4H meat birds

[Noraaaaa]

HI! I'm a 4H kid in Ohio and I have a few questions about meat birds. I have silkies and wyandottes and do fancy birds, so I am very unknowing! Hope y'all can help!

I am thinking of getting them from Meyer Hatchery. This is where we get our non-show birds.

https://meyerhatchery.com/products/meat-birds


-should I do a broiler or a roaster?
-does it matter if they are boys or girls?
-how much do they sell for at auction?
-how much do I feed them?
-what are some designs for a moving coop (like a pic or article)?
-what do I feed them?
-do you bring them in pairs or trios?
-how many do you buy if you want two sets of them?
-do you wash them a lot because they are dirty?
-what is a good show-quality meat bird?
-how would I win the meat bird class?

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I don't do 4H and know nothing about it, but I have raised meatbirds before. I won't be able to answer all your questions, but I'll answer them off of my personal experience.

-does it matter if they are boys or girls?

It depends on what you are going for. Personally, straight run-which gives you a mixture of both, is the best way to go. If you want one over the other, hens are best with an occasional accidental rooster (depending on your numbers). If you do cockerels, you'll have some who are huge and others who are tiny as they are more aggressive and will hog the feeder more. With a mixture or just pullets, you get the same amount of birds with them all close in size.

-how much do I feed them?

I like to provide them with feed 24/7 and in a floor feeder where they can just sit in it and eat their life away. (I needed my birds big as they were feeding a big family.) Some people recommend taking their feed away at night, or do feeding times. I oppose this as these are birds who live for food, and taking it away from them for any period of time is stressful for them. (You want to eliminate as much stress as possible due to the heart issues they tend to have.) Also, ensure they have more than one feeder so everyone can get to it.

-what do I feed them?

I fed mine organic broiler crumbles. Any crumble is good (as long as they come as crumbles, not pellets), but the organic was making their meat look the best. This is according to my butcher (who specializes in poultry) who said my birds were the best looking ones he had ever done.

-do you wash them a lot because they are dirty?

Don't wash them. You want to eliminate stress. For mine, I was cleaning their coop anywhere from once a day to every other day. Shavings is best to use in their coop as it keeps them the cleanest, plus straw and hay would poke their chests as they're sitting on the floor constantly (never provide them with perches!) and trip them up when they're already a high risk for leg problems. If you've got them in a tractor, then you want to move it daily. (Warning: prepare for a messy yard!)

For some added notes:

Depending on your Hatchery's minimum order, I highly recommend doing 15 or 25. I was doing anywhere from 50 to 100, but I had been doing them for a few years. Meatbirds are a lot of work and can be expensive depending on what you are feeding them, so you don't want to overwhelm yourself. (100 meatbirds are like three times more work than 100 laying hens.)
15 is a great beginner amount and I highly recommend. I'll add here, always expect casualties, so always ensure you're getting more than you want. (So with 15, you're giving yourself a buffer say you want 12 at butcher. If all survive, then you can give your extras away.) With a smaller amount, I have discovered there's typically less casualties, and sometimes none at all.

With meatbirds and their fast growing genetics, you want to prepare for health issues. Both heart and leg problems are common for them. On the heart, you always want to ensure they have as little stress as possible and don't have anything coming around them that may startle them. (Say you have a LGD, that might stress them out because it's viewed as a predator naturally.)
On their legs, you want to eliminate anything that will promote injury. That is why I said earlier to not give them perches. If they had them, when they jump down, they could injure themselves, plus they're very clumsy. They're not like your average chicken who can use their wings to better balance themselves. Roots, blocks, and logs are also things they could trip over or jump on and risk injuring themselves upon jumping down.
If your meatbird has a leg issue, unless you've got the time to put into their care, it's typically best to cull. Their lives are very short, so they most likely won't heal before their butcher date and will be underweight in comparison to the rest.

Most companies raise their birds for 4-6 weeks and most are only raised to 6 weeks of age. If you want the bigger birds like me, then raising them to 8 weeks is ideal. These birds are not to be pets! Do not raise them past 10 weeks, as the older they get, the more at risk they are for health problems. Even if they appear like it, they cannot live happy lives like normal chickens because their bodies aren't built for it.


Hopefully this all helps you and I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you with all of your questions. Again, I know nothing about 4H, so this is all from my experience of raising meatbirds. Best of luck to you and your 4H project!

 

[Noraaaaa]

I don't do 4H and know nothing about it, but I have raised meatbirds before. I won't be able to answer all your questions, but I'll answer them off of my personal experience.

It depends on what you are going for. Personally, straight run-which gives you a mixture of both, is the best way to go. If you want one over the other, hens are best with an occasional accidental rooster (depending on your numbers). If you do cockerels, you'll have some who are huge and others who are tiny as they are more aggressive and will hog the feeder more. With a mixture or just pullets, you get the same amount of birds with them all close in size.

I like to provide them with feed 24/7 and in a floor feeder where they can just sit in it and eat their life away. (I needed my birds big as they were feeding a big family.) Some people recommend taking their feed away at night, or do feeding times. I oppose this as these are birds who live for food, and taking it away from them for any period of time is stressful for them. (You want to eliminate as much stress as possible due to the heart issues they tend to have.) Also, ensure they have more than one feeder so everyone can get to it.

I fed mine organic broiler crumbles. Any crumble is good (as long as they come as crumbles, not pellets), but the organic was making their meat look the best. This is according to my butcher (who specializes in poultry) who said my birds were the best looking ones he had ever done.

Don't wash them. You want to eliminate stress. For mine, I was cleaning their coop anywhere from once a day to every other day. Shavings is best to use in their coop as it keeps them the cleanest, plus straw and hay would poke their chests as they're sitting on the floor constantly (never provide them with perches!) and trip them up when they're already a high risk for leg problems. If you've got them in a tractor, then you want to move it daily. (Warning: prepare for a messy yard!)

For some added notes:

Depending on your Hatchery's minimum order, I highly recommend doing 15 or 25. I was doing anywhere from 50 to 100, but I had been doing them for a few years. Meatbirds are a lot of work and can be expensive depending on what you are feeding them, so you don't want to overwhelm yourself. (100 meatbirds are like three times more work than 100 laying hens.)
15 is a great beginner amount and I highly recommend. I'll add here, always expect casualties, so always ensure you're getting more than you want. (So with 15, you're giving yourself a buffer say you want 12 at butcher. If all survive, then you can give your extras away.) With a smaller amount, I have discovered there's typically less casualties, and sometimes none at all.

With meatbirds and their fast growing genetics, you want to prepare for health issues. Both heart and leg problems are common for them. On the heart, you always want to ensure they have as little stress as possible and don't have anything coming around them that may startle them. (Say you have a LGD, that might stress them out because it's viewed as a predator naturally.)
On their legs, you want to eliminate anything that will promote injury. That is why I said earlier to not give them perches. If they had them, when they jump down, they could injure themselves, plus they're very clumsy. They're not like your average chicken who can use their wings to better balance themselves. Roots, blocks, and logs are also things they could trip over or jump on and risk injuring themselves upon jumping down.
If your meatbird has a leg issue, unless you've got the time to put into their care, it's typically best to cull. Their lives are very short, so they most likely won't heal before their butcher date and will be underweight in comparison to the rest.

Most companies raise their birds for 4-6 weeks and most are only raised to 6 weeks of age. If you want the bigger birds like me, then raising them to 8 weeks is ideal. These birds are not to be pets! Do not raise them past 10 weeks, as the older they get, the more at risk they are for health problems. Even if they appear like it, they cannot live happy lives like normal chickens because their bodies aren't built for it.


Hopefully this all helps you and I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you with all of your questions. Again, I know nothing about 4H, so this is all from my experience of raising meatbirds. Best of luck to you and your 4H project!

Thank you so much! I am probably going to get abut 7 so I can bring 4-6 to fair. Do you think that a 1/7 would be a normal casualty rate? And thanks for the info on organic feed! Never would have guessed!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Thank you so much! I am probably going to get abut 7 so I can bring 4-6 to fair. Do you think that a 1/7 would be a normal casualty rate? And thanks for the info on organic feed! Never would have guessed!

It is hard telling, as with a smaller amount you might not lose any. I'd give it more of a 2-3 buffer with that amount, but then again, you might not lose any. One thing to note, is if you're ordering from a hatchery and not buying from a local feed store, you might have more casualties as shipping is very stressful for them and they don't always make it. My numbers are from getting them from my local feed store where all the weak ones were already weeded out by the store.

 

[Noraaaaa]

It is hard telling, as with a smaller amount you might not lose any. I'd give it more of a 2-3 buffer with that amount, but then again, you might not lose any. One thing to note, is if you're ordering from a hatchery and not buying from a local feed store, you might have more casualties as shipping is very stressful for them and they don't always make it. My numbers are from getting them from my local feed store where all the weak ones were already weeded out by the store.

Okay! I can always keep them and butcher them for myself LOL! I think I'm going to do pick up because we are close to the hachery.

 

[FunClucks]

Previous posters had great advice for you. I have a few more thoughts.

Watch out for green muscle disease (when they are big and get startled they can get this), don't let them get wet or chilled, no large temperature extremes, and not too hot or cold while raising. They can easily come down with and die from pneumonia. The lawn mower, predators, dogs, etc. can startle and cause green muscle disease or them to hurt their legs and need to be culled.

Be prepared to cull them. Lots of info on this site about how to do that. Do not give them names or make pets of them - this is the way to heartbreak. You can use zip ties with numbers on them if needed to differentiate birds. They are specifically bred to be very docile through processing age, so it's easy for us to think they're sweet. Once they finally mature (if they live that long) the males can turn quite aggressive. Cornish cross meat birds get so big they can't physically reproduce with each other because they can't reach, and they're too heavy to climb on top of each other without hurting each other. They should be processed long before they're mature enough to try and reproduce.

At 8-9 weeks I had a bird that fell over onto her back and couldn't get up. She was trying to raise her head up a bit to get to the horizontal nipple waterer, and fell backwards/sideways due to pressure from other chickens. Her wings were so small and the weight and size of her body so large that all of her struggles were totally ineffective. Luckily I saw it happen - if I hadn't been there she'd have died. She couldn't right herself on her own.

Make sure each bird has space to eat at the same time - they will not share like eggers do, where highest on the pecking order goes first. If there are limited spaces in the feed trough, they will cut each others rear ends up with their claws to get to the food, like slice each other open down to the muscle. (I raise 25 at a time and use a gutter feeder trough - a literal piece of gutter like for roofs, cut to length and supported/threaded into cinder blocks to support it)

Also, they don't get out of the way of you, the feeder, other birds, etc. They don't scatter back like eggers do, you will physically have to make contact with them and push them back with a rake or your foot or something to get them to move. I had a 15 lb hanging feeder I was setting on the ground, and I expected them to move out of the way of it. Bad assumption. Visually verify no chicks are where they're not supposed to be, or you could easily squish one. Expect 3x as much poop as eggers, and they eat 3x as much. I put my feeder and waterer on opposite ends of my covered coop/run so that they'd actually get some type of exercise. Otherwise they'd just lay down all day and eat. Be prepared to turn the litter/manage the litter 2x a day if needed.

No more than 7 or so should be quite doable, try to see them as a flock and not as individuals.

It's easy to bathe a chicken, info is on this site, but beware of stressing them, and they are really heavy - you may need a second person just to support them. You can use a towel and hair dryer on them like you would an egger.

Good luck!!!

 

[Noraaaaa]

Previous posters had great advice for you. I have a few more thoughts.

Watch out for green muscle disease (when they are big and get startled they can get this), don't let them get wet or chilled, no large temperature extremes, and not too hot or cold while raising. They can easily come down with and die from pneumonia. The lawn mower, predators, dogs, etc. can startle and cause green muscle disease or them to hurt their legs and need to be culled.

Be prepared to cull them. Lots of info on this site about how to do that. Do not give them names or make pets of them - this is the way to heartbreak. You can use zip ties with numbers on them if needed to differentiate birds. They are specifically bred to be very docile through processing age, so it's easy for us to think they're sweet. Once they finally mature (if they live that long) the males can turn quite aggressive. Cornish cross meat birds get so big they can't physically reproduce with each other because they can't reach, and they're too heavy to climb on top of each other without hurting each other. They should be processed long before they're mature enough to try and reproduce.

At 8-9 weeks I had a bird that fell over onto her back and couldn't get up. She was trying to raise her head up a bit to get to the horizontal nipple waterer, and fell backwards/sideways due to pressure from other chickens. Her wings were so small and the weight and size of her body so large that all of her struggles were totally ineffective. Luckily I saw it happen - if I hadn't been there she'd have died. She couldn't right herself on her own.

Make sure each bird has space to eat at the same time - they will not share like eggers do, where highest on the pecking order goes first. If there are limited spaces in the feed trough, they will cut each others rear ends up with their claws to get to the food, like slice each other open down to the muscle. (I raise 25 at a time and use a gutter feeder trough - a literal piece of gutter like for roofs, cut to length and supported/threaded into cinder blocks to support it)

Also, they don't get out of the way of you, the feeder, other birds, etc. They don't scatter back like eggers do, you will physically have to make contact with them and push them back with a rake or your foot or something to get them to move. I had a 15 lb hanging feeder I was setting on the ground, and I expected them to move out of the way of it. Bad assumption. Visually verify no chicks are where they're not supposed to be, or you could easily squish one. Expect 3x as much poop as eggers, and they eat 3x as much. I put my feeder and waterer on opposite ends of my covered coop/run so that they'd actually get some type of exercise. Otherwise they'd just lay down all day and eat. Be prepared to turn the litter/manage the litter 2x a day if needed.

No more than 7 or so should be quite doable, try to see them as a flock and not as individuals.

It's easy to bathe a chicken, info is on this site, but beware of stressing them, and they are really heavy - you may need a second person just to support them. You can use a towel and hair dryer on them like you would an egger.

Good luck!!!

Thank you so much!

 

[Noraaaaa]

@Ingrid_Grace some ppl have helped me learn abt this and you should read it too