Suggestions Please! Low-Stress Handling and Weighing for Meat Birds

[Wildgrass]

As chick season arrives, I'm making plans for raising Red Ranger meat birds, my second year raising a flock of birds to butcher! I'm very interested in doing this as cheaply as possible while also providing the highest quality of life for the birds possible before they meet their demise. This means I'd really like to collect data about weight gain week by week.

Last year I had about 40 birds and weighed them bi-weekly. It wasn't the hardest thing in the world to catch them as 4-week olds, but by the time they were 8+ weeks and flying away from me in the coop, getting weights turned into a huge pain in the tailfeathers! I even had a cockerel give me a really nasty bite at one point...so rude. So, in getting ready for 50 birds this year...I would love to be able to habituate them to handling enough that catching and weighing each bird is easy for me AND the chickens. I have vague ideas about how to make this happen but I'm really curious if anyone else has a routine or a setup that allows you to get weights for a lot of birds and/or tames a large number of flighty birds for handling!

 

[GodLovesU]

Doing it while they’re sleeping/perching would make it a LOT easier.

 

[FrostRanger]

Doing it while they’re sleeping/perching would make it a LOT easier.

Agreed, do it while they're sleeping

 

[Wildgrass]

You know, I don't know why I NEVER think of that...but that's a great idea.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Do you offer treats daily? Go in and scatter a little scratch, BOSS, dried worms? I did that for my CX, always a little distance from where they were huddled, to make them exercise and strengthen their legs a bit. Get them walking, pecking, scratching. AND get them used to the sight and sound of you. I would think that would help cut down on the stress when you do handle them - at night, of couse.

 

[Wildgrass]

Do you offer treats daily? Go in and scatter a little scratch, BOSS, dried worms? I did that for my CX, always a little distance from where they were huddled, to make them exercise and strengthen their legs a bit. Get them walking, pecking, scratching. AND get them used to the sight and sound of you. I would think that would help cut down on the stress when you do handle them - at night, of couse.

Last year I spent lots of time with them! As a breed I found the rangers to be much flightier and neophobic than what I'm used to, but they did acclimate to having me sit in their flock. I found they tended to want to keep their distance from me except when they were out of food, at which point no one minded coming right up to me and standing on my feet. I'd like to see if I can use scratch/treats to get them to rest on my hand/stand on a target this year, but I feel like I can only be so successful training 50 birds at once!

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Do it at night or dusk, and use a bucket attached to a fish hanging scale. Put the chicken in the bucket to weigh them. It's even better if you get an extra tall bucket, because some are spry enough to jump out.

 

[Mountain Roost]

These are all great ideas. But nobody is talking about the punch-you-in-the-face wing flap that you have to contend with near the end; and they bite.

I dream of a chute just big enough for them to walk through that has a scale in their path, one that works fast and perfectly (lol).

Weighing the broilers is a lot of work and one of the parts of my process I would like to refine as well. We wait until they look like 8 pounds to actually weigh them but separate them for size by eye from chicks.

Out in the pasture I use a people scale and piece of plywood. Then we set up a few hog panels to hem them in to the front of the tractor. Open the tractor door and let them come out into the small pen; using leather welding gloves, we then have to CATCH, and pick them up restraining the wings. then and stand on the scale and take the difference. Then we color code them with poster paint 10(goal), 9, 8, 7 pounds and put them down in a side pen. Repeat for 25 birds. At the end we let them run back into the tractor with feed. Doing a tractor or two in one day is max.

 

[Wildgrass]

These are all great ideas. But nobody is talking about the punch-you-in-the-face wing flap that you have to contend with near the end; and they bite.

I dream of a chute just big enough for them to walk through that has a scale in their path, one that works fast and perfectly (lol).

Weighing the broilers is a lot of work and one of the parts of my process I would like to refine as well. We wait until they look like 8 pounds to actually weigh them but separate them for size by eye from chicks.

Out in the pasture I use a people scale and piece of plywood. Then we set up a few hog panels to hem them in to the front of the tractor. Open the tractor door and let them come out into the small pen; using leather welding gloves, we then have to CATCH, and pick them up restraining the wings. then and stand on the scale and take the difference. Then we color code them with poster paint 10(goal), 9, 8, 7 pounds and put them down in a side pen. Repeat for 25 birds. At the end we let them run back into the tractor with feed. Doing a tractor or two in one day is max.

I can almost picture a possible squeeze chute in my head...if only I was mechanically inclined! I think it must be possible to combine good design and behavioral conditioning, if only I had both those skills. Your method is a lot of work, but it does sound more efficient than me chasing down birds one by one in a ten by ten foot coop!

I think I'll work on the conditioning aspect this year and report on anything that worked - I have a couple professional dog trainer friends who are helping with chicken chores and I know they'll be interested to try some things! For weighing the whole lot I'll probably stick with sneaking in after dark though.