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

[Beekissed]

That is great news about the meaties and their normal poops...who in the world would have thought that could be achieved? Makes me excited about the fermented feed and what it will do for these birds and their metabolism, health and growth.

I can't wait to see the pics as they grow and what their growth patterns will be on the alternate feed!

About the tarp leaking...that is why I'm placing layers of clear plastic under it. I'm also placing an old cargo net I have over it to try to keep the friction from wind generated movement of the tarp causing abrasion. I've also placed the cattle panels with the joints toward the inside and the long wires on the outside. I'm hoping all these precautions will produce a different result...time will tell, I guess.

Here's a few pics of the nest boxes...don't look too closely at this coop, folks, because you will see all my mistakes and such. All I can say is that it will be sturdy, if not perfectly squared, and that paint will hide a multitude of sins!

Back view without the access hole added:

Front view...without the lids and access holes.

 

[Dawn419]

Looking good, Bee!

 

[rebecca100]

Wow that looks good! I wish I was that talented!

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, Rebecca....that isn't talent at all. If some fella who can actually build saw this, he's laugh out loud...he really would! Where I come from this is called "hobbling" something together and it is exactly what I did. From a distance it looks okay and it will be sturdy, but there is not a true angle or leveled line on the whole thing!

I found out, from all these years of doing these kind of projects by myself, there is one true thing: The chickens don't care one bit if it isn't perfect, so neither do I. Long as they stay dry, cool in the summer, warm in the winter and out of the wind I'm a happy camper, ya know?

That's sort of been my mantra all this time at BYC and on here...it doesn't take a lot of money or skill to build a coop, nor does it take much info or smarts to raise chickens properly...just gotta know how to run a saw and swing a hammer and how to keep clean water and feed in front of them. When folks complicate something that is that easy it tends to irritate me because I know how it discourages people from wanting to even try. Anyone can build this coop and even poor folk can afford it. Anyone can raise a chicken and even poor folk can get it done without much work or over-thinking.

That is one of the reasons I'm putting this coop build~and the meaty methods I'm trying this spring~ on my webpage and in my book~to show that even a woman with absolutely no skills whatsoever and with only a little money can raise chickens for food and keep their family in healthy meat. I don't want poor folk to get discouraged or feel like it is impossible to accomplish because, if I can do it, anyone can and that is the gospel truth!

 

[Snowhunter]

Bee that looks terrific!! I like the idea of plastic to help waterproof it. That should help a lot. Infact, you've given me an idea for a round bale feeder for my dairy cows.. so thanks

Here's the meaties first day outside. They thought I had killed em I ran out of clabber, so I had to put some crumble out for em to entice em to move around some...I don't think they're gonna do as good a job as I wanted in the garden area I should have gotten more meat birds, but I didn't wanna process a bunch. Oh well.


They're 4 1/2 wks old and a decent size, not overly fat or failing to grow as they were bred to, but just movin right along at a good pace. I'm interested t see how they finish out over the next few weeks and get the first ones butchered to start final comparison on dressed bird quality.

 

[Beekissed]

They look great! Give 'em time and they'll be grabbing worms out of that soil just like the big guys....I had to practically run over mine while I was tilling the garden because they were darting in to get the worms and such. I bet they feel like they've been let out of school!

I expect you will have a slower growth pattern but still not as slow as a dual purpose breed. Slow is good when it comes to these birds...I don't mind waiting a few extra weeks to process, do you?

 

[Beekissed]

A few pics of the coop progress...which is slow right now. Just little fiddly things that take some time.

The final nest box bracings and the bracing on the rear of the coop is finished:

The next boxes' outside entrances...these frames are odd pieces of tongue in groove oak flooring that someone gave us for kindling this year. I found they make great tracks for a sliding door and will be using them on my pop door entrance also. The piece of green plastic is the bottom of the tote that I cut out and reversed, so it all worked out lovely. Where you see blocks of wood on the sliding doors, I'll be placing a regular drawer pull each:

And this is the front of the totes with the lids on, then with one lid on and one lid off to show how easy it is to remove and clean out nesting~the back is open on that one as well:

 

[Snowhunter]

Love it Bee!!! The nesting boxes are so nicely done as well. Mine never look that pretty


The chicks are spending thier first night outside... Crossing my fingers they all do well. Fixin to go outside and put em all in the doghouse bedded in hay so maybe they'll get the idea and put themselves away each night. They did well when the kids threw em some scratch.. they were scratchin all over finding the tasty morsels and even got a few worms and played keep away

It will be interesting to see how the growth goes. I sure don't mind waiting... I need em to work and scratch as much as possible since the tractor broke and I can't disk the garden plot which means doing it all by hand now

Here's a short vid I was able to get this afternoon (click the image and it should take you to the video in photobucket)

 

[Beekissed]

They are TWICE the size of your other chicks! I'd like to shove that video down the throat of every guy who states emphatically that CX just won't forage. Awful lot of running around and looking for things...and I call that foraging, don't you?

They look great and look at that mobility, won't you? Still have normal poops? No stinky-ness? I'm thinking that their meat just might taste better also from feeding the milk and fermented foods, don't you?

I know the taste of our eggs changed significantly when I used ACV in the water all the time instead of just now and again. The eggs became more mild and almost sweet in flavor...the sulfur smell and taste just disappeared. My customers noticed and so did my sister, and you know folks usually don't notice something like that so it must have been a big change. I noticed it also but didn't really think about why until the rave reviews started coming in and I started to examine what I was doing differently and the only thing was increased use of the ACV.

I'm curious if the fermented feeds will do the same thing for the taste of our meat chickens.

 

[Snowhunter]

They are TWICE the size of your other chicks! I'd like to shove that video down the throat of every guy who states emphatically that CX just won't forage. Awful lot of running around and looking for things...and I call that foraging, don't you?

They look great and look at that mobility, won't you? Still have normal poops? No stinky-ness? I'm thinking that their meat just might taste better also from feeding the milk and fermented foods, don't you?

I know the taste of our eggs changed significantly when I used ACV in the water all the time instead of just now and again. The eggs became more mild and almost sweet in flavor...the sulfur smell and taste just disappeared. My customers noticed and so did my sister, and you know folks usually don't notice something like that so it must have been a big change. I noticed it also but didn't really think about why until the rave reviews started coming in and I started to examine what I was doing differently and the only thing was increased use of the ACV.

I'm curious if the fermented feeds will do the same thing for the taste of our meat chickens.

I know.. the poor other chicks look so, well, TINY!!! For this being thier second day outside, I was very impressed with how well they did. The scratch helped give em a better idea of what to do, vs the minor foraging they did earlier this morning, but they sure are foraging lil boogers!!! 2 of the CX flew over 1ft in distance earlier that I saw Mind you, it wasn't graceful, and probably won't happen again, but it sure suprised me. I'm REALLY impressed with them. Between the extra calcium of starting them on layer feed vs reg chick started as well as the added clabber and sprouted/fermented grains has really paid off. Poops still normal, and NO SMELL!!!! It will be interesting to see what they taste like and how tender they are, and how much fat they have or if they're more lean.

I wasn't able to do a clabber/grain vs commercial feed comparison as far as hunger satisfaction. Just too much going on with garden prepping and trying to get the basement cleaned so we can move down there for the summer (AC costs too much $ to run ) and such. We might try another batch later on, and I'll be better setup by then to get the coop split into two sections for that trial. Might even get a small scale so I can do weight comparisons as well...


Oh.. one thing I wanna know, on your coop... did you match the wood paint to the bins? I actually really like that color