The broiler breeder parent stock is due to arrive around the start of next month so I thought I'd post up a wee thread just to document the process.
previous thread -
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=53907.msg455700#msg455700Broilers (its an American term) are the meat birds you see for sale in the supermarkets.
These are generally grown in huge commercial farms, I worked on commercial broiler farms which varied in size from 100,000 to almost 300,000 birds.
These birds are usually killed between 5-8 weeks of age depending on the market requirement and attain live weights of 2 - 3.5Kg
Their growth rate is being improved constantly by selective breeding and to a lesser extent their ration, since the 1950's these birds have reached their particular target weight a day earlier each year and so far that shows no sign of slowing down.
The Ross 308 broiler male is expected to reach 2Kg live weight at 32 days, 3Kg at 42 days, 4Kg at 52 days and 5Kg at 63 days, (i've never known them to be kept more than 56 days commercially) the growth rate is tremendous.
the longer they live the bigger they will get and if kept much more than the normal 55 day maximum you would begin to see major problems in them caused purely by their weight, leg problems, mobility, skin and leg disorders due to them sitting most of the time etc
These birds by their design have been bred to grow as fast as possible and be killed before they are 8 weeks old, they should not be kept any longer than that.
It sounds cruel, maybe it is but its what the market and the demand has created so rightly or wrongly, from a commercial point of view its where we are now.
The major companies that produce broilers for the UK are Aviagen, (who acquired the old Ross Poultry and hence the Ross breeding stock) , Cobb, Hubbard etc you might have heard the names.
Each has different strains/types of broiler for different applications.
Commercial meat birds are often incorrectly called "Ross Cobbs".
see here -
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=40639.msg394898#msg394898The parents of these broilers are known as broiler breeders, they are two different strains bred together, a male strain and a female strain to produce the fast growing broiler.
Basically todays broiler chicken its what we would call a cross breed.
I have also worked on broiler breeder farms, these are laying farms where these parent strains run together and the eggs sent to a hatchery which then sends the day old broilers out to the broiler farms.
These are smaller sized farms, usually with around 10-30,000 birds each.
My original plan was just to buy day old broilers and rear them for the freezer but the purchase price was quite expensive, anything from £1-£2 per bird for a small chick!
Thats expensive once you start to add up the feed/heat costs plus allow for mortality etc etc
So the cheaper way is to buy the parent stock and breed your own.
Hopefully i'll be able to sell some hatching eggs/chicks and maybe recover a bit of the purchase cost.
I'm planning to have a flock of around 20 females and 2 males which should produce more than enough eggs.
The rearing of these parents needs a bit of care and attention, they need to be kept within a certain weight range during the rearing and laying period or they will just grow to large and the egg numbers and fertility will suffer.
They also require to be kept to a lighting program during the rearing period to prevent them maturing too early or too late which again would impact on the egg numbers/fertility.
It sounds more complicated than it is, honest
I'll be keeping mine inside until the natural daylight fits in with their lighting regime then they can go out in the run.
A bit of reading if anyone is interested
http://en.aviagen.com/ross-308/
