and apparently when the electricity comes back on, the pads default to having the auto off function back on, so when I cam down the next day, it was off, no heat and they were all making a little extra noise but doing pretty well. I turned the temp on my sunbeam heat pads from 6 to 5 after the first week, now it's down at 4. I may just remove the whole thing next week and try and give them a nest spot to stay warm. I'm about to go buy about 500 lbs of feed for them, which always blows me away, they will go through all of it and then some in the remaining 7 weeks! I'm told I can go directly to scratch and peck north of me and buy it at a discount. I also have another lead on 50lb bags of organic grower for $15, which would dramatically improve the economics. organic CX are going for $6 lb dressed, at the local farmers markets, which put a little spring in my step, thinking that I'm kind of making a worthwhile go of this even strictly from a financial perspective!