What hatchery do you think has the best meaties

[deChickyHen]

I ordered minds from welp.... All hens... and none of them seem to dress over 7 lbs in 8 weeks.... I have seen on here where people have had 9 up to 12 pounders... who did you order from? whats your biggest Dress pounds? I'm courious... Im thinking of doing meaties agian... but I don't think I want to go through welp again.... any info sharing would be great ... Thanks

 

[Mamma_Duck04]

The males will get bigger than the females. They (the hatcheries) generally recommend using the females as fryers (smaller) or growing out to 10-12wks, & use the males for broilers/roasters at the 8wk-ish time frame. Sounds like you just need to give your females more time to beef up, or order males.

 

[crowhard]

I ordered 25 male meaties from Welp on 9/21 and received 29 on 9/23. all arrived alive and well on a trip from Northern Iowa to coastal Alabama. I lost 1 on the 25th and none up to this point. they started outgrowing my two smaller brooders so I moved them to a large brooder, I had 14 to a brooder and when I moved them I weighed them in 14 bird lots one was 15 1/2 lbs. the other 15 1/4 lbs. at the age of 2 weeks 2 days. As far as your weights on your pullets I think I would be pleased to dress them out at 7 or near pounds, Welp's broiler body weight and feed chart suggest live weights on females at 8 weeks to be 7.421 lbs. LIVE WEIGHT, so it seems to me you did quite well.





















northern

 

[PotterWatch]

We use Welp and are very happy with the birds. Last season, we got straight run and at 8wks, our birds ranged from 4.5-6.5lbs (dressed). This season we are trying cockerels only and our first processing is on Tuesday (7wks). They look great though and I'm a little worried they will be too big. We shoot for an average of 5lbs as that is what our customers seem to want the most.

 

[Renee']

Quote:
7 pounds in 8 weeks is good. It's possible that you were feeding different feed than other folks. I ordered a straight run from Schelt and at 8 weeks, the weights were between 5 and 7 pounds. I had 25 birds. They got two 50 pound bags of starter then finished with Flock Raiser.

 

[bwmichaud]

A 7lb hen in 8 weeks is great. If you want larger birds, you'll need to get cockerels.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Got my meaties from Ideal, processed at 8 wks, straight run. dressed weight of 5.5 to 7.5 lba, pure meat, no giblets included in weight--theyare sooo good!

 

[brandislee]

I agree- it's not the hatchery that's going to make a difference, it's the gender of the chick provided you're feeding them well. I get chicks from Hoovers in Iowa just because it's the closest I can find and it's who my feed store orders from, but the decision was purely geographical since I want the chicks to travel as little as possible. I get standard run and my hens are usually around 5lbs dressed and the cocks are usually right around 7lbs. And really I wouldn't want them any bigger- as other say the cocks make good (huge! they almost don't fit in my clay baker at that size!) roasters and the hens make good fryers.