[Stereo]

We've raised our first batch of cockerels this year. Rhode Reds, Copper Marans, Welsummers and some Ranger boys (plenty of meat on these and not the waste of time we were told they would be). We've been blown away by the taste and quantity of meat we got. We costed each bird at about a fiver in feed.

Next year we want to do it again but need to look at a cheaper diet as this year we did fairly expensive growers pellets with some scratch corn. Let's face it, we are not overly concerned with their long term health! We will look to seperate boys / girls at about 10-12 weeks and then do the boys at 17-18 weeks, any more than that doesn't seem to produce much more meat, but plenty more feed. I don't want to feed them any of these cheap medicated feeds and would rather stick to GM free. So, what can I mix growers with? Or can I just feed them 100% on mixed corn from 12 weeks to slaughter? I've heard boiled spuds etc.

[THE HAPPY POULTRY FARMER]

If it worked dont try and fix it, if you got plenty of meat of thembreeds you done very well, scaling down protien levels will definetly compromise the volumes of meat.

[Stereo]

Most of them weighed in at 4lb or roundabouts. The ones we kept on to 24/25 weeks didn't seem to get any bigger. The Rhodes and Marans were the best, Welsummers the lightest.

[Clansman]

What sort of numbers are you talking about?

Sprouted grains/peas etc have a higher protein content and are better nutritionally than dried grains.

I breed crickets on a small scale to feed to my birds and fish, they will breed away quite happily somewhere warm in large container just fed on grass and water and they will eat virtually any waste food you give them.

They are free protein and you literally can breed as many as you need.

In the summer months i always have some maggots on the go, you just need an old fish head in a flower pot in the corner of the garden and they will just appear.

Again, free protein.

Got a mature compost heap? dig it over and there should be hundreds of worms around.

I also keep beehives, and I see the odd bee getting taken! 

[Stereo]

Probably about 50 over the year in various hatches. Aiming for a bird a week in the freezer. Some good ideas there.

[Clansman]

Yeah you could manage that, thats not too far away from what i do, they love catching crickets

[Bodger]

Well done Stereo but you might be pleasantly surprised by the results if you were to lay your hands on some 'proper' meat birds and feed them on the same diet.

[Stereo]

Well, I 'did' a hubbard the other day which had been raised by experienced keepers and to be honest, I was underwhelmed. Not much difference to my birds although of course, a little younger. What I have to admit I didn't like was that he was 'peeping' when I killed him. Baby noises. I know some folk have no problem with culling at any age from a day old and I am not condemning them at all but I don't want to do it myself.

I grew up on a dairy farm and when you milk 200 cows twice a day you get to know them pretty well and realise that they are quite sensitive beings. So, the reality of their bull calves being hauled off them and shot on day 1 was tough for me to deal with. Especially as I had to listen to mum bawling all night for her baby. Turned me right off farming to be honest until now. So, I'm not going to be culling anything until it's grown up and trying to either kill or make love to everything else in it's range. Just my personal choice. I realise that for large scale laying operations that's not realistic. But for my little egg business it's fine and provides us with a ready supply of happy, home reared cockerels. Actually, I think the Rhodes in particular were good enough to sell. But that's another story I suppose.

[Bodger]

The old time farmers traditional meat cockerel was the RIR x Light Sussex, which also had the bonus of being a sex linked cross. The white males would have been fattened for slaughter at five to six months, while the brown females would have gone into the laying flock.

[Rosemary]

The old time farmers traditional meat cockerel was the RIR x Light Sussex, which also had the bonus of being a sex linked cross. The white males would have been fattened for slaughter at five to six months, while the brown females would have gone into the laying flock.

Which way round gives the sex link?

[Bodger]

The traditional way is RIR cock to LS hen but I'm pretty certain it works the other way around too. LS x RIR should result in white females and brown males.
 
As a variation on the theme, I run a pen with a Welsummer cock and some LS hens. This is also a sex linked cross which gives me brown hens which lay a darker egg than the RIR x LS.
 
I've fattened the W x LS boys and they are more than acceptable.

[Victorian Farmer]

sex link is a good way but research works better just after the second world war they ha dent ENE feed yet they made some of the best meat birds ever out of the docking and the Indian game .I  think you done very well but with help you could get it bang on .Firstly there is a markit for the hens sex Link Whit i would do is get the best size roads and the biggist Sussex then cross .You could by weat or corn and give them 4 to 1 with Whit you have .Mash spuds will be good as a treat .I get the old beef drip in from the chip pan and fill it with sun flower harts another free be they love it .You could grow sun Flowers . Take this week i have 6 or 10 silver lace wyndotts big birds naw free .For christmas they will be culled and gone .I had 5 roads gone last week free .There is a markit for capons

[Stereo]

Interesting as one of the birds we ate last week was a RIR cockerel over LS hen. The boys came out dull white and the hens look like your trad orange laying hen. I was under the impression that most people thought that while this made a good layer, the cockerels would be useless. We really raised them up to see for ourselves as there is a lot of 'wisdom' passed on by people who have never tried.

You are correct that you can sex them at hatch so I guess that would mean you could start fattening at day 1. We have some lovely RIR cockerels left. Maybe we should keep one to go with our LS hens next year to make replacement layers / meat.

[Victorian Farmer]

its size and being utility that makes a difference .