I feed a 28% protein crumble purchased from the local amish. None of the major ag stores around me carry above 24%. Often it's listed as turkey feed. At ~8 weeks I put them on the standard layer feed (more calcium) that I give my ducks. Crumble, not pellets even though they'll eat the pellets too.
It's worth it to get a meatier bird.
Thanks for answering all my questions. and how much space do you have?
It was too shitty out today for me to get the pictures of my whole setup. I promise I'll have a good explanation of what I'm doing on here soon. Everything I use is homemade.
My incubator will hold over 100 eggs, but I usually hatch 30-50 every other Sunday in the warm months. They stay in there for 48 hours. Any more than 50 is only when someone wants to buy chicks.
Brooder #1 is about 3 square ft. Chicks are there for 10 days, at which point they can sort of fly.
Brooder #2 is the same size but has a lid.
The bachelor pad is 4'x2'.
The jr hen pad is the same size.
The breeder hutch is 3'x8'. Any deeper and I can't reach all the way in to grab eggs. I guess I could get the stick a craps dealer uses to wrangle out eggs?
I have another 3'x2' if there's any overflow.
This allows me to hatch on 2 week intervals and house everyone until I butcher at ~8 weeks.
Thanks for the explanation. Maybe you can make a post and collate all this info since you've written so much already? I think the community will find it interesting and useful. Thank you once again!
(post is archived)