What to feed my White Broilers?

[CluckerClubbie]

I'm totally new at this... My first batch of meaties is hatching Aug 11, and I'm working out my system.
I'm hoping to avoid the commercial crumbles as my mentor suggests it's more expensive (plus for us the whole point of growing our own chickens is to have non-soy/gmo fed meat.) But I know they need a certain percentage of protein.

How much protein do they need? Anyone have experience avoiding commercial crumbles with good results? What should I give them?

People raised chicken for food long before purina and dumor, didn't they?

Forgive me for being idealistic. It's just beginners mind. I'm sure I'll grow out of it.

 

[HEChicken]

What does your mentor suggest?

There are organic feeds out there but they are quite expensive. I decided I can't justify it as much as I want my animals to be at utmost health to provide the best eggs and meat for my family. So I do feed commercial crumbles but they also have access to free-range over several acres. In the months when there is greenery and bugs available, their feed consumption goes down rather dramatically so I know they are making up the difference with what they find for themselves. This is my compromise.

Disclaimer: I don't raise broilers because I want to do everything as naturally as possible and broilers are not self-sustaining. Instead I focus on a couple of breeds of heritage birds. They take longer to grow out - 18 weeks instead of 8 - but during that time they are free-ranging and don't require much care from me. And, since I seem to perpetually have broody hens, I have a sort of continuous supply of meat growing out.

 

[CluckerClubbie]

What does your mentor suggest?

There are organic feeds out there but they are quite expensive. I decided I can't justify it as much as I want my animals to be at utmost health to provide the best eggs and meat for my family. So I do feed commercial crumbles but they also have access to free-range over several acres. In the months when there is greenery and bugs available, their feed consumption goes down rather dramatically so I know they are making up the difference with what they find for themselves. This is my compromise.

Disclaimer: I don't raise broilers because I want to do everything as naturally as possible and broilers are not self-sustaining. Instead I focus on a couple of breeds of heritage birds. They take longer to grow out - 18 weeks instead of 8 - but during that time they are free-ranging and don't require much care from me. And, since I seem to perpetually have broody hens, I have a sort of continuous supply of meat growing out.

Oh I totally agree! I'd rather raise something else (their existence seems cruel to me even), but am going to raise the broilers because I don't have time before it gets cold here. Nxt year I'm hoping to raise rainbow rangers. We don't have sufficient acreage yet, so I can't breed my own, yet, but I intend to asap.

what breeds do you raise?

 

[bowhunter862]

I have raised many batches of CX on Dumor 20% Starter and fed 20 pounds per bird over 8 weeks. For my current flock (now at 6.5 weeks), I switched to a 20% protein fresh ground mash feed from my local feed mill. This new feed comes out of the mill, into bags, and into my vehicle. That's as fresh as it gets! Per pound, it is about the same cost as the Dumor, but I am seeing that the birds are bigger at this age than before, the consumption of feed is less, and the manure is much more solid and dryer. The only downside is that the mash feed doesn't flow as well out of my homemade feed pails as the crumbles. No big deal. I cut the holes bigger.

When I got the chicks I ordered the amount of feed that I would normally used based on my experience with Dumor. Processing day is next Saturday and I'm going to have about 1/4 of my feed left over so even though it seemed like there would be no savings initially, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Also, I watched the boys at the mill bagging my feed into 50 pound bags, but didn't see a scale on the filler. When I got home I weighed several bags on a digital scale. All weighed 50.3 pounds. I guess there is a scale on the bagger somewhere that I didn't see. After confirming the weight of the feed I thought, "hmm, never weighed those Dumor bags of feed". I had 3 bags left from the previous batch. I weighed them all. The heaviest was 48.1 pounds and the lightest was 47.6. I'm sticking with my local mill from now on.

 

[HEChicken]

what breeds do you raise?

I raise New Hampshire Reds and Barred Rocks. I got my original parent stock from Frank Reese and they are phenomenal - nothing like their hatchery counterparts!