Post by citywife on Aug 2, 2022 18:55:53 GMT -5
We've never done cornish cross meat birds before (although a few years ago we culled 25 laying hens with a rented plucker) but I want to give 'em a try.
The two biggest dollar items are going to be a plucker and the feed. Before I pull any triggers I thought I'd dip into the well of wisdom on these boards.
Feed: Because I want to do non-gmo feed without breaking the bank, I have to drive about three hours to get it and therefore I want to buy all the feed at once. Purchasing one ton of feed at a time is even more affordable. I've read it takes about 15lbs of feed to raise a cornish cross, so one ton should feed about 130ish birds (does that sound right?). The mill's two options are 22% protein chick grower or 18% broiler finisher. I've read of people very successfully growing out their cornish cross on 19% ration the whole time or even 17% the whole time, whereas others swear you need 20-22% protein. So, two questions: #1 -- would it be better to err on 22% for the whole duration (butchering at 7-8 weeks) or to err on 18% the whole time? And #2: do I just need to bite the bullet and start them on chick starter and finish on lower percentage and lose out on the discount for purchasing one ton? I'd like big birds and would be disappointed with anything much less than 5 lbs on the table (and anything above that would be awesome), but I don't want them to die before we process them either. Experienced wisdom needed.
Plucker: The people who rented the plucker to us last time don't do it anymore so we're going to buy one. A Whizbang is out of the question at the moment as my husband already has to build the chicken tractors (and fence the property, and build a stanchion, and a lean-to, and and and...). A Featherman is out of our price range, but short of that I'm willing to buy once and buy right. If this batch of chickens goes well, I can see us doing turkeys (up to about 20 lbs), geese, ducks, and maybe even quail (yes, I know you can just skin them). Is there one plucker that can accomplish all of that (and yes, I know about waterfowl issues in pluckers)? Right now I'm looking at the Vevor 2200wt 23.5" machine. The Yardbird and Kitchener on Amazon just don't fill me with confidence on handling anything other than chickens.
Thanks so much, y'all. I'm pregnancy testing my four Jersey heifers tomorrow after their first round of AI... wish me luck on that .
The two biggest dollar items are going to be a plucker and the feed. Before I pull any triggers I thought I'd dip into the well of wisdom on these boards.
Feed: Because I want to do non-gmo feed without breaking the bank, I have to drive about three hours to get it and therefore I want to buy all the feed at once. Purchasing one ton of feed at a time is even more affordable. I've read it takes about 15lbs of feed to raise a cornish cross, so one ton should feed about 130ish birds (does that sound right?). The mill's two options are 22% protein chick grower or 18% broiler finisher. I've read of people very successfully growing out their cornish cross on 19% ration the whole time or even 17% the whole time, whereas others swear you need 20-22% protein. So, two questions: #1 -- would it be better to err on 22% for the whole duration (butchering at 7-8 weeks) or to err on 18% the whole time? And #2: do I just need to bite the bullet and start them on chick starter and finish on lower percentage and lose out on the discount for purchasing one ton? I'd like big birds and would be disappointed with anything much less than 5 lbs on the table (and anything above that would be awesome), but I don't want them to die before we process them either. Experienced wisdom needed.
Plucker: The people who rented the plucker to us last time don't do it anymore so we're going to buy one. A Whizbang is out of the question at the moment as my husband already has to build the chicken tractors (and fence the property, and build a stanchion, and a lean-to, and and and...). A Featherman is out of our price range, but short of that I'm willing to buy once and buy right. If this batch of chickens goes well, I can see us doing turkeys (up to about 20 lbs), geese, ducks, and maybe even quail (yes, I know you can just skin them). Is there one plucker that can accomplish all of that (and yes, I know about waterfowl issues in pluckers)? Right now I'm looking at the Vevor 2200wt 23.5" machine. The Yardbird and Kitchener on Amazon just don't fill me with confidence on handling anything other than chickens.
Thanks so much, y'all. I'm pregnancy testing my four Jersey heifers tomorrow after their first round of AI... wish me luck on that .