[Tazzy]

Hi all.

Some of you may remember my posts about Olive and her hard work hatching out 8 chicks.
   It's not fair - 6 or 7 of the 8 chicks are cockerels!

After some hard thinking, we have decided that they are to lead a short but happy life before being added to the stock cupboard. We can't realistically keep so many birds that don't give anything back, and we can't give them away for love nor money.

Has anyone been in a similar position and fattened up birds for the table? Ours are almost 3 months old now. How long should we keep them? Should we restrict their free-ranging and keep them in their pen? (it's 30' x 20', so plenty of room to stretch about) Do they need any special feed or will layers pellets be enough.

Then just got to find someone who can despatch them quickly and cleanly as I wouldn't trust myself not to make a mess of things and put them through a lot of pain  

[GrannieAnnie]

What breed are they Tazzy?  Birds like Light Sussex and RIR's we usually kill about 20-25 weeks, but as they are in with the girls, they eat layers pellets.  If you are able to keep them separate, then feed them on rearer or growers pellets like we do the meat chickens, then on corn or a plain finisher for the last week to get rid of any medicants in the feed.

This weekend we gave our last 2 young RIR's and 6 Araucanas to Brian's friend who took them home with him.  He kills them as he needs them, but there won't be loads of meat on the araucanas.

Can't help you with the killing as we are a bit far away!

[Tazzy]

Hi Grannie,

Thanks for the reply. They are quite rare breeds of birds, known as Bitzers. Bits of this and bits of that 

Can't really keep them apart from the big laying girls as they are all in the same run. The other, much smaller run, is taken up with 3 Christmas geese and they don't get on too well with the hens.

Should I start keeping them in now (aged about 12 weeks) for the next 8 weeks or so, as they have been free-ranging all day and every day? I don't want them to walk too much meat off, but I want them to have as much freedom as possible before they have their last journey.