When is it too late to raise meat chickens?????

[FarmerJamie]

I'm picking up another 35 next Tuesday (I agree with the all female selection - it makes them more uniform in size at processing time.) I've had a meatie flock up here as late as Oct 20.

For feed, I just reverse engineer. 25 meaties at 8 pounds, 2 pounds of feed to 1 pound meat conversion, 8*25 = 200 lbs of birds, 400 pounds of feed. This is a close ratio to the flock I'm raising now. Your mileage may vary.

 

[big brown horse]

Come on now that herd of yours OF COURSE you need 25 meaties! Remember you could always de-bone and can some of them.

Here is what you have to look forward to. These were August babies from Welps as well!

http://www.ubuilderplans.com/img/broilers/Cornish Rocks brooder 1.JPG
http://www.ubuilderplans.com/img/broilers/Cornish Rock hens 10.a.JPG
http://www.ubuilderplans.com/img/broilers/broiler hen cornish 3.JPG

GOOD eatin'!

FF, that looks like a wonderful place for them. I have one question though, do you lock them up at night? I have 23 3-week olds, two died, that are about to get booted out of the tractor during the day to free range. I was going to round them back up at night.


Q_A, congrats on your new creepy meats to be!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have had 16 meaties in the goat pasture all summer. They have done pretty well. 3 of them are the creepy white ones. They have been having troble avoiding getting under the goat's feet, so I moved them into a little pen this morning. I did not lock the chickens up at night, I figured the goats would protect them from anything that might consider eating them. I didn't loose any. I had to put 4 more into the tractor, because they kept escaping from the electic netting and getting into the garden. The 3 I moved into a little pen this morning will hopefully fatten up a little and we plan to butcher them in week.
I fed the chickens in the goat pasture 2 scoops of grains per day, during milking time, so they would stay out of the barn. I can't feed them too much at a time, because then the goats would get into it. I scatter the grain in the field. Between the goats and the chickens, there is not a blade of grass in the pasture and I have to provide fresh greens for all of them daily. But we have plenty of weeds, sunflowers, broomcorn, amaranth and other vegatation. It is labor we are short on. It seems only I am "capable" of picking the greens and feeding the critters SO at least thinks of it sometimes, or helps me when he sees me doing it.

The tiny chicks we have now, are foraging outside the garlic patch. Only th big momma hens are unable to get out of it, so the babies don't stray too far. I found the babies eat teeny tiny bugs, which we have plenty of. Even though I provide them with henscratch (I run it through the blender, to make it small enough for the littlest chicks), they seem to prefer to run around and find their own goodies. Of course I also toss in plenty of other greens and stuff. The mommas have done a nice job of turning the garlic patch for us though. We just water it once in a while.

Oh yeah, we don't get any rain here in the summer and we haven't had our usual 100 plus heat wave either.

So even though you may not have much of a garden in Sept - Oct, your chickens will probably still find plenty to eat, if you put them in the garden and they will work it for you and eat the bug eggs and bugs.

 

[Farmfresh]

It usually takes somewhere between 5 and 7 bags of feed to get 25 meaties up to butcher weight. I start with 24% until they are feathered, then switch to 20% until the end when I usually mix 20% with corn to finish. I never use medicated feed.

Yes I do shut them up every night. I raise them in this...

My City Biddy Double Wide!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I would love one of those, FF! SO isn't that handy and he can't handle letting me build anything I know how to build stuff, grew up doing so. We would also have to scrounge for all the material, but I am good at that too
I want something like that for my goats too.

 

[Farmfresh]

Well you know I DO sell the building plans!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Ok quick question - would these be considered NATURAL chickens??? the Welp Cornish Rocks that is?

 

[Farmfresh]

There IS genetics and breeding involved, but real chickens and selective breeding made them what they are. These are genetically selected for fast growth and meat development. Much as other breeds are genetically selected for egg laying ability etc. They are hybrid birds. Just like Black Sex-links are hybrids.

In the past I have purchased White Plymouth Rocks from Welps. They are the largest White Rocks I have ever seen and lay huge eggs. I have no proof, but I assume that this is the White Rock line that they use to cross with the Cornish for the cross. The way I found Welps in the beginning was that I purchased some Cornish cross from Tractor Supply one year. Those chicks were FAR bigger and more healthy than any I had purchased from them in the past and I had the manager do some research and found out that that year the chicks had come from Welps hatchery. I have been ordering my meaties from them every since.

Once you have the chicks HOW they are raised and fed is what makes the difference. You can see mine are very healthy and vibrant, because I feed them good food and give them sunshine, fresh air and greens.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I only asked because my Uncle wanted to know if they'd be natural. I said they'd be natural as not fed hormones, but that they are a Cornish Rock and I wasn't sure if they were a cross or not.

Anyhoo...Looks like I may have 3 or 4 people interested in going in on an order! YAY!

And, using a combo of FarmerJamie's math and Farms estimate of how many bags of feed it takes to feed them out to five pounds, and using the higher cost of feed around my area, I came up with an average cost of $20 for every five meaties. That's buying five birds and the feed for five birds. So, it will roughly cost $100 to raise out 25 meat birds. E said that's not bad if you look at and consider the price of chicken in the store.

Still hoping that we can cut that cost down by feeding greens and giving them an area for foraging.

 

[Farmfresh]

I was going over my last batch and looking at the records I kept. This was for 2010.

I bought 28 pullets from Welp's @ $1.47 each = $41.16 They shipped me 31 birds and 29 made it to butcher time.

My feed and shavings added up to $84.43 Total Spent = $125.59

I butchered at between 4 1/2 and 5 1/4 pounds live weight and ended with 113.75 pounds of meat not including feet which went to a friend.

The meat broke down 16 pounds of boney backs and necks, 3 pounds of giblets (livers, hearts and gizzards) and 94.75 pounds of prime (bone in) meat.

Our store sells chicken necks for $1.99 per pound x 16 = $31.84 and chicken livers/hearts for $1.99 per pound x 3 = $5.97 So at retail prices those "waste bits" would have cost me $37.81 to buy.

$125.59 total cost
divided by 113.75 pounds of total meat
-------------------------------------------
about $1.10 cents a pound

Plus my time 25 hours +/- raising them and 10 hours +/- processing them.

I keep close records because my hubby has a NEED to know.

oops jacked up the math problem.