After having Ross Cobbs for the last few years I can't believe how slow growing these are in comparison, shows how long it's been since I hatched some of our own here!
Here's a picture of the meat birds at four weeks old -
It's going to be interesting to see what age I will kill the Indian Game Cockerels at, I think it will be nearer 20 weeks that 12 that's for sure!
I will need to decide where I'm going to move these chicks once they leave the brooder (you can see the brooder that I made in the link here), they have a slight modification in the fact that the mesh door has a layer of plastic to keep these guys a bit warmer.
I used to use a chicken arch for chicks and a broody hen that I made about 15 years ago but its started to fall apart! Not sure whether to repair it or convert a rabbit coop to house them, they need shelter, small wire to provide protection. I have a feeling this might be makeshift! They need to be out the brooder soon though as I have some duckling (hopefully) that will want to go in there in a couple of weeks time!
What accommodation do you use for young chickens? When would you separate bantam chicks from full sized chicken chicks?
What age do you slaughter cockerels for the table?
Does the meat from this variety taste better or do the hens lay more eggs?
ReplyDeleteThe true meat crosses I normally have are hard to get to lay eggs because they get too fat basically. I'll do a comparison of the meat in a few months hopefully but it will be much slower grown, so probably a bit tougher.
DeleteThis weekend I'm moving our incubator chicks out of the basement and into the garage. The stairwell is starting to smell decidedly "chicken-y". After they've feathered I'll move them into a small coop in the garden with a heat lamp inside and a small porch area so they can come and go and "harden off" naturally. As for cockerals, they get butchered in the fall or whenever they start to become annoying (charging at me is a prime offence).
ReplyDeleteMy cockerels have to live by the same lines. I need to start hardening these ones off now and open up the outside part of the coop. Haven't done that yet bu the weather has been terrible. Then need to fix the coop they'll move into. Downside is I saw a big one bully a bantam today so they might have to be separated up which means an extra pen!
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