Your Argument Is Invalid

  I am not a fan of chickens. I must admit this. Sure, I like some of the fighting breeds, but on the whole, I don't care for chickens. However, I could be very easily convinced to keep chickens, if I had a coop that looked like the TARDIS. Observe:

It is a TARDIS chicken coop. Your argument is invalid. 

P.S. The source of this image, plus building directions can be found HERE.

Homemade Poultry Feed Recipes

I was cleaning out my big binder a few days ago, as it was stuffed to the gills with all my farming papers... All those receipts, records, phone numbers, addresses, notes, and miscellaneous things I had printed out for future reference were making my binder crack prematurely. One of those miscellaneous items that I had forgotten about was a sheet of feed rations for poultry, which the Fertrell company had listed on their website for folks. I liked the detail on the ingredient lists, and the fact that they state the protein amount for each thing; so these papers have stuck around. 

Then I had a thought: "Duh; I should share these on the blog!" And so here I am. :)

Fertrell Poultry Rations:

Chick Starter/Grower - 19% protein

. Shelled corn - 1015 lbs.

. Roasted Soybeans - 625 lbs.

. Oats - 100 lbs.

. Alfalfa meal - 100 lbs.

. 60% Fish meal - 75 lbs.

. Aragonite (calcium) - 25 lbs.

Poultry Nutri-Balancer - 60 lbs.

Total: 2000 lbs.

Pullet Grower - 16% protein

. Shelled corn - 1215 lbs.

. Roasted soybeans - 450 lbs.

. Oats - 100 lbs.

. Alfalfa meal - 100 lbs.

.60% Fish Meal - 50 lbs.

.Aragonite (calcium) - 25 lbs.

.Poultry Nutri-Balancer - 60 lbs.

Total: 2000 lbs.

Layer Ration - 17% protein

. Shelled corn - 965 lbs.

. Roasted Soybeans - 600 lbs.

. Oats - 100 lbs.

. Alfalfa meal - 100 lbs. 

. Aragonite (calcium) - 175 lbs.

. Poultry Nutri-Balancer - 60 lbs.

Total: 2000 lbs.

Notes from Fertrell:

. All rations should be medium ground, or rolled. The chick starter ration may be slightly altered for other species of fowl.

. For brooder chicks needing a 21% protein starter mix (meat birds, for example), add two pounds of fish meal to 20 lbs. (a five gallon bucket's worth) of the 19% starter/grower.

. For turkeys and game birds, make a 26% protein mix by adding four pounds of fish meal to 20 lbs. (a five gallon bucket's worth) of the 19% starter/grower mix. Feed day 1 through 28.

. To make a 21% protein mic for Turkey Grower #1, add two pounds of fish meal to 20 lbs. (a five gallon bucket's worth) of 19% starter/grower. Feed day 29 through 56.

. Once turkeys are out to pasture, feed them regular 19% starter/grower until slaughter.

Count Those Eggs Before They Hatch

If you've ever tried hatching your own chicken eggs, then you probably know what an annoying thing it is to not know how many males are going to end up being in that batch when they hatch. And what's worse, is that you usually still don't know who's who until the chickens are mature enough (6-8 weeks on average; some folks can guess sooner, others later) that you can tell by looks as to who's a male and who's a female. A place only needs so many roosters, you know...

A couple days ago I learned two neat tricks to telling the difference betwixt male and female chicks not only when they're 2-week old youngsters, but possibly even when they're just an egg. I can't claim that these are fool proof since I have yet to try this (dying to, now though! My curiosity is killing me!), but so far I've heard a lot of positive results from other folks about these. And hey, it can't hurt right? If you're about to let a hen go broody, or if you want one last batch of eggs in that incubator, then it sure wouldn't hurt to pay a bit more attention to those eggs, right? 

So without further ado...

Below is a diagram of the difference between "pullet eggs" and "cockerel eggs". And should you care for the link to the original article on this (to prove that I'm not going nuts and making this up), you can find that by clicking HERE. It's a Mother Earth News article, so it may take a few moments to load (or it does for me anyway).

Aaaand the second trick: Sexing chicks by their wing feathers. Okay, I personally think this is the coolest thing. The bees knees, if you will. ;) This looks so simple that I'm practically foaming at the mouth to get my hands on some tiny chicks and see for myself that this holds true. I mean, seriously, do you know how handy that would be if I knew how many pullets vs. cockerels I was looking at, so early in the game!?!? Or what if I was buying 2-3 week old chicks from a breeder and wanted to get as many females as possible!? Yep, I'm pretty excited to learn this trick. So, the handy dandy link to this new knowledge can be found by clicking HERE! The link leads to a fun looking homesteading/homeschooling/homemaking/family oriented type blog.

Have any of y'all tried either of these tricks before? How'd they work??

I'm A Fighter

"Fall down seven times, get up eight."

"If you want something bad enough, then you have to be willing to fight for it."

I'm a fighter. I don't mean that as in I pick fights among people and cause trouble. I mean it as in I'm a stubborn person who will  do what she sets out to do, and isn't afraid to defy odds.

I got to pondering over this subject today while randomly thinking about how much I like the fighting breeds in the animal world; primarily poultry and dogs. From Pumpkin Hulseys to Pit Bulls. Sweater stags to Staffordshire Bull terriers. I love, love, love these fierce breeds that so many people shy away from. When people learn of my rather odd fascination for fighting animals, they ask if I like them for the illegal sport of pitting animal against animal in a brutal contest to the death. No. I don't like that stuff. And I'm not for it.

I like these headstrong breeds for their character. I like their grit, determination, courage, and fierce loyalty. I like that. They've got a fighting spirit that I highly admire and try to maintain in my life. Fall down seven times, get up eight. That old proverb never mentions falling down that eighth time, but it implies a dogged spirit that will get up again no matter what. It is a warning to those who dare to mess with us. We cannot be stopped.

I struggle with fear. With feeling insecure, worthless, useless, and invisible. These are all lies I tell myself; I know that they are lies. But they are hard to shake nevertheless; they hang in the back of my mind like cobwebs just out of my reach. Silently taunting me day and night. They are my perpetual ghosts that I must either listen to, or fight off. I have a tendency to listen to them until I remember that old proverb... Get up eight times. So get up I do, and fight my battles. Fight not only my mental ones, but the ones that I meet with daily. The problems, struggles, and topsy turvy happenings. Things worth having often have to be fought for. They will require blood, sweat and tears. Do I - do we - have the tenacity and perseverance to keep up the good fight?  

Besides loving those fighting breeds of animals, I also love learning physical fighting methods. Self defense, skills with knives, archery, firepower... I enjoy it all, and would love to someday learn karate or kung fu. Some might think me brutal, but I like it because knowing these things helps replace my fear with confidence. I am prepared for the worst, am trained to be aware of my surroundings, and while I hope and pray that I never find myself in a bad situation, I do not fear the possibility as much as I used to. I sometimes wonder what sort of message I cast to random people on the streets with my body language... Do I give the impression of a fearful person or a confident one? Do I seem approachable, or would a person rather go to someone else with their question? I want to be confident, yet approachable. One person made an offhand comment to me the other day that between my body language and the pocket knife that is forever present on my self, I give the impression of being a confident person who is ready to conquer the world. I gave the person a quizzical look at that comment; I often feel like my fear must show through my mask... I do not feel like a person ready to conquer the world most of the time, but I am slowly learning to let that fear sink into oblivion where it belongs. I want to be a confident, strong character. A fighter.

More than just being able to fight for myself though, I want to be able to be able to defend those who I care for. And you know what? Defending my friends and family can require more than physical demands. It may mean standing up them when they are being treated unjustly. It normally doesn't bother me when someone tries to downgrade or belittle me; I can usually handle that fairly well. What riles me is when someone dares to insult, accuse, or otherwise hurt my family or friends. Hurt me. Make me your victim. Take me instead. But don't you dare hurt my family or friends. Otherwise you will unleash a fury neither you or I will be completely prepared for. My sense of justice rebels at the thought of an innocent person getting needlessly hurt. I don't have many good qualities to proclaim for myself, but loyalty is one that I will put on that very short list...

Sometimes you want something, but logic - and possibly people - says it's not possible for you. Do you take on the attitude of a defeatist and give up at that? Or do you rise to the challenge and prepare for a stout battle? Sometimes you gotta' fight for what you want. And I'm not saying fight against the people who say 'no'. I'm saying you're probably going to have to fight against the odds, against yourself. Get ready for the blood, the sweat, the tears. The pain, the wait, the anguish. Folks have said it's impossible because it's a hard road. So be prepared to fight. If you truly want something, you may have give it all you've got. Whether it's a farm, a college education, or what-have-you. Life it a perpetual test of our perseverance and determination. And just know that some folks will most likely try to trod on you, on your dream, on your goal. Listen to those people and see if their words hold any truth. If they do, then look into making changes. If not, then disregard. Get up that eight time.

 I love the fighting breeds of animals because they are a tangible example of what it means to keep going even when all seems lost. They will keep going, keep fighting, keep daring, even when the odds are grossly against them. They're a reminder to me to keep up that courage and grit. To keep trying, stay loyal, and stand up for yourself. Not a bad lesson to learn from a chicken and a dog...

One Tough Cookie

I've always liked Pumpkin Hulseys. They're just cool chickens. I'm not really a chicken person, to be honest... I find them rather annoying creatures. But, I do like the Hulseys... These birds are something different. They're tough, and they're smart.

I've managed to give away just about all my chickens now; but my Hulsey pullet remains thus far. Why? Do I like her too much to give her away? Is she too valuable to part with?

It's true that I do like her, and that she *is* a valuable bird (let's see... I just saw a pullet sell for $300 a few weeks ago?), but that's not why she's still here. I can't catch her. 90% of the time I can't even find her.

Three times now I've assumed she's dead. Assumed that a bobcat got her, or a hawk nabbed her, or a raccoon found her in the night. And then I see her flitting by for two seconds, only to disappear back into the brushy borderline of our property. She's gleaning her own food, getting her water from the creek, and roosting high up in surrounding trees come nightfall. I have yet to see a Barred Rock, or a Buff Orpington survive this long on their own.

I suppose I should eventually try and catch her before I leave for Missouri, but part of me is curious as to just how long she can take care of herself before she starts coming back to the barn. She's one tough cookie, that bird is... The Pumpkin Hulseys are a fighting breed, and this little pullet has proven herself strong. I may not like chickens, but I'm definitely a fan of these Hulseys... They're different.

Surprises From The Freedom Rangers!

It seems the butchering of some of the Freedom Rangers yesterday got the point across to the rest of the birds that I didn't get to: I don't keep birds who don't lay eggs. 

This morning I found nine eggs (I think I have 10 hens left?) in the nest boxes. Made me think of something from the movie "Chicken Run", it did... Hehe. 

For pullet eggs, they're a good size! All jumbos!

I've missed having homegrown eggs around the place...

The Lone Ranger

Yup, those Freedom Rangers are still on the hoof. 

Basic Broiler Challenge: Week ???

*Ahem*. I got really behind in doing the BBC didn't I? I'm surprised y'all didn't start throwing tomatoes, or ranting and raving madly, or just leaving! Do you want me to start reeling off excuses, or shall I just pick up where I left off? Hmm, I'm going with the latter choice.

But I will say this! It's REALLY hard to take pictures of a chicken single-handedly when the bird gets to 5 lbs. or more. And it's also hard to take pictures when it's raining non-stop. And this particular person doesn't like to blog when she doesn't have pictures. (oh, do those count as excuses??)

But I'm going to blog without pictures anyway. This is getting ridiculous, how long I've stretched this out!

So, where on earth did I leave off?? Hmm, looks like Week #6 was the last update you got... Ouch. That was November 1st!! But on that last post, the Freedom Rangers were each averaging 3 lbs. live weight, and they were officially off grain and on to their milk/cheese/sprout diet. So in this stretch of silence, what happened??

I'm going to spit out the piece of news that you probably want to hear the most: It worked. In the end, the alternative diet worked. And it worked AMAZINGLY. 

Things got really crazy after week #6 because I began drying my cow up, and the goats dried up. So I had to start relying on frozen milk, frozen cheese, and frozen whey that I had stored up. The fodder was also starting to grow slower and slower since we were getting into the cold months. But I had enough of everything to get me to week # 12.

So, week by week, what on earth happened with those birds!?

Let's start back at week #6 for a recap:
Weights at that time were 3 lbs. per bird in my group, and roughly 1.5 lbs. per bird in my friends' group.

I had no idea how much to feed these birds, or how much of each thing, so I was totally going on gut instinct, and watching the birds to see how they did. In the end, the fodder was free fed; meaning I tried to keep it in there at all times, so that they always had food in front of them. With the 25 Freedom Rangers, at 6-7 weeks of age, I was going through 6-8 lbs. of fodder a day. I didn't have a lot of cheese, since my dairy animals had just failed me (thank you 'o cow and goats! Right when I needed you! *insert unamused look*), so I only fed that to them 2x's a day, and gave 1-2 lbs. at each time. One gallon of milk made 2 lbs. of cheese, so it was easy enough to know that each gallon I got would create a day's worth of food. I alternated between the milk and whey, so that I wouldn't run out of either one too fast. For that though, I would fill a 1-gallon poultry waterer with a 1/2 gallon of milk and the birds were allowed to drink that. I experimented with taking away their water for a few hours at a time so that they only had access to the dairy, but I don't think I would do that in the summer time when the birds have heat stress to deal with. I found that the birds would only drink a 1/2 gallon of milk/whey each day; anymore than that and it would just sit and spoil.

Week #7:

The birds had officially been on the alternative diet for 2 weeks, and weights were as follows:

My group:
Average individual weight: 3.5 lbs.

Friends' group:
Average individual weight: 2 lbs.

Week 8:

My group:
Average individual weight: 4 lbs.

Friends' group: 2.3 lbs.

This is where things got crazy... The birds were eight weeks old, full feathered, and had minds of their own. They started flying out of their brooder boxes and getting into each others. If it wasn't for the weight difference, and the fact that my birds were bigger, there would have been no way to tell who's birds were whose! I was getting really stressed out with 52 chickens running rampant in my barn; it wasn't a good situation! I was on the last week in milking my cow and ultimately that's what caused a snap. I was milking once a day, and as soon as I turned on the milking machine and hit the point where I really couldn't leave the cow, in came 30 to 40 Freedom Rangers, all trying to get Mattie's feed!! This was an absolute no-no; birds of any sort are NOT allowed in the milking stall. I put my Freedom Rangers in a kidding pen that was empty, but had no where to put my friends' 27 birds! So I ended up having to give their birds back to them, and finishing my project with only my birds.

Week 9:
Average individual weight: 4.5 lbs.
Average group weight: 112.5 lbs.

Week 10:
Average individual weight: 5 lbs.
Average group weight: 125 lbs.

Week 10 was about when their appetites really began to pick up. Fodder consumption increased to an easy 10 lbs. a day, and they probably would have eaten more. I was no longer giving it as a "free feed" because we were now heading into the beginning of December, and my fodder was getting harder and harder to grow. Milk and cheese consumption stayed the same though. The cheese really seemed to make an impact on their weight gain; I noticed that without the dairy, they didn't do as well. Next time I do this, I would like to try experimenting with feeding more cheese; maybe 6-8 lbs. a day per 25 birds. Just to see if it increases growth rate noticeably or not.

Week 11:
Average individual weight: 5.5 lbs.
Average group weight: 137.5 lbs.

Week 12:
Average individual weight: 6 lbs.!
Average group weight: 150 lbs.

By 12 weeks, the birds were big enough to be butchered. They were the same weight that my Cornish X's hit at 8-9 weeks. It cost me $700 to raise one hundred Cornish X's in the traditional feeding manner (grain. Expensive grain.). Raising one hundred meat birds on the alternative diet would only cost $84. I don't know about you, but I'll take that second price over the first one. I went through a bag and a half of whole wheat for sprouting, and the milk was extra that otherwise would have been dumped because I had no room for it in the fridge.

So, where are those Freedom Rangers right now? Um... Wreaking havoc in my barn. *sheepish look* Yeah, they're still on the hoof. December turned out to be extremely busy for the local processors, and they couldn't fit me in anywhere until January. Then when January came, I didn't have the funds at the moment to be butchering them all. Time sort of just rolled by after that... And they're still here. Hehe. But personally, that really says something about the Freedom Rangers. With the Cornish Crosses, I am SO sick of those birds by 6 weeks. By eight weeks of age I hate them so much that it ain't funny. I've never gone more than 9 weeks with a Cornish X. The Freedom Rangers are now something like 5 months old, and they've been a lot of fun to keep around. The females should begin laying soon, and I suppose I really should get the males butchered before they figure out how to crow!!

Average weight at 5 months? 13 lbs.! These birds are HUGE!

All in all, I would say my Basic Broiler Challenge was a success. I set out to see if meat birds couldn't be fed more cheaply, and I found that they could. I want to order some Cornish X's (yes, even though I hate them) soon and see about raising a test batch of maybe 50 birds on the alternative diet. Since these birds need a higher octane feed than the FR chickens, I think I might see about giving them fermented grain as well, since that's such a high protein. Chicken sells well around here; I just need to figure out how to make it cost effective to raise them! And if this alternative diet idea works with the Cornish X's like it did for the Freedom Rangers, then this could be a very good side business to have along with the dairy...

So. Questions?

A Fierce, Fierce Bird

This is one of my Freedom Rangers. :) Nine pounds of feathered glory, he is quite the sight as he glares at everyone; he is a fierce, fierce bird. 

The Freedom Rangers are scheduled to be butchered hopefully next week. I'm going to miss these birds...

The Pumpkin Hulsey Pullet

And here are the pics of my sweet little girlie! She's adorable and petite, but still *quite* the little fighter. I love her pluck for something so small. :)

Her color is spot on for a female Hulsey, but I was dismayed to see that she has matured with GREEN legs! Pumpkin Hulseys are supposed to have white or yellow legs (my stag has white legs). Anything else is a DQ. So she is unshowable, and possibly unbreedable. We'll see though.

The Pumpkin Hulsey Stag

With the help of a sister, I finally managed to get some pictures of my Pumpkin Hulseys today! 

Wonder of wonders, I did indeed end up with one pullet (young female), and one stag (young male). Because of the amount of pictures I got, I'm splitting this into two posts. One for each bird. 

First is my lovely stag! I was dissapointed to see that he ended up not being the color that I like. You know, the whole "pumpkin" coloring?? That was the desired result. He's still show quality, so I think he'll stick around for his genetic pool. 

Other than his color, I am quite pleased with him. He's a good boy. :) 

So Starts the Day

My morning started with hauling six dead chickens out of the barn/coop. The temps dropped to somewhere around the high 20's last night and I guess some of the birds just couldn't take it. Two of them were Red Star layer pullets, and four of them were my Freedom Rangers. Phooey. 

I Like These Birds

I went out to do my afternoon barn chores today and found to my surprise that a Freedom Ranger had gotten in the chick brooder and was molesting the little Pumpkin Hulseys.

Or, at least I thought it was molesting the Hulseys...

I watched in surprise as the bigger of the two chicks (which isn't all that big; he's about 3" tall) was pitting himself against the Freedom Ranger and seemed to be winning the battle. The five lb. meat bird had no idea what to think of this pint sized attacker, but did his best to defend himself. Though he had no spurs, the cream colored Hulsey would leap up and slash his legs at his opponents chest and face, before dropping down and attacking the Freedom Ranger's legs. 

I pulled the two birds apart and fished the Freedom Ranger out. You don't belong in there you feather mattress... 

The little Hulsey chick strutted proudly around his brooder; chest puffed out and with the smaller chick close beside him. 

I like these birds. The little guy has no idea how small he is, but his heart and spirit are the size of a lion's. 

The Pumpkin Hulsey Chicks!

Well it looks like I will only get two chicks out of this hatch. :-/ I'm going to buy a new thermometer soon and try doing another batch, but for now I am at least happy that I got a couple of chicks! Had I bought these two from a hatchery, they would have cost me a total of $250; buying them via Ebay saved me quite the chunk of money! 

P.S. I got my pair of pigs today! The story and pictures are coming tomorrow!

Eggs Are Hatching!!

If you look very, very closely on some of the Pumpkin Hulsey eggs, you will see some hairline cracks on them that weren't there a few hours ago...

And if you hold your breath and listen as hard as you can, you will hear two chicks peeping from within the close confines of their egg shells. 

It's enough to make this farm girl flush with excitement and grin wildly. The stork never came, but the mail lady did three weeks ago when she first delivered the eggs, and I guess that's good enough for me when it comes to game fowl.

Stay tuned...

Soon!

The Pumpkin Hulsey eggs are due to hatch sometime between tomorrow and Monday!! I don't think I'll get a very good hatch this time around since I think my thermometer might be a bit off, but I do hope that I at least get a couple chicks!

Stay tuned for updates, and maybe some pictures and videos!

It's Been One Of Those Days...

For the most part, I am pretty good about laughing off bad days. If something goes wrong I usually just acknowledge that what I just did didn't work and try something different next time, or I just laugh at my pathetic self for my ineptitude. Today I haven't managed to do either of those... It's just been "one of those days". 

It all started out with my hat. I have a hideous, bright purple, knitted hat that I wear in the winter time, and I as dorky as I look in that thing, I wanted to wear it today while milking and doing barn chores. Couldn't find it. You would think that it would be easy to find something that is as loudly colored as this hat, but it seems to have camouflaged itself somewhere in the depths of my closet. So I had to just get over it and endure having cold ears. One of these days I'm going to get a nicer looking hat...

As if feeling like an icicle wasn't bad enough, Mattie stubbornly refused to come up to the barn to be milked. She was at the far end of the pasture enjoying watching me try to entice her up to where I was. Nope, that cow decided that she was quite content in her spot. So I had to go get her, which meant all fourteen of the goats, and the two sheep had to accompany me in a ridiculous looking parade of mammals. Where the human goes, the goats go, and where the goats go, the sheep go. On a warmer day I might have laughed at all of us, tromping out to get the cow; but today I just wanted to get the milking done and over with. 

After milking chores, and regular barn chores, I went to check on the Freedom Rangers. I had put mine in my chicken tractor the day before and was a little apprehensive to see how they fared through the night, which had ducked into the mid-30's. Alas, one of the Freedom Rangers had frozen to death in the night. All by itself in a corner, it had ice particles over its feathers and beak. It was my pretty little lemon cuckoo colored one too (the golden barred pullet). I pulled the dead bird out and started working on moving the tractor to a fresh piece of grass. The rest of the birds seemed okay, if not a little subdued by the cold temps. I shoved the wooden dolly beneath the back of the tractor, which puts wheels on my behemoth structure, and started pulling from the front. 

Turns out that I didn't have the dolly shoved under there well enough. In one quick motion the dolly popped out while I was in the midst of pulling the tractor forward and the whole thing landed with a dull THUD on the soggy November ground. A chicken squawked loudly and then went silent. I zoomed around the the back and found that the tractor had landed on another Freedom Ranger and it looked like the bird now had a broken wing. Great. I tried catching the poor thing, but it evaded my grasp and hid in a corner out of my reach. I'll have to see about getting it tonight when it's asleep. 

I gave up on the dolly after that. From here on out I would just try and pull the tractor, which weighs around 200 lbs. and has no leverage for me to work with. For the record, it is really hard to pull a dead weight that is at least 80 lbs. more than you. I gave a huge heave-ho, saw the tractor look like it went over a bump, and then it scooted forward with relative ease. Or it would have been called "ease" if my sudden exertion hadn't caused me to pull a muscle in my back. This day was just getting better and better! (Not.)

Satisfied that I had at least moved the chicken tractor to a new spot, I went to put the useless dolly away. When I got the back, I found to my dismay that the "bump" the tractor had gone over was yet another chicken. And it looked dead. The tractor had scraped all the back feathers off of the bird, and its head was bent beneath it in a grotesque form. I nudged it with my boot and to my surprise, the chicken hopped up and sped off. It didn't go far though before it started running in drunken circles; its eyes dilating wildly, and its feathers all puffed up. Could this day really get any worse!?!? Now I had one dead chicken, and two injured ones on my hands! I picked the chicken up, and looked it over more carefully. Under its left wing the skin had ripped open. With grimness I thought what a pity it was that this was a pullet to be hurt; the tear was in the perfect spot to try surgical caponization if it had only been a cockerel. I know, of all the things to be thinking right then, THAT just had to come to mind... I put the little bird back in the warm brooder box with some food and water. I don't know if it will live or not yet; only time will tell.

I think at this point I am going to pull the meat birds out of the tractor and keep them in a more sheltered spot until they're butchered. I only have two or three more weeks to go with them, but it seems like forever. It's just too cold for them to be outside, and frankly I don't even want chickens on my pasture right now. The grass is supposed to be resting and the birds are scratching their area into a mud hole. Grrr. 

So now I'm inside with a hurt back and I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get all those meat birds back in the barn before nightfall... Ugh. 

Basic Broiler Challenge: Week #6!

Week #6 with the BBC! There's not much to report this week, save for the fact that the birds are HUGE!

My birds have officially been off their broiler ration for a whole week now, and they seem to be doing really well on it. It took them about 4 days to get used to only getting milk/cheese/sprouts for their food, and consequently it hurt this week's weight gain. They're eating like hogs now though, so I'm hoping that they'll make some extra gain before next week.

This weeks weight reports are as follows:

Group 1. (My group)

Average individual weight: 3 lbs.

Average combined weight: 78 lbs!

Group 2 (Friends' group who are still on 20% broiler ration)

Average individual weight: 1 lb. 7 oz.

Average combined weight: 45.9 lbs. (27 chickens; one stopped growing and is still the size of a 1 week old chick!)

My chickens weighed 2.7 lbs. last week, and this week they are only at 3 lbs. That's a teeny, tiny gain by anyone's standards. But again, this could be that it took them 4 days to get back to eating, so that could be a major factor there. It could also be that now they are growing in leaps and bounds skeletal-wise. They're taller and bigger than ever, but not fatter. Perhaps from here on out growth rate will be slower for both groups since their skeletal rate has caught up? It's a theory anyway... 

And it's time. My Freedom Rangers need to either be put in the chicken tractor or in a hoophouse STAT! They are running amok everywhere and living up to their names of "freedom rangers". I'm getting really good at my chicken catching skills, and that's the gospel truth! Such a shame no one offers degrees or at least a diploma for highly skilled chicken catchers. Someone oughta' complain about that... 

The Hulsey Eggs

Basic Broiler Challenge: Week #5 and Off Grain!

Ta da! Week #5 for the Basic Broiler Challenge! These birds are HUGE and continue to keep me pleased with their performance.

Today was "THE" day. My group of 26 Freedom Rangers are officially off grain. I've been supplementing their usual ration all week with sprouts and cheese, and today was finally the day where they got no grain. I fed them 4 lbs. of raw milk cow cheese (just a fast vinegar cheese) early in the day, and then gave them 3 lbs. of sprouts this afternoon while doing mid-day barn chores. Tonight they'll get the 4 lbs. of whey that resulted from the afore mentioned cheese. They all seem really content with the new diet thus far; no chirping, wandering around looking for food, or other signs that might make me think they're hungry. Half of them are perched on the brooder box edge (yes, they're still in the brooder!); content to simply roost there and watch the world go by instead of hopping out and making me commence to a chase. When they want down from their view point, they shuffle their chubby selves around and plop back into the brooder. Trained birds... How 'bout that? 

This week's  weights are as follows:

Group 1 (my group that is on the sprouts/raw milk diet):

Average individual weight: 2 lbs. 7 oz!

Average combined weight: 70.2 lbs.!!

Group 2 (my friends' birds who are on 20% broiler ration)

Average individual weight: 1 lb. 4 oz.

Average combined weight: 39.2 (there are 28 birds in this group)

Looking at the weights I have from last week and this week, both groups have doubled their weights, and group #2 is growing steadily, if somewhat slower. They're about a week behind in weights from my group, so I'm guessing they're what a normal batch would look like and will be old enough to butcher by 9-11 weeks. Mine are just mammoth sized freaks. LOL. If mine keep on gaining at the rate they have been, then they should hopefully be ready to be butchered by 8 weeks. But we'll see. After all, this is only their first day on a straight dairy/sprout diet.

Sprout tutorial coming soon!