Tally Prices and amount of feed. Amount of meat

We went through 8 1/2 bags of feed which brings it to 425 lbs of feed for 25 Freedom Rangers feed up to their 10 week old hatch dates. They were 10 weeks exactly on the day of processing. They were fed the Purina grower throughout their life along with some free ranging the last few weeks before processing. Trust me when I say, they STILL ate a lot of feed even though they were eating grass too. A 50 # bag of Purina grower is 12.59 per bag so that totals up to right around 109.00 and the cost of processing was right at 102.00 4 bags of pine shavings 4.59 for 3 cubic feet of shavings. we did lose one bird on the way to the processing plant so that throws off our totals by just a few bucks. But below you will find the totals for all 24 remaining birds.


55.00 Price of chicks Ordered from JMHatchery
+109.00 Feed
+102.00 Processing (1/2 of them quartered 1/2 of them eighted)
+ 18.36 Pine Shavings
+ 20.00 Heat lamp use
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314.36 TOTAL COST

Amount of actual meat we brought home was 87 lbs (bones in of course). So....

314.36 total cost
/ 24 birds
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= 3.61 per pound which isn't bad considering these are chemical free and pretty close to organic

13.10 per bird is what we paid to raise them and feed them and process them.

Give me your thought on this if YOU raised meat chickens.

How did we like our first chicken dinner?

It was WONDERFUL! We made sweet and sour chicken and the texture was not mushy like some store chicken is. It had a little firmness to it but not tough by any means. I still have not gotten all the info together but I will! We usually have chicken twice a week so I will let you know how the next meal goes. AND I will work on getting all the info together with cost. I can tell you the final cost of the butcher. It was 104.00 for 24 chickens. That was getting 1/2 quartered and 1/2 eighthed Plus we got extra bags for storage so that all brings up cost. Next time we will get a couple whole chickens.

Birds are done. End age...10 weeks

I didn't even keep any like I had planned. I was going to but they were just so weak in the legs I didn't want to try it and have them in pain and picked on by the others so I took them all. I got bit (the crowing roo got me good) and scratched but I managed to get them all in the cages one by one. Taking their food away 12 hours before helped becasue they were easy to catch.

We took them in yesterday. Lost one in transit, we know now that two cages about 1 1/2 foot by about 3 foot are not big enough. One was trampled on :( We feel really bad about that since it was needless and just went to waste. When we got there it went in a pile with another bird that had not made the trip from another flock that was brought in.

A guy who was there told us that we should get cornish cross next time becasue they are plumper. We told him we were aware of that but we wanted "free" range birds who ate grass not just laid around. He said well move your cage around and they have no choice but to eat the grass. Ummmm...no, we want FREE range "ya know, birds that are FREE and can run around on 20 acres if they like" Not free range as in caged in a small cage and sitting in the grass. That to us is NOT free range but that's what they consider free range. It's a sad thing when people can label eggs and such as free range and THIS is what is considered free range. He told us any animal able to get to grass is considered free range no matter if it is caged or not.

Well he thought our birds were "small" Most were 6-7 lbs and that to me was quite large. There was a lot of fat and nice meat on those bones so we were very pleased with it. We let is sit in the fridge to rest last night and today and tonight I will transfer all of it to the freezer with the exception of one pack which I will stick in some brine and let soak for tomorrows meal. I have to say it's going to be very strange eating these chickens but I'm curious of the taste.

I'm tallying up all the totals for everything tonight and will post in an end post either tonight or tomorrow. Oh and I will let you know what we think of the taste of them also compared to store chicken which is pumped up with all sorts of chemicals and salt water before they are brought to sell at the store.

Their end weight at exactly 10 weeks old was Roos=6.5-8 lbs and hens=4.5-6.5

Tomorrow is P day.

Tomorrow we have to have the meat chickens at the processing plant at 10:30 am. I'm not looking forward to this but I know it has to be done. It will depend all on the taste and the total cost of everything (which I will figure out after we get the birds back from the Processor) whether or not we do this again. If we decide not to...well then I have another coop to use for something else :D We would however need to insulate it before we put anything in there over the winter. We did go through another bag of feed. I have to pull their food 12 hours before we bring them in so tonight I will grab the feeder out of their coop and in the morning they will get loaded onto the truck for their big trip. There are 25 of them total. I though I had 26 but upon recounting recently I counted 25. So either I miscounted earlier or one was ate by something. Which seems unlikely becasue I'm sure that thing would have been back for more if that were the case. I think it was just me miscounting them. I will update tomorrow on how everything went. OH by the way, weighed in one of my bigger roos and he weighed in at 7 lbs. The hens were weighing in at about 5 - 6 lbs. Not bad :D I will weigh them one last time tomorrow before we leave. I also go pics of them yesterday I will post here later when I get them uploaded.

Processing Date Made

Well, I did it. I made our date for next Wednesday. We have to travel about 30 - 45 min with them but shouldn't be to bad. Were sticking them all in the back of the truck in cages. Should be quite interesting to say the least. Only the one crowing so far and he's a big boy...prob THE biggest. It's raining out today so I did not let the meat chickens out yet today. They are not the brightest and would not stay in their home but instead get drenched. I need them to stay healthy so in they stay until it stops raining. It's cold here today too! Not even hitting 70 yet and prob won't today. Counting up bags of food today to get an estimated amount so far. Will weigh them in sometime today too and once again before they go on Wed.

The crowing has started!

Well yesterday while getting all the coops opened up I heard crowing coming from the meat chicken coop :/ I hope the time goes by fast as the neighbors prob would not appreciate another 15 crowing chickens next door LOL I am calling today to make the apt with the processor (was suppose to call on Friday). Their legs seem to really be getting sore with the bigger roos too so it may be a good thing even though it will be hard. Another 50 # bag of feed gone...although my laying hens seem to thing it is THEIR food as well. Each morning when letting them out the first thing they do is run to the meat chicken coop for a bite to eat. Their food is always full but they won't eat it.

Quick update

One of our roos is now 6 1/2 lbs. By the end of the two weeks they should be reaching close to 7 1/2 or 8 lbs which is good I think. They are still free ranging and loving it. We went through another 50 lb bag of feed and I have added another bag of pine shavings to their coop. It was starting to smell pretty bad. I was hoping that I would not have to add any but yup, really needed to. I could smell a tiny hint of ammonia which is not good for us or them. Now it smells nice and fresh to pine. The funny thing is they are beginning to roam pretty far and mingle with my laying hens. When my 83 yr old dad walks down to the coop they all follow him back up to the garage. Pretty funny watching a little ol man with 37 chickens following him! LOL 12 of them being my laying hens who always follow everyone around. We have found our place of slaughter and we are making the apt on Monday. Still undecided if I want to keep 2 or 3 of them. There is two that I have really got attached to. UGH it gets harder the closer to slaughter it gets :( Poor babies! I have to remember they had a great life here and they will have ONE bad day in their lives. And the journey continues....

loving it outdoors!

Our meaties are loving it outdoors...they go in on their own now as long as we have the underside to the coop closed off where they cannot hide under there. They have been loving their freedom and eating lots of grass and lounging in the grass. I have noticed thought that they are not the best of runners. The larger roos have trouble with their legs. Not so weak that they cannot get around but not like the egg layers for sure. They have almost what looks to be a limp or something like that. They all still seem happy and content in the shaded grass. Just eating away! We went through yet another 50# bag and almost then next one since I posted. I have to go back and add up all the feed to get an estimated cost. Of course were not comparing cost to the store bought "roundy's" brands we are comparing to the grass fed organic brand chicken. No loses yet but we have some pretty cute girls going on. I'm still undecided if I want to keep a few or not seeing we are selling off our old flock next spring and the two black hens that were sharing their domain are now in with the bantams for the winter. I may not want to add any to the large flock because they will only be picked on and I will go crazy about that. And then try to place them some place else for the winter and hubby will NOT like that LOL. They can't stay in their current coop as it is not insulated and the winters here are crazy cold. I will think on that one.

ETA: Their weight is over 5 lbs now but will get an exact weight of one of our larger roos on Wed when I have the day off work.

Some growth

Well the meatiest of the freedom Rangers are just under 5 lbs now. We are planning on bringing them to the butchers at about 10-11 weeks old. That date is coming up. They are seven weeks old on Wednesday this week. So by August 26th they will be ready for the butcher. I'm wondering what the weights will be by that time. They have been gaining steady and now that they have unlimited food they will most likely be putting on more weight. I was taking the food away at night while they were young. Now I just let them have free eating rights. We did try to let them out to free range a few times and the first time was a disaster! They hid under the coop and it was close to impossible to catch them. We ended up using a fishing net and an hour later we finally caught the ONLY FOUR that come out LOL They are MUCH faster then my big fat laying hens I can tell ya that. Who ever said meat chickens were slow and lazy were NOT correct HAHA.
The next time we let them out we blocked the under side of the coop so they could not hide under it. It worked much better. We still had to chase them a little...most did not go in on their own...but when we left the big door open they would get scared enough to go back in on their own. Wasn't to bad. So on the days that I am home we will let them out to free range to get them some nice vitamins before we butcher. We went through another 50 lb bag of food and on a new one now. I believe this is the sixth bag? I have to look back but on my last entry for THIS set of birds I will add the totals of everything...food, weight, length of time, and dressed weight when we get them back.

Home from our trip

Well we just got home last night and I tell you what! The meat birds were HUGE, just over 5 days they grew like crazy. I weighed some of them and they are weighing in at 3 and 1/2 lbs now! I got them a 30 lb feeder as well so we don't have to keep going out there three times a day. I also tried letting them out to forage and they did NOT go back in their coop at dark. I was hoping they would and that we would be able to let them out to forage every day. I'm not finding myself thrilled about chasing around 28 meat chickens every night before bed to get them back in their coop. Thank goodness only FOUR came out to investigate. They were in their coop for over two weeks so I was thinking it would work. Maybe meaties are different then regular hens? Maybe we can block off the under side of the coop so they can't hide under it. We went through two more bags of feed each at 50 lbs. So far we are at 200 lbs of feed. The last of the bag is in their 30 lb feeder and it is about 1/2 full yet. I think we are going through about 50 #s a week right now. Will prob be more later. We were hoping to lesson that amount with getting them out to range but it may not happen now.

Some updates

Well Last Thursday we upgraded their waterer to the 5 gallon metal waterer. It is GREAT not having to fill their one gallon one twice a day! It lasted three days...well really close to three anyhow. We did fill it up on the third day. We are also looking for a larger feeder and having problems finding one. I weighed the chicks and they are running just over 2 lbs now. One was 2lbs 5 oz and some others were a little smaller. I have been noticing them breathing heavier...maybe its just me or maybe chicks just do that. Just wanted to not that here. They have been very active though in their coop. We will be letting them out to free range very soon so we hope they put themselves back in to bed at sundown.

We are leaving for a week to Washington so It will be a few days before I update. I'm sure the chicks will look HUGE when we get back home. I will update then.

Update on the meaties 4 weeks old

Today they are four weeks old.

Weight: Amber is 1 lb 5.5 oz One of the larger meaties is 1 lb 9.5 oz and the regular laying hen is 15.5 oz (STILL under a lb!) YOu can see the meat birds far passed them up. They are so nice and plump feeling compared to the reg pullets. There is one tiny light red pullet meatie that I'm sure will be one of the keepers (I named her Megan) she is the sweetest thing ever and so small...she would not be good eats anyhow ;) Now I have to talk hubby into that one :D

We just finished off our bag of 50 #'s of feed (second one) and we opened that bag on July 6th and we have 26 meat birds and 2 little pullets eating that. And we don't have enough to last through the day today for sure so we will be opening another 50 # bag this afternoon. I have been feeding them three times a day (one of those longer metal feeder things that sit on the floor) and watering them twice a day (one gallon waterer) If it's above 80 they need three gallon refills and then another in the am by 9. So usually one at 9am one at 2:00pm and another at about 7 before we shut them up for the night. They have not been allowed to free range yet as I don't feel they were in their coop long enough to know to go back "home" at dark...I will wait until we get back from Washington DC July 25 (dropping son off for college) and try that. Possibly before we leave...depends on how energetic I'm feeling HAHA (just in case I have to chase them around to get them back in). I'm finally being able to tell male from female now although they are still not getting real red in the comb but the waddles are showing red now in the males. The females have smaller combs and less redness in the waddles. They are getting VERY friendly with me now (HATE THAT!) so its going to be so hard come time to butcher. I wish they would just stay skittish and then it wouldn't be so bad.
I'm taking pictures today of the coop and will post them in this post hopefully today. They are all loving their roost too BTW...took them a while to figure out what it was for but now seems they all jump up there and roost. Were going to have to add another one soon.

Chickens out in their new coop :D

We got done with the coop and put the chickens in there 8X8 coop and they LOVE it. They are running around like crazy and dust bathing and having tons of fun. They make ME happy just watching them. I didn't have time to weigh them today as we are getting ready for the grad party here at our house on Sat so I will weigh them tomorrow. For now have to run and keep working ;)

Coop almost complete/opened 50 lb bag of grower feed

NOTE: We opened the new 50 lb bag of Purina grower today in the AM

We have four walls and a roof. All we pretty much need now is the door and the shingles on the roof before we can put them in there. Then I have to seal and paint it. That won't take long at all.

Weight on Amber is 14.4 Not as big of a jump as I had thought. Our biggest chick is now over a lb! I think it's a he (he's one of the chipmunk looking ones) the one I liked :( I hope it's not a boy but he weighed in at 1 lb .03 oz The standard chicken is also weighing in at 14.4 today...normal jump for her.

It's really getting close to time to get them out in their coop though since I have them in a brooder 3ft X 4ft. They are getting close to filling that right up. I picked up two bags of pine shavings (3 cubic feet each) and will add both of them to the hen house which is 8ft X 8ft. I hope that will do the trick until time for slaughter. We will see. I may have to add some since they will be staying IN the hen house for the first week and 1/2 before we let them out to range. I'm hoping to get them out on the grass VERY soon. Lets hope we can get them in the coop by wed at the latest. I will take pictures of the coop tomorrow. Right now I am off to bed...just got home from work and I'm TIRED!

Coop update/ no more heat lamp

Weigh in results for today. Amber is now 14.1 oz and the regular layer chick who is a month older is 14.2 LOL SO close. The smallest meatie is weighing in at 10.2 and the largest is 15.5 MOst of them are right around Ambers weight or bigger. I am beginning to see some growth in the combs of some of them so maybe soon I will be able to tell girls from boys. Still not a whole lot of red going on yet.

FEED: So far we went though right around 55 lbs. We will be picking up a separate bag just for them so I can just keep track of it that way (by the 50 lb bags). If they have any left from the current bag they are on when it's time to slaughter I will just weigh that and subtract it.

It's getting close to having to clean their brooder so I'm hoping that we are done with the coop so I don't have to do that again and waste money on shavings. We will add two bags in the coop when we are done with it. So far we have the floor done and all four walls built. Screens on the four large windows (the windows will have a piece of plywood to close in case it rains or gets too windy for them. We are not making a run for them becasue they will all be free ranging in the alfalfa field after their first two weeks in their new coop. I'm hoping they all know to go back on their own for bed like the other chickens did.

I took the heat lamp away three days ago. It's been fairly warm and they are pretty feathered in. Plus they have a lot of hot bodies to cuddle up with.

Coop started/ whole pellet food now.

We finally got a start on the coop today. Were going to have to work fast as the chicks are getting pretty big! AND we also want them out of the garage before our Grad party on the 11th. I don't think that would be for good eats since we are setting up tables in the garage in case it rains.

Yesterday Amber weighed in at 10 oz and today she is 12.4 oz The layer chick is 13.1 as are a few of the other meat chicks! They caught up fast. Amber is still about in the medium weight in the group of 28 chicks (two of them being layer chicks). There are not that many that are under were weight now though...they seem to be all catching up with one another. I have some pics to show you and they will be posted on the date that they were taken so it's not so confusing. So scroll back to see them :D They are feathering out very nicely now and most are all looking the same...some being lighter and some darker. Same sort of pattern right now. They are eating NON crushed pellets now so that makes it easier on us. Just pour and go!

These chicks are sure a bunch of scardy cats! Every time I put my hand in their brooder they all freak out! LOL I hope they get used to me soon. I'm only in there messing with them at least two times a day...more on days I don't work. Still looking for the 'FOR SURE' sign of boys vs girls.

Litter change/ Cement block added/GIRLS?BOYS? ONE week old

I'm going to start adding the weight right at the beginning of the entry so in case I have readers that are only interested in that they can see it right away :D

Meatie Amber weighed in at 9.0 oz and the regular hen was 11.1 Each weigh in it seems they get closer to the regular hens who are a month older. Now that is not the heaviest chick but it's not the lightest one either. The heavier ones weighed in at 9.5 oz Lighter ones about 8.6 ish.

Ok today I changed out the litter...we will see how fast we have to do it next time...I'm sure faster then this time since they are bigger. Having them in the garage saves on how often we change it out. I can handle more smells out there rather then in the house :D I changed it with a large shovel with the chicks right in the box. I MAY do it differently next time as I think I almost scared some to death :/ Just wanted to save some time!

Next thing I did today was add a large grey cement block in the coop to set the water on. They are getting is so full of crap it isn't even funny. We were back to having to change it three times a day and when we both work full time that is not easy to do. We will see how well that works come tomorrow. I just hope they can all reach it. I put a hill of pine shavings up to it so they should be able to.
I also noticed that they enjoy laying down while eating LOL Not all of them but some of them sure do.

I'm taking pictures today as well so you can see how well the feathers are coming in. They are really looking cute. Hubby wants to name them "Nugget" "chicken finger" "Finger likin good" ETC...I argued that! LOL OH BOY! STAY POSTED...I'm NOT sure how this meat chicken thing will all turn out after all ;)

ALmost forgot...still can't quite make out girls from boys but I think I'm seeing it somewhat. Have to look a little closer tomorrow. No redness to combs yet but I will keep an eye on that and post when I notice anything. I was kind of saying...Oh that one is a boy, that's a girl bla bla...this was all guess by the looks of how large their combs are getting.

Todays weight

UPDATED WITH PICTURES BELOW ENTRY:

Weighed both the meaties and the regular chicks and they have almost caught up to them. Just a few oz off. The reg meatie I usually weigh is weighing in at 7.9 oz Not as much of a gain as I had expected. And the reg chick is just 10.4 oz. Not near as much gain as the meat chickens. Some of the bigger meaties weighed in at over 8 oz. One was 8.5 oz. 1/2 way to a lb! Seems unreal really that those little cuties will soon be huge chickens. I did notice something else about them (I noticed it yesterday for the first time) they have worn feathers on their tummy area and seems like they get some poo stuck to their down fur. I may have to change out the bedding more often then I would like to keep them cleaner. I will keep an eye on this and see if it improves. Its not just with the meat chicks that I notice this with but also the two reg chicks that are in the box. Never happened before with any other chicks although I never had 25 of them either!

The bedding is getting to the point where there is Nothing you can do to fix the smell. It's time to change out the litter tomorrow.

Finally got some pictures!

OK...I got pictures but you will have to scroll back a few days. I wanted to add them on the correct days. I will get more pics tomorrow and place them in the new entry. Helps in seeing correct pics with weights, dates etc... There are two added on the 20th and one on the 25th.

Well, I did not change the litter yet...what I did was stir it up and add just a little more fresh shavings and a little Diatomatious Earth or us chicken people just call it (DE)...FEED grade of course. DO NOT GET THIS AT THE POOL STORE!! This works very well and I'm trying to be as frugal as possible as long as it's not poo ridden and smelly. Doing those two things have helped. I will be chancing it on Wed or Thur for sure.

Our little Amber is already 7.3 oz and most of the other ones are getting up right around 7.5 oz. The two straggler hens I added (just standard mix laying hens) are just 10.1 oz so the meaties are catching up by leaps and bounds! They look almost as big now. Make sure you check out those pictures :D

No coop started yet.

Today's weight was 6.4 oz...still giving them water just every day but it's getting close to them needing more water. They have it almost gone now where as when they were first here they would drink maybe half of the gallon of water. We did NOT get started on the coop as planned but we did get the run of our bantams done today. I had to work all morning so we didn't get as much as we had hoped. Hubby had the fence put up by the time I got home...then we had to run to Menards to get a few things we had forgot for the coop. Thats about it for the day...We both have to work tomorrow so no telling what will get done tomorrow. I have to work 7 am to 3 again. Lately those have been my hours. I have more light time at home at least this way.

Updating...weight etc.

Well little Amber is weighing in at 5.4 oz here today...last weigh in was 4.0 oz. They are catching up to the standard chickens I have in with them. They have been still needing just the one gal refill on water yet every day but soon they will be needing more. Tomorrow we start their coop. We are also working on a run for my bantam cochins at the same time. Busy Busy! That is really hard work! I have their pictures on the computer now...I just have to find them and get them on photobucket. Its taking forever! But we have busy and hubby and I have both been working 40 hours a week. Not time for much else. I do want to keep this journal updated though since we want to keep records of this. OH by the way...they usually go though one of those larger coffee containers a day now in food! I will add up so far and put the first week's total down tomorrow. Have a good night all!

weigh in again

WOOT! I got myself another follower! WELCOME!

Well I took the same bird and weighed him/her at noon and today it went from 3.0 oz to 4.0 oz. It's crazy how fast they are gaining. Next time I have egg laying chicks I'm going to do the same. I curious exactly how much faster they grow compared to egg layer chicks. Took some more pictures today too. I'm going to go back and post the correct pics per time frame in my last entries when I finally get them uploaded. My camera is full so I have to get them off there to take anymore! LOL They have almost went through the full coffee container of food ...by tonight they will have. Filled that one up yesterday at noon! Good thing I found an easier way to blend the food up!

And see the two black ones...those are the two I added a few days after we got the meaties...they are just standard laying hen chicks that we will be keeping IF they are hens.

Heat lamp/ feeding amounts/ONE week old!

There heat lamp was kept off last night and they were all just fine. Running around like crazy today. One thing I noticed is that they enjoy cold water vs warm. We refresh their water 2 - 3 times a day for them. They are starting to get a little smelly in our garage so I will be changing out their pine shavings tomorrow. I hadn't noticed a smell before this (not bad for having 28 1 week old chicks in a large box) The two older ones have now taught all the little runts to scratch pine shavings in their water so I put the water on a few boards for height. Working better but they still manage to get some in there.
Soon we will be upgrading their waterer to a large one (5 gallon possibly). Haven't lost any at all and they all seem very healthy :D They are also starting to dust bathe TOO CUTE!

Weight of the one I have been weighing went from 2.8oz to 3.0 Seems the first day was a huge jump compared to these smaller jumps. I weighed many of the other ones and the runt weighed in at 2.3 oz and the largest ones are weighing in at 3.0 oz. I weigh them about noon or so when I weigh them just so it's the same time. The colors on these guys are looking beautiful. So many varieties! At least they will be fun to look at these next few weeks.

Another change: We are now putting the feed in our larger coffee containers so we have more ground up. We had been putting a little feed in the smaller container and used a mallet to crunch up the pellets into crubble form. Very time consuming so I went up to the kitchen to try to find a faster less messy way so I put a bunch in a heavy freezer zip lock bag and tried the rolling pin. UMM Don't do that! LOL It made a mess and I had feed dust all over the table. I ended up using the blender and it worked wonderfully. So now that we can grind more at time I'm putting it in a larger container. I will weigh it so we can keep track of the amount of feed they consume in their lifetime of 10 weeks. So far they have eaten 4 lb 6.8 oz X 2 Now we are putting it in the larger 4 lb coffee container so I will weigh that tomorrow.
I said yesterday to hubby "I wish we had all roosters so we could butcher all 25 of them" LOL He says...oh there ARE going to be 25 chickens going to the processor in 10 weeks. BUT we have 26... SHHH I don't think he remembered that part MWAHAHAHAHAHA We ordered 25 and they sent an extra. NOW I need help picking the lucky girl :D I DO have pics from when we got them and I am going to take more tomorrow and someday get them posted! I promise! You all can vote once I know which ones are hens. I'm not keeping no rooster that's for sure! OH and there is a poll at the bottom of the page so fill that out if your a reader! You don't have to have a journal to poll or to comment so PLEASE feel free to do so! :D I LOVE comments!

HOT one today!

It's 88 crazy degrees here! I turned the heat lamp off on the meaties and they are just fine. It's humid so that makes it feel even hotter! I just wish we had something inbetween...it went from 50's to close to 90's over night it seems! Well, the chicks are still getting along (I added those two new pullets in with them who are a month old) The two older ones have taught the meaties how to scratch up a storm, now I am changing water like three times a day! Crazy girls! Oh well, they are having fun. MOre weight gain today but not doubles. It went from 2.3 to 2.8 oz.

Meat chickens are here a whole day and....

They already doubled in weight :0 I weighed most in at 1.3 oz and now they are weighing in at 2.3 oz. They are working on their second lg coffee container of crushed pellets (Purina grower with 20% protein). They are running around like crazy in the large watermelon box I got for them at the grocery store (we just added a plywood floor and whala...a brooder! FOR FREE! What I can't believe is that they sleep under the heat lamp even though its been so hot out. WHEW! It's a really good thing that they all look pretty much alike becasue I would have them all named already as I do my laying hens. I don't know...this just may not be for me. When butcher time comes and the only ones I send off are the males, then we know! I will keep you informed on the weight growth and we are weighing all the food so we know how many pounds of food it takes to raise 25 meat chickens. AND I have my first follower! WELCOME TO MY JOURNAL! And thanks for following along :D OH I did get pictures but have not uploaded them yet. Will hopefully tonight.

I also added chicks to the meaties! I had two chicks that my silkie was brooding and they are about a month old now. I decided to add them to the other chicks so they have a coop this summer. I want them bigger and older when I add them to the hen house for layers (IF they are girls) pretty sure they are. This way they have friends for a few weeks and they have time to grow up. They won't be able to stay with mom that much longer anyhow. Should be interesting. They are all getting along great. Mother hen isn't so great...she is looking for them but she is starting to calm down now :( I feel bad!

Our Meat Birds Arrive!

OH NO, OH NO! CUTENESS running all over the place! We received 26 freedom rangers (got one extra) in the mail this morning (P.O.called at 6:30 am) we jumped in the car and ran and got them thinking we would have a few dead ones. They are all alive and doing well :D We dipped each of there beaks in water and they are all drinking and eating just fine. I have been sitting by the box watching them and they are just so darn cute! AM I really going to be able to take these beauties to the processor? I'm taking pictures (want to record their growth) and will post them later today.

Hubby says I shouldn't name them but I already have started LOL We have one "naughty nugget" who keeps pecking at everyone's beaks over and over and over again (he looks like most of the other ones but easy to pick out)! We have two darker ones I named Brunhilde and Auburn (brown color names). In my opinion the cutest ones ;) And the last one I named is the chipmunk looking one who is named "chip". I think I better stop now :D I'm already sad for them. Hubby says...well, just look at it this way...at least they are not crammed into one tiny cage and treated badly their 10 weeks here. Ya I guess that's true but still! It's going to be HARD! Stay tuned! It can only get better :D

Here is the crew:

Still NO chicks :(

It is 9:30 pm and I was hoping to hear from someone about where our chickens are but didn't :( I sure hope that they are ok after three days in the mail. AND I hope they are here in the morning. I will be at work at 4am so hubby will be in charge of getting them home and dipping all 25 of their beaks into water so they can learn how to drink. I hope there are still 25 alive! Will update tomorrow with news and hopefully pics of our freedom ranger chicks.

How we choose a Meat Bird

We all know there are several different types of meat chickens...from Cornish X (which is the most popular I think) down to regular ol dual purpose birds orpingtons, barred rock, white rock etc... We choose somewhere in the middle and went with Freedom Rangers.

We did a lot of research on them and found so much info in several different forums including Backyardchickens.com There we learned ALOT of info on raising meat chickens and where to buy them which led us to JMHatchery.com which is what we went with after looking at many hatchery's. Mostly because they are a family oriented business and we always love supporting those types of businesses.

After raising back yard chickens (our egg laying machines) for a year now we feel we are ready to venture into meaties. We have the coop material for them, the forage area for them (up to 15-20 acres), and now the know how to raise them :D SOO we did it and placed the order last week with JMHatchery. They were sent out on Wed...we were hoping to get them today (Friday) but they did not show up this morning at the P.O. I freaked and called the P.O. "nope they are not here yet". Then got on the phone with JMHatchery who did not answer at first so I hung up without leaving a message and thought I would try back. About a minute later they called ME back (caller ID) and asked if I had called. I really liked the fact that they even bothered to do that :D THAT is why we go with family based businesses. I told her my dilemma and she suggested I call the P.O. back and ask them for the number of the distribution center and maybe intercepting the order and picking them up there (never thought of that so I was happy with their response and they were very helpful)! I did just that and being a small town they were ok with doing that for me and in fact made the call for me as well. They called me back quickly and distribution did not have them yet either but they are expecting another shipment in this afternoon so if they get them they will call me and I will just make the 1/2 hour or so trip to go there and pick them up rather then making them suffer through another day of shipment. I just hope they show up there this afternoon. Will continue this when we receive our babies and let you know how many survivors we have.

WHY Meat Birds?

We were not going to get meat birds becasue of all the bad things we had "heard" about them but then decided that we would give it a try after seeing all the crap they pump into battery raised chickens. It's very sad, see here why I say that: Egg Production-The battery Hen... and we didn't want to support that any longer so this is why we have ordered 25 Freedom Ranger broilers. More importantly, we want to feed our children meat that WE know is healthy for them not filled with antibiotics and arsenic (it is used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve pigmentation of chicken meat). See this article for proof if you don't believe me Sciencedaily.com It totally shocked us! We were totally and completely oblivious to this.

There are so many other things (if you spend the time googling) that you can find out about this stuff. SO many new health risks coming from these things just to make the chicken grow faster or to have better tasting meat etc...it's crazy that this can even happen. I just don't get it and what comes next?

So this was what got us started and knowing these chickens will ONLY eat what we feed them makes it much more appealing to continue to eat chicken. Know some of you who know me may think..."YA right! There is no way she will be able to kill these chickens!... Well, your right. I'm not...we are sending them to a processor near our home for that. Will I be able to eat them! I think so! I guess time will tell.

OK my links don't seem to be working...just copy and paste to check them out until I can fix them.