Self-Reliance: How do you?
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cdavis So long as they grow to 10 weeks, and don’t die on me before then, they should pencil out to $2.50-$3/lb depending on carcass weight. Even less per pound if we decide to self-process…$1.80/lb if we process them at home.
RafterW nothing quite so satisfying as taking your own food from start to finish.
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50 chicks delivered yesterday. Freedom Ranger broilers. T-minus 10 weeks until I’m enjoying the fruits of my labor.
RafterW I have 30 Bielefelders at 5 weeks, good looking chicks.
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mrobisr nice, these will hopefully be ready to process at 10 weeks. I’ve got a mobile coop wagon that I will move within a 650 square foot electrified net from Premier1. They will be about three days behind my cows in the pasture, the cows get moved daily, the premier1 fence will get moved every third day and their wagon/coop will get moved daily within the fencing.
Main goal is to get a second source of manure on the pasture, while also spreading the cow manure, feeding on the fly larvae and foraging for insects to help reduce my feed cost for the chickens. This is why I chose a red ranger over a Cornish cross, these chicks are already scratching in their bedding at less than a week old!
Secondary goal is the meat source from the chickens. I’m shooting for a target of no more than 1.66/lb of feed/bird over the course of 10 weeks, with the supplemental food source that the pasture offers.
Matt W.
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mrobisr nice, these will hopefully be ready to process at 10 weeks. I’ve got a mobile coop wagon that I will move within a 650 square foot electrified net from Premier1. They will be about three days behind my cows in the pasture, the cows get moved daily, the premier1 fence will get moved every third day and their wagon/coop will get moved daily within the fencing.
Main goal is to get a second source of manure on the pasture, while also spreading the cow manure, feeding on the fly larvae and foraging for insects to help reduce my feed cost for the chickens. This is why I chose a red ranger over a Cornish cross, these chicks are already scratching in their bedding at less than a week old!
Secondary goal is the meat source from the chickens. I’m shooting for a target of no more than 1.66/lb of feed/bird over the course of 10 weeks, with the supplemental food source that the pasture offers.
RafterW
Sounds like you got the science and the metrics figured out for maximum productivity. You must have done your share of research on best-practices.Paul
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RafterW
Sounds like you got the science and the metrics figured out for maximum productivity. You must have done your share of research on best-practices.processhead With his background in precision ag, I bet he has it down to a science! Maybe he will move on to ostrich or something more exotic next.
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mrobisr nice, these will hopefully be ready to process at 10 weeks. I’ve got a mobile coop wagon that I will move within a 650 square foot electrified net from Premier1. They will be about three days behind my cows in the pasture, the cows get moved daily, the premier1 fence will get moved every third day and their wagon/coop will get moved daily within the fencing.
Main goal is to get a second source of manure on the pasture, while also spreading the cow manure, feeding on the fly larvae and foraging for insects to help reduce my feed cost for the chickens. This is why I chose a red ranger over a Cornish cross, these chicks are already scratching in their bedding at less than a week old!
Secondary goal is the meat source from the chickens. I’m shooting for a target of no more than 1.66/lb of feed/bird over the course of 10 weeks, with the supplemental food source that the pasture offers.
RafterW I really love reading this well thought out kinda science based agriculture. I’ve never done it myself, but I find it incredibly interesting. I’m looking forward to hearing how these chicks do and your feed rates, etc! Thx!
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I’ll keep you all posted.
Matt W.
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Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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Tex_77 I haven’t put any thought into that scenario. The squatch would likely defeat my electrified perimeter netting and be able to unlatch the lid of the coop.
I feel there is a story to the ninnescah Sasquatch, that I’m not privy to lol.
Matt W.
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Tex_77 I haven’t put any thought into that scenario. The squatch would likely defeat my electrified perimeter netting and be able to unlatch the lid of the coop.
I feel there is a story to the ninnescah Sasquatch, that I’m not privy to lol.
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WAIT WAIT WAIT…Big foot? What the heck is going on in this thread? If anyone is curious I go back and forth but I will say this. Driving from Wichita to Missoula just reinforced how HUGE this country is and how empty a lot of that is, so COULD it exist? Yes, does it exist? I don’t know!
RafterW We found a dead duck and some eggs in a nest near it. We waited 6 or so hours after finding the nest to see if a duck came back and none did, so we have them in an incubator in the basement. Are they going to hatch? Probably not. Looks like more than 4 hours without a momma duck sitting on them will basically kill or prevent them from developing but we bought the incubator because at some point in the future we want to have chickens!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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WAIT WAIT WAIT…Big foot? What the heck is going on in this thread? If anyone is curious I go back and forth but I will say this. Driving from Wichita to Missoula just reinforced how HUGE this country is and how empty a lot of that is, so COULD it exist? Yes, does it exist? I don’t know!
RafterW We found a dead duck and some eggs in a nest near it. We waited 6 or so hours after finding the nest to see if a duck came back and none did, so we have them in an incubator in the basement. Are they going to hatch? Probably not. Looks like more than 4 hours without a momma duck sitting on them will basically kill or prevent them from developing but we bought the incubator because at some point in the future we want to have chickens!
Jonathon who knows on the eggs, but it is worth a shot since you’ve got the equipment! Give it about a month in the incubator since you don’t know how old the eggs are, if nothing happens by day 30, I’d bet that nothing will happen.
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WAIT WAIT WAIT…Big foot? What the heck is going on in this thread? If anyone is curious I go back and forth but I will say this. Driving from Wichita to Missoula just reinforced how HUGE this country is and how empty a lot of that is, so COULD it exist? Yes, does it exist? I don’t know!
RafterW We found a dead duck and some eggs in a nest near it. We waited 6 or so hours after finding the nest to see if a duck came back and none did, so we have them in an incubator in the basement. Are they going to hatch? Probably not. Looks like more than 4 hours without a momma duck sitting on them will basically kill or prevent them from developing but we bought the incubator because at some point in the future we want to have chickens!
Jonathon If they don’t hatch by 30 days in the incubator be carful how you handle them LOL
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Tex_77 I haven’t put any thought into that scenario. The squatch would likely defeat my electrified perimeter netting and be able to unlatch the lid of the coop.
I feel there is a story to the ninnescah Sasquatch, that I’m not privy to lol.
@rafterwJust put a good game camera and with the pictures you will be able to buy all the chicken you want.
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mrobisr nice, these will hopefully be ready to process at 10 weeks. I’ve got a mobile coop wagon that I will move within a 650 square foot electrified net from Premier1. They will be about three days behind my cows in the pasture, the cows get moved daily, the premier1 fence will get moved every third day and their wagon/coop will get moved daily within the fencing.
Main goal is to get a second source of manure on the pasture, while also spreading the cow manure, feeding on the fly larvae and foraging for insects to help reduce my feed cost for the chickens. This is why I chose a red ranger over a Cornish cross, these chicks are already scratching in their bedding at less than a week old!
Secondary goal is the meat source from the chickens. I’m shooting for a target of no more than 1.66/lb of feed/bird over the course of 10 weeks, with the supplemental food source that the pasture offers.
RafterW Sounds like a solid workable plan to me.
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Jonathon If you don’t already know, Yoder has a pretty large animal auction on the last Friday of each month. Keim Auction is who puts it on. They often have fertilized eggs by the thousands that sell there. Its pretty wild lol, its where rednecks and the Amish/Mennonite gather in one place together haha!
Matt W.
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Jonathon If you don’t already know, Yoder has a pretty large animal auction on the last Friday of each month. Keim Auction is who puts it on. They often have fertilized eggs by the thousands that sell there. Its pretty wild lol, its where rednecks and the Amish/Mennonite gather in one place together haha!
RafterW now that sounds like a fun time!
Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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Tex_77 The people-watching opportunities are spectacular!
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The meat birds are growing fast. Come Wednesday, they will be a full two weeks old. Feathers are starting to come
On, and their legs are really beefing up. They are guzzling water and feed rapidly as they grow. They are approx 2.5x larger than when they arrived via mail.
Matt W.
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WAIT WAIT WAIT…Big foot? What the heck is going on in this thread? If anyone is curious I go back and forth but I will say this. Driving from Wichita to Missoula just reinforced how HUGE this country is and how empty a lot of that is, so COULD it exist? Yes, does it exist? I don’t know!
RafterW We found a dead duck and some eggs in a nest near it. We waited 6 or so hours after finding the nest to see if a duck came back and none did, so we have them in an incubator in the basement. Are they going to hatch? Probably not. Looks like more than 4 hours without a momma duck sitting on them will basically kill or prevent them from developing but we bought the incubator because at some point in the future we want to have chickens!
Jonathon I had a friend that raised pheasants, you would be surprised at the many different breeds there are out there. He had a pretty big set up and I would help. We collected eggs put them in the incubator and watching them grow from chicks to adults was very interesting.
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