MEAT BIRDS THREAD ~Plans, pics, pens, pluckers, processing! GRAPHIC!

[Wannabefree]

How long do they usually stay in a brooder? I'm thinking these guys will be too big and ready to get out in 3 maybe 4 weeks. Is that about right in your experiences?

 

[FarmerJamie]

I put mine in the meatie coop within a week. Too messy to keep in the brooder for long as far as I'm concerned. The heat lamp is tricky. Not enough heat and they pile on and smother each other, but you only have ten, I usually have 35-50 at time. Also I wait until April, so I have as much risk for cool nasty weather up here. The freezer is kept full, so I must be doing something okay.

 

[Snowhunter]

Mine went out at 4wks? I think? But they brooded in an 8x10 coop, so they had plenty of room and our weather was too crazy to put em out earlier.

Im sorry I haven't posted pics or updates, DH just got laid off so its a bit crazy here.

The meaties are doing VERY well! They're still attempting to fly, heck I watched one jump 2ft in the air earlier today

I let em have free range of the huge garden area, and they are taking advantage of every inch they find. Tomorrow I will be tilling and I think they'll find lots of delicious yummies in the freshly turned dirt.

The diet is 1g clabber and 2 pts soured wheat/rye per day, with pearled barley thrown out as "scratch" and they are doing very well. Poop is still normal, no poopy butts that I can see.



BEE! LOVE THE COOP!! It will be much easier with wheels... they are so heavy w/o em, we'd moved ours w/the 4wheeler.

 

[Beekissed]

I am so glad to hear how well they are doing! Just think...all that time folks were thinking these meaties had to have diarrhea and smell bad all the time and you've proven that they do not. A big ol' thumbs up on that one, Snow!

I tried adding the wheels to the coop but they were too diminutive for the big, ol' thing, so we are just going to resign ourselves to towing it with the truck to new locations when needed. Good thing they will have free ranging in their fence and won't require it to be moved daily.....

Here are the finished redneck hoop coop...there are still a few fiddly things to be done and need to add roosts, feeders and waterers but the basic structure is done...finally!!!

There are enough zip ties and duct tape to certify this as a redneck build for sure, not to mention the cardboard liners in the nest boxes!

The floor of the coop right now....before the chickens!

And the brooder area setup but doesn't have the lamp, feeder or waterer yet.

 

[pinkfox]

LOVE IT!

 

[snapshot]

That looks great!!!!

 

[Snowhunter]

Thats awesome Bee!! Great job!!!

When we built ours, we figured there is almost no way it was gonna be light enough to tow by hand.. between the 2x6's for the bottom framing and weight of the cattle panels, ugh.. solid but heavy!!!

 

[Snowhunter]

Finally got a new video...

You can see the meaties have sort of plateau'd... Now that they are out more, they get excercise. I will be moving them to a different area in the next few days. I have a chicken tractor in the pasture that has some super rich tall grass.. gonna put the meaties in there for the last few days before butchering in a few weeks.

I've had to stop the clabber diet I had to dry one cow off due to possibly earlier calving date then expected and the other cow isn't giving enough to spare.. new cow coming home tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be back swimming in milk by the weekend and can get more clabber going for the chicks.

All the standard breed chicks are growing VERY nicely. I can see breast development, even on both sides, almost as defined as you would see on a normal CX, which I think is interesting. No concave looking fronts.. only a couple are not filled out, but I think thats more to do with quality/genetics then feed/environment.

Anyways.. here's the video

 

[Beekissed]

Wow! Snow, they are VERY active and foraging well and all look healthy and clean~not the typical CX, huh? These birds are almost 6 wks aren't they? Will you wait for 10 wks or will you process at 8 wks? Are you shooting for a certain size or weight or are you just going to do them whenever you want to end it?

I don't know that many people can say their CX are moving and as active as your bunch. You ought to put that video on YouTube when you are all done with your meaty project and show folks that this breed doesn't have to be overly fat, unable to move and stink to high heavens.

Excellent results!!

 

[Snowhunter]

Oh... this will crack you up... I sectioned off the garden area yesterday, since I planted some stuff. Well, the birds weren't happy.. the CX FLEW up ontp the top of the netting, 40" above the ground

I'm not shooting for a specific target weight.. Just nice meaty healthy birds. I'll definetly wait a few more weeks, at least. I'm really interested in the flavor...I've never raised birds on the clabber/sprout stuff before.

Oh, and I'm getting a scale this weekend, so I'll weigh the CX and see how they're doing in that aspect.

ETA-they were 6wks old day before yesterday