Cornish Cross Chickens
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:57 pm
We didnt raise any meat birds last year and tired of what you get in the grocery store so I ordered 75 chicks tonight. I do have some more coming from a neighbor who needed some lumber and did a trade for a half dozen packaged and ready for the freezer but my Wife and I probably eat 40 or 50 chickens a year. Of course our dogs get a lot of that also but the point is we need to stock the freezer back up.
If you have never seen these birds it is an eye opener as to the wonders of nature or maybe better said the tinkering of nature. From day old chick to 3lbs in the freezer takes just 42 days, I swear you can feed in the AM and in the PM you are thinking "damn, they got bigger". Its not always easy to translate in your head a small animal like chicken to larger like pigs or cows but 75 chickens will be 250 to 300 lbs in the freezer. Thats bigger than a hog and nearly half a cow. I figure total cost should be around $700 give or take, the chicks were $240 so depending on how well they convert and what feed cost is the end total could come in south of my guess.
All they do is eat and shit with a conversion ration that can come in under 2:1 feed to meat. IIRC the only greater efficiency is in insects and so far thats been a non starter with the Wife.
Going to get piglets are May/June and a neighbor is gonna raise them. We are trying a bit of a co-op where we each raise what works well for us and offer at cost to each other. Also working on getting a couple of calves to have ready next year, those I will raise.
Will add some pictures to this once the chicks get here. April 17th is the hatch date so we are looking at end of May start of June for chicken killin day.
If you have never seen these birds it is an eye opener as to the wonders of nature or maybe better said the tinkering of nature. From day old chick to 3lbs in the freezer takes just 42 days, I swear you can feed in the AM and in the PM you are thinking "damn, they got bigger". Its not always easy to translate in your head a small animal like chicken to larger like pigs or cows but 75 chickens will be 250 to 300 lbs in the freezer. Thats bigger than a hog and nearly half a cow. I figure total cost should be around $700 give or take, the chicks were $240 so depending on how well they convert and what feed cost is the end total could come in south of my guess.
All they do is eat and shit with a conversion ration that can come in under 2:1 feed to meat. IIRC the only greater efficiency is in insects and so far thats been a non starter with the Wife.
Going to get piglets are May/June and a neighbor is gonna raise them. We are trying a bit of a co-op where we each raise what works well for us and offer at cost to each other. Also working on getting a couple of calves to have ready next year, those I will raise.
Will add some pictures to this once the chicks get here. April 17th is the hatch date so we are looking at end of May start of June for chicken killin day.