When it comes to raising chickens for meat, I have always preferred hatching my own. Sometimes though, life just gets in the way and you just don't have time.
Earlier in the year I'd gotten some rooster chicks for very very cheap from a local man. They butcher out nice, but were much slower than even my heavy traditional breeds. Also, for some reason we had a much higher than average mortality on them, and I ended up with less chicken for the winter than I like.
So last week I came across a deal on Ideal Hatcheries website - black or red broilers for $1 per chick. You've probably seen me say it before - I despise broilers because of the unnaturalness of them. They grown freakishly fast and cannot reproduce naturally. At least, the traditional Cornish cross broiler don't. I did a little research, and the red and black broilers grown more slowly than the Cornish, but more quickly than the traditional breeds. They also will breed if allowed to grow to maturity, although the hens aren't really good layers.
This late in the season, my only option to add to the freezer is broilers, so I'm taking a chance on the reds. I'll try to post occasional updates to how they perform.
A week in and these little birds are growing like crazy! In just a week I think they have already doubled in size. We have lost a few, but nothing outside of the norm.
ReplyDeleteThese birds are growing QUICK! The only negative observation that I'll make (and my mother who is also growing these agrees), is that these are the most nervous chicks I've ever raised, and I've raised a lot. Any time you so much as walk past the brooder they start shrieking and running around like they are crazy.
ReplyDeleteIt occurred to me that I never did a final update on these birds. We butchered these about 12-16 weeks (we did it over several weekends). Although they didn't grow as large as my usual crossbred meat birds, they were plenty big and provided some nice legs and breasts.
ReplyDeleteI would not raise these on pasture though, since they don't seem to pasture well and seem to need the protein level of commercial feed to achieve a good size.