Author Topic: Fattening chicks (Read 3458 times)

shrekfeet · « **on:** May 14, 2009, 07:51:16 am »

HEllo everone!

Had five chicks hatch on Good Friday (perfect timing for Easter chicks!). They are penned up at night and scratch around the garden and yard all day with Mother Hen. I plan to eat most of them and wonder what/how I should be feeding them to fatten them up and how long it will take? Can I leave them scratching around and supplement this with something else (what?) or do they need to be penned up soon for maximum weight gain?

Help please.

dixie · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2009, 09:04:57 am »

Do you not provide any feed at all? they need growers pellets.

xxmillyxx · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2009, 12:18:20 pm »

I got some 5 week old sasso's a couple of weeks ago and I am feeding them on growers pellets, plus they are out and about in their pen where I throw some corn mix each day and they are growing nicely. These are mostly for the pan, but I am keeping some for breeding.

I am also incubating some eggs now and have bought in some chick crumbs for these.

I am new to this and all the above advice is what I gained from this site and books - so wish you luck with the new brood.

catomell · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2009, 12:55:43 pm »

Hi, in the past, all my fattening birds have been fed chick crumb to start with, followed by growers pellets when they can manage them, and I have also always fed a handsome amount of corn, as this gives them the wonderful golden colour once they are slaughtered and plucked. They have always free-ranged and they do eat a lot of grass. Careful you don't overfeed them or they may go off their legs, although this tends to happen more with confined birds than the free-rangers. Hope this helps.
Catherine.

cluckyclaire · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2009, 06:54:22 pm »

Hiya. I too give mine chick crumb to start and then move to growers pellets. they free range with the rest of my flock so often end up eating the layers pellets too during the day. At the moment we have got a slow growing breed which apparently will be more tasty than the faster growing ones we have had in the past and my word they are slow - some seem to be growing slower than my pure breeds!!!

shrekfeet · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2009, 10:19:03 am »

Thanks for the advice. I started them on chick crumbs and they have a feeded or mixed corn in their run. I let them out during the day and they free range which I guess is the healthy way. I suppose I need to switch to growers pellets and I can let them freerange until they start to become a problem in the garden or veg patch. Or will they use up too much enenergy wandering around when really they should be converting that food to weight?

catomell · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2009, 10:24:49 am »

Are your chicks a meat strain, i.e. Cobb, Sasso, if so, you will probably find that they are quite lazy, and will only roam as far as the nearest food!! If not a meat bird, but still edible nonetheless, they may wander a little more, and will probably wreck your veg garden in no time.....