The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: sabrina on August 24, 2009, 04:21:57 pm
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At what sort of age and weight do you kill your meat birds :chook:
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About 12 weeks; our last batch were between 5.5 and 7lb (sorry, still imperial here).
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Rosemary = where do you get them and at what age?
I am hoping to raise 5 in my polytunnel over the winter period but don't really have the facilities to rear day olds!
Any ideas?
Andrew
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Good question - I have also been thinking about keeping meat birds and would like to find out more. I also don't have facilities for keeping any chicks warm. I will be interested in any replies.
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On Saturday I met a very nice lady that lives 2 minutes away from here. She is a retired teacher and has decided to set up a small business, she sells hens,cockerels and Eglus. She very kindly showed me around her various breeds of birds and one of the things she had was a load of "meat birds", if any one is interested I can supply her details, she is in Fife.
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We buy day old Hubbards from Brewsters in Abernethy. You don't need much for chicks - a red heat lamp and a box then a run. They need the light for about 4 weeks until they have their feathers.
Where are you Eagledance?
Contact for Hubbards generally is Simon Skinner at Poulet Anglais 07787533325
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I am in North Queensferry
Do Hybbards grow like monsters? IE are they a modern broiler breed?
Ed
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Um. I don't really know the answer to you questions about breeding. They are certainly a specialist meat strain so almost certainly for the commercial market, I'm sure, but whether they were developed for indoor or outdoor production, I have no idea. I don't think ou should rule them out simply on that basis. Bewsters rpoduce organic, free range chickens.
They grow quite fast, but not as fast kept the way we do as they would in intensive conditions ie 84 days as opposed to 39. Ours are in a run during the day so have access to grass, soil and cabbages (!). The carcase is quite different to, say, a RIR or Light Sussex. It's much meatier, with good breast meat. The flavour and texture is very good indeed.
We've fattened LS cockerels that were surplus and the Hubbards are way, way ahead.
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There are people supplying meat chicks across the length and breadth of the country.
Some of the breeds or strains to look out for are the Ross Cobbs and the Hubbards. These two, are fast growing commercial strains that are unlikely to turn into monsters unless you give them factory farm treatment. Even so, they will grow much faster than the traditional breeds and some problems can occur.
An increasingly popular variety of bird is the Sasso. These like the previously mentioned strains are designer birds but have been produced to fill a gap in the market for a more extensively reared table bird. I may be wrong but I don't think that they have the leg problems that the other two may experience.
I have of reared batches of the first two but not the Sasso. This is a situation that I'm planning to remedy shortly.
My main breed of bird is the Light Sussex, which I keep in the main for their egg laying qualities. Last year I reared seven cockerels for the table and this year? I've just given forty away free to good home. Need I say anymore ? They turned into huge birds but they proved expensive to rear because they were slow growing, fast eating and produced a poor carcasse with what little meat being in the wrong place.
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I start slaughtering mine at 5 weeks. At this age, mine are about the size of a hot ready cooked chicken you see in the supermarket. I've no idea of it's weight, I don't bother weighing them. I grow some onto 12 weeks old, by then they are about the size of the largest supermarket chicken you ever saw.
I buy day old COBB/ROSS meat chicks from Cyril Bason. £19.50 for 12 chicks. They sell growers too that are 'off heat' no idea how much they cost.
Those cobb ross chicks are little monsters, they eat all day & night, they often go off their legs. Hence why I start slaughtering them at 5 weeks. Of the batch of 12, I only manage to get 3-5 birds onto 12 week old. I, like many, will be moving onto a slower growing bird like a sasso maybe.
DJ Chook
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we had sasso's last year free ranged them not that they needed any area all they done was waddled out of the hen house (the door had to be opened as they would not fit in the pop hole ) drop on to the ground to feed where they would stay most of the day eating they grew well but cost a fortune to feed. then came to day we had been waiting for they weighed around 12lb - 15lb a bird we cooked them but it has to be said they were not the best tasting bird i have had i thin there is a lot to be said for a bird or any animal that is breed to grow at such a rate it has no time to mature so the taste is compromised, we have also found this with commercial pigs v rare breed / traditional breeds. so this year we are going back to plan A and fattening up rir x blackrocks big birds just slower at getting there.
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When John was made redundant and was too old to get another job (or rather we agreed he shouldn't try to get rid of the money grabbing ex wife ;))we decided that he should have an interest so we took on 700 day olds to 13 week free range birds. I have no idea what make they were as I wasn't that interested. They ate non stop, they had to have 24 hour heating in an uninsulated barn. He stood on a few, we lost a lot in the snow and ice, some of them got the runs and we eventually made a loss of £50 although we did get four nice egg layers from the batch, two of which we kept because they were tiny, the other two hid themselves in the barn when they were being caught - they hadn't the brains of a chicken ;D ;D ;D Needless to say we didn't do it again!
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We once had 15 Cornish crosses that were a hybrid and these where quite a weight in a very short amount of time but this year I have decided to try something different and go back to a pure breed. I want to try Ixworth chickens that are supposed to taste really good but take 25-28 weeks to reach 6lbs plus in weight. Unfortunatley the 6 eggs I incubated gave me only two chicks one of which died for no apparent reason so I now only have one but will not give in and try hatching out some more.
Good things come to those who wait and if the meat is as good as I am lead to believe, it will be worth it. I am looking forward to eating really chicken again!!!
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What about Turkies again, they taste soooooo much better than anything you can buy!!
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On the hunt for some bronze turkeys but I am getting my pig on Monday if they are still available so the turkeys might have to go on hold till next year unless I get a good deal at Melton.
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I've never properly costed the meat birds.
I also find that they basically eat and poop. I've never had any go off their legs but they are not active birds. In fact they are the dullest birds ever - which is good 'cos you can't get attached to them.
We plan to do more next year - at least one properly costed batch, then reassess. The 70 mile round trip to pick up the chcks and take them for slaughter may be the deciding factor.
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The 70 mile round trip to pick up the chcks and take them for slaughter may be the deciding factor.
That's interesting - where did you take them to slaughter? (surprised you could find someone to do this for small numbers).
Can you give a rough feel for how the finances panned out? e.g. did you feel you were in or out of pocket at the end of the day c/w buying 'quality' supermarket birds?
Cheers!
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Am interested in this thread, but just wanted to say Womble I LOVE your profile photo - I know I've already said it, but just had to say it again!! ;D
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That's what Womble looks like, MiriMaran. Honest, I've met him. ;D
The Hubbards went back to Jamesfield; a day old cost £1.20 and to have them killed and dressed (roughly) cost £1.60, so there's £2.80 to start. I had three 70 mile journeys, so 210 miles (one to pick up the chicks, one for the killing and one to pick up the dressed birds). If you cost that at 40p per mile, which is HMRC mileage rates, that's £84. If you take my time for the journeys at £6 per hour, that adds £24. On a batch of 10 birds that's £13.60 before food and bedding. Doesn't take a genius to work out that it's not even breaking even.
Since the majority of the cost is fixed, doing bigger batches woudl make it more cost effective, as woudl killing and dressing ourselves.
Andrew reckoned a bird cost £6 each, for buying and feeding, but it doesn't include time or travel to pick up.
Now I've written it down, I think we need to rethink this.
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Oi you two!
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j216/Blutack/Chooks/wethen2.jpg)
It's a piccie of Rhum, our Black Rock, when she had been out in the rain all afternoon (hence the bad hair day!).
Anyhow, Wow Rosemary - that's frightening! If we ever get round to meat birds, it will be one batch a year, grown in the polytunnel over winter. As for breeds, perhaps there's more of an argument for hatching your own chicks there - perhaps by running a meat cock with your layers?
It's a question for another thread I guess, but it does make me wonder whether the costs of smallholding make it an expensive luxury / hobby rather than viable alternative lifestyle. For example, a house with enough land for pigs seems to cost about £100K more than the same house without (yet farmland is only a few £K per acre ???). Now you can buy an awful lot of sausages for £100K! ;D
Yours, dissilusioned with the dream,
Womble.
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I suppose economists don't do smallholdings!!! I think the lifestyle value outweighs the cost, I mean, people have pet's anyway and get no return so to at least be able to eat them or their produce is something, same with gardening, so, maybe not pound rich but life rich!!!!
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Would also love to see the costings of Tesco's less than £3 chicken! and it was a Red Tractor one. I don't think £3 would cover the cost of feeding one of mine, and I don't buy premium feed. Surely someone must be making a loss on that? (doubt it's Tesco's though, sorry very cynical) - perhaps they are ex-battery hens?
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There are so many things the big supermarkets sell they I just don't understand how they can sell so low. How is it I can buy school shoes for my boys for £7 - is it because their peer group in some far flung country are making the shoes?!