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

[Snowhunter]

Well the chicks arrived this morning! I made the bleary eyed drive to the PO guzzling coffee and picked em up. Got em settled in the coop and they all got a drink and then snuggled up for a nap. They'll get one bag of chick ration then will be switched over to barley/clabber/sprouts mix. I'm adding some sprouted oats, since I'm already doing it for my dairy cows.

Haven't got the moveable coop done yet, for when they move outside but I've got a few weeks so I reckon I'll get it done eventually.

Here's them enjoying their new home

 

[Beekissed]

The heaviest and meatiest of all my DP are the White Rocks, so I guess they would be the most likely to raise for extra meat, in the absence of having the CX eggs to hatch. You can really feel the difference between picking up my WRs and picking up my NHR or BAs...they all look the same size but the WRs have a heavy, meatier density. I'm always shocked at just how heavy they really are.

I've had some very tasty and meaty DP roos that I processed at 5-6 mo. that were great and even tender on the grill. I fixed some for a summer party and barely got any....folks even asked to take them home for their family to taste.

 

[Beekissed]

Well the chicks arrived this morning! I made the bleary eyed drive to the PO guzzling coffee and picked em up. Got em settled in the coop and they all got a drink and then snuggled up for a nap. They'll get one bag of chick ration then will be switched over to barley/clabber/sprouts mix. I'm adding some sprouted oats, since I'm already doing it for my dairy cows.

Haven't got the moveable coop done yet, for when they move outside but I've got a few weeks so I reckon I'll get it done eventually.

Here's them enjoying their new home
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/3005_chicks1.jpg

Oooooo, babies!!!! What breeds? Love me some chicks!

 

[Snowhunter]

Well the chicks arrived this morning! I made the bleary eyed drive to the PO guzzling coffee and picked em up. Got em settled in the coop and they all got a drink and then snuggled up for a nap. They'll get one bag of chick ration then will be switched over to barley/clabber/sprouts mix. I'm adding some sprouted oats, since I'm already doing it for my dairy cows.

Haven't got the moveable coop done yet, for when they move outside but I've got a few weeks so I reckon I'll get it done eventually.

Here's them enjoying their new home
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/3005_chicks1.jpg

Oooooo, babies!!!! What breeds? Love me some chicks!

I know I was oohing and aahhhing when I picked em up

10 CornishX pullets (was all they had available for this shipment)
and 15 Australorp cockerels (though I think I ended up with a few pullets)

I had intended to do 25 CornishX but my bad planning and short timeframe, well, I compromised And the Australorps can also work on my winter garden area, once its time to get things planted in the Spring garden area.

 

[Beekissed]

LOVE BAs...simply my favorite all around chicken if I had to choose one breed above all else. WRs would come in a close second and would probably be more useful in the long run but BAs are so darn sweet and pretty along with their sustainability that I can't help but love them.

It will be interesting to see the growth rate of the two birds and how they differ at the same ages, won't it? Could you post a pic progression if it isn't too much trouble? And tell us what feeds, feed rate and such? Pretty pleeeeeaaasssse.....

I think it would be useful for those considering using DP birds as their meat chickens in comparison to CX and how they perform next to one another, etc.

 

[Snowhunter]

Oh yes, I will get all that posted! Thats what this thread is all about, so I'll give as much info as I can!

I am also interested to see how they do. I've raised hundreds of chicks over the last year, pure breeds, mutts, and am interested to see the comparison with these. Especially considering the Australorps are a fairly good size bird at full maturity.

I'll have to check the bag tommorrow for the % of the ration and such, but will post when I can. I'll be taking pictures at least every few days and will post those as well.

I will be free feeding for the next 3 weeks and will probably go to a limited ration of the clabber/sprouts/barley after that. I'm thinking a tray put out for them three times a day, just enough they clean it all up in 10-15 minutes.

They'll also get any scraps from the house. I'm tempted to take some of the cow manure and have that available for them to scratch in once they're outside too... with 40ish head, there's plenty around

 

[Beekissed]

I'm very interested in the clabber and sprouts....could you post a pictorial of your sprouting step by step and then show us how much you feed how many birds each time you feed it...in other words, how many sprouts satisfies their hunger as opposed to say...feed...of the same amount? Or is that even something someone could measure...'specially with the hoggy CX?

I've read about the sprouts, planned to do the sprouts but haven't done it since the first time around 6 years ago. I'd like to try it again in the winter months for greenage and feed savings.

 

[Snowhunter]

I can get pics of the sprouting setup for ya tomorrow. Its all setup since I'm foddering for the Jerseys (and hopefully eliminating grain!). I'm still gettin the hang of it though.. so bear with me

I can try getting something as far as sprouts vs commercial feed. I reckon measuring out a certain amount of each and taking two birds first thing in the AM, each in thier own space (1 w sprouts, 1 w/reg feed) and that should give a fairly good estimate, I think?

 

[Beekissed]

Yes...as close as one can get to getting some comparison, isn't it?

Maybe even split your chicks right down the middle, breed for breed, and seeing how much each consumes of each offered ration?

Say 5 BA/5CX given sprouts for one ration of the day vs. the same number of each on the other side of a partition given feed and see how much feed you save in X number of days and see if they grow at the same rate? Or would that be too much work? If it is, don't worry about doing anything that extreme....I've always been curious, though.

I'd like to know your method and the containers you use for your sprouting if you do this and maybe some pics of each day's sprout growth?

I'm always interested in more frugal ways to raise livestock and still produce a healthy specimen that has the same output as one would have with more expensive methods/feeding.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

One of the silver female types I'm using on my sex-link project with the RIR roo, is a white brahma. One of them was staying on the nest today when I was picking up eggs, so I picked her up. She was soooo heavy. You wouldn't know it by looking at her near the other hens. She is bigger, but you wouldn't think that big. I"m hoping a lot of my brown eggs I'm saving will be from those girls because I can look forward to some bigger cockerals to slaughter than what their daddy was at 18 or so weeks.