Meat birds 2017, here I go again

[farmertrappe]

I ordered chicks on Saturday and picked them up at the post office this morning. 104 Rainbow Rangers, hopefully I will start processing in eight weeks. Last year I ordered 100 every four weeks, gonna stretch that out to every six weeks this year. Attachment Deleted Found the feed, water and heat light right away.

[nytrapper23]

Nice farmer , doesn't look like it now but that's a lot of work right there!

[Brad H.]

I'm trying to convince my wife to let me do a dozen this year as a test. How much work are they?

[mdtreehugger]

Mar 1, 2017 21:40:27 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

I'm trying to convince my wife to let me do a dozen this year as a test. How much work are they?

Meat birds are easier than you might thing, especially if you have experience with laying chickens. My husband and I raise around 150 each year. First off a dozen may seem like a lot now, I promise its not. You will wish you had done more. The first time we did it we raised 20. Wished we had done 50. Now we do anywhere from 50-75 at a time, though 50 seems to be just the right amount for our pen. Second piece of advice, pasture raise them if at all possible. This really helps keep the smell and mess down considerably. We have an 8*8 pen of bent livestock panels, works great. Its basically Farmers design but a little smaller, and taller. Third, deiced what variety of meat bird you want to raise. There are 2 basic flavors, the white Cornish Cross, and the red broiler (known as freedom rangers, red rangers, rainbow rangers, ect..) I raise the Cornish Cross for a few reasons. Mostly there far superior growth rate. Note how Farmer said he hopes the will be ready to start processing in 8 weeks. Cornish Cross will be happily settled into the freezer at 7 weeks, every time. I've processed as early as 5.5 weeks and been happy with the result. Second if your a breast man you will prefer the Cornish Cross, leg and thigh guys might prefer the red broilers. The only down side to Cornish Cross is you do have to restrict there feed some or they will get to big and have heart and leg problems. I feed them in the morning and take away the extra 12-14 hours later starting between 5-10 days old. Works great for us and we have very little loss due to health issues. That being said I have raised both and was not as pleased with the red birds, had nearly 20% loss and much smaller carcass and worse feed conversion. 2.5 to 3 weeks in the brooder depending on time of year, then out to there pasture pen for there remaining time with us. Once you have raised your own meat chicken you will never want to buy it at the grocery store. Im sure Farmer will chime in with some different opinions as well. 

[farmertrappe]

I would recommend starting small unless you have help at processing time.(help is defined as someone who will actually preform tasks and not watch or distract you) I started with 60 birds the first year and hand picked them all. Ten or a dozen at a time and that was enough for one day. If you raise 40 or so and have Ninedeer and your Brother inlaw help and split the bounty it is not too bad of a day.
Treehugger and Squirrel Wacker have a very nice set up for processing birds, that makes processing much more efficient. I'm constantly fiddling with my scold pot set up to maintain the temp.
As far as raising them they are easy to deal with, but it is a every day chore. I tend to disagree with Treehugger on the taste of the red birds. The Cornish crosses are basically the same birds raised in confinement houses. I think the Red birds do a little better on pasture and I think the meat is firmer and tastes just fine. I do have looses,but over all they perform well. The foodie market around me likes the red birds also, so that is also a plus to me.
I do agree if you raise your own you will not want to eat factory farm chicken again.

[farmertrappe]

And like most things in life I live and learn. I considered putting all the chicks in one brooder with both heat lamps in it due to the cold temps in my shop. Birds were chilling this am, but they had been eating and drinking thru the night. Gonna get real cold this weekend so I will either put them together or get two more heat lamps. First alternative seems like a cheaper solution.

[mdtreehugger]

Type of chickens is definitely a great debate. I'm not sure there is a right answer. Find a few friends/family to help process and give it a try. 

[Brad H.]

I appreciate the advice from your both. I'm really pulling for it this year so we will see how it goes!

Also, I think a processing photo tutorial would be super helpful. Hint hint.

[mdtreehugger]

Mar 3, 2017 12:03:56 GMT -5 Brad H. said:

I appreciate the advice from your both. I'm really pulling for it this year so we will see how it goes!

Also, I think a processing photo tutorial would be super helpful. Hint hint.

I think that's a great idea, I think we can put something together next time one of us is processing chickens.

[ninedeer]

well Mr Brad I have been throwing around the idea of raising some meat birds this year.
maybe that will help you convince the MRS. If you have a few partners haha last time I raised some I did 30 my biggest issue was having to butcher them all my self one day. Makes for a long day doing it by ones self. But I would have to agree they are way better then store bought.

[Brad H.]

Mar 4, 2017 1:16:30 GMT -5 ninedeer said:

well Mr Brad I have been throwing around the idea of raising some meat birds this year.
maybe that will help you convince the MRS. If you have a few partners haha last time I raised some I did 30 my biggest issue was having to butcher them all my self one day. Makes for a long day doing it by ones self. But I would have to agree they are way better then store bought.

Sounds like we need to talk about the possibility of a joint venture here Ed.

[farmertrappe]

[/quote]Sounds like we need to talk about the possibility of a joint venture here Ed. [/quote]

I enjoy planting a seed and watching it grow.

[farmertrappe]

I put the birds all together with two lights on them and they are much happier. I also have insulation boards over the pen. Spread out nicely, some eating, some drinking and some snoozing-perfect.

[farmertrappe]

I recovered the pen and got everything ready Friday night and moved the meat birds outside Saturday morning first thing. Saturday was in the seventies and very nice out.

[farmertrappe]

Colder and windy today, birds look happy. Ate twenty pounds of feed yesterday, I added some wind protection.

[nytrapper23]

Looks good farmer

[pokeyjeeper]

Looking good farmer birds look happy

[mdtreehugger]

Looking good! 

[farmertrappe]

Now I remember why I started the meat birds a little later in the season in past years. They are ready to be processed and I'm as busy as a one legged man at a cockroach stoppin' party.
Gonna try to bang out a few this Sunday to get the ball rolling.

Eight weeks to the start of butching in the early spring ain't to shabby.

[farmertrappe]

Processed the first 29 birds Sunday and it was a full day. A I have to send out a Big Thank You to Treehuggers Husband(Squirrel Wacker) for going and picking up a Pizza and some more Ice to keep the processing line running smoothly.
I feel I'm forgetting some thing else....O Ya, I can't thank TreeHugger enough for coming over and first helping me and Dylan Bun Bun D end our relationship. We were just headed in different directions in our lives and it was time for a change in our relationship. So the next time i see that fat rabbit it will be in a pan with drippings and tators and carrots. And on top of that, Treehugger helped me process the 29 chickens start to finish, I would be very sore and unproductive today without her help yesterday. Things went smooth with her help for the first processing of the year and I'll be back at it again this coming weekend.
CHICKEN, FARM FRESH PASTURE RAISED CHICKEN FOR SALE, CHICKEN GET YOUR STONEHOUSE CHICKEN ON...................

[farmertrappe]

First pen of birds is done and a big to Treehugger for helping process 3/4 of the birds. Picked up the next 104 chicks on Wednesday, I culled one out and had one drowned in the water first day. Figure if it was that dumb, glad it went before it ate any feed. Nice break between processing for me and time to sell what I have in the freezer.

[farmertrappe]

This pen of birds is just about ready to process; should start on them next week. I have 100 chicks in the brooder I picked up this week, they look very happy so far.
I only have less than a dozen left in the freezer, so sales must be going well.

[lawoods31]

Nice farmtrapper I didn't know u could sell em like that raised some for myself but wish I could get into selling em anyway I can make a few bucks help these days what they go for u sell em on the net or at a market

[lawoods31]

Where u order those chicks from? There beautiful

[farmertrappe]

Jun 23, 2017 22:13:58 GMT -5 lawoods31 said:

Where u order those chicks from? There beautiful

Myers Hatchery in Ohio. I get the rainbow Rangers, I see they have a white breed now, I will give them a try this season too.

[farmertrappe]

The shrink bags i use were back ordered, my Mother was in town.....so I just got to the first round of butchering theses birds done Sunday. Thirty six birds were a full day, but I got a good start on them. Hope to do the rest of the pen this Sunday with Treehuggers help, need to move the next batch out of the brooder and onto pasture.

[nytrapper23]

Nice job farmer

[pokeyjeeper]

Looks good the Colonel would be proud

[farmertrappe]

Hundred birds ordered for delivery next week. this pen should be ready to start processing in ten days or two weeks.

No more birds available after the middle of August from the hatchery?? I was hoping to do another two hundred before my November cut off.

[farmertrappe]

Butchered 36 on Sunday, full day for sure with a break or two during the work day. Last 100 were moved to the field on Saturday night. Time to get brooders out of shop and make some room for trapping season. Will be nice not to butcher this weekend, might get me cutting firewood for a change.