2017 Meat Birds - 2 Weeks Old

We are at Week 2 in the meat bird chicken raising adventure of 2017.  The birds appear to be all healed of their brief encounter with 'Pasty Butt.'  In my mind they don't look quite as big as they were last year at this time, but we'll find out for sure in a minute or two.  We have increased the number of watering containers to two and we have four feed troughs in the brooder that we keep filled with Chick Grower.

It has been warm lately and the growing chicks put off a lot of body heat, so we have been keeping only one heat lamp on at night.  The birds make a lot of poop and we have been emptying out the poop-saturated bedding and putting it in a corner of the garden to compost.  Later on, after it has "cooled down" we'll incorporate it in the garden soil.

The Brooder

Now we'll put a chick up on the scale.  For the time being, I don't have a good way of marking the same chick to weigh each week, but I'll think of something.  For right now, I will pick out an average sized bird to weigh.  By next week I'll think of something like painting a red dot on one of their heads.

Here are the results from Week 2:
*Week 2 2017:  13 ounces
*Week 2 2016:  18 ounces
*Week 2 2015:    6 ounces

Last week he weighed 7 1/2 ounces.  He's almost doubled his weight over last year in a week, but in comparing to last year, he's 5 ounces lighter.  That is a significant amount of weight and I don't know how to explain it.  Edit to add this: Tricia "theory woman," remembered that last year we only had around 51 birds.  This year we have 98 birds.  Tricia's theory (and it is a good one) is that last year there were fewer birds and the one bag of 28% game bird starter ration was consumed by fewer birds and lasted longer.  This year we have about half the amount of birds and the 28% game bird starter ration was quickly consumed and with the second bag being regular 18% chick grower ration, the 98 birds ate a ration with a lower percentage of protein.  Thus the smaller weight this year over last year.

So we are 5 ounces behind last year, but more than double where we were at this time in 2015.  I'd say we are pretty much okay.  I'd like to see them a little heavier, but we have 6 more weeks for growth.  I'll be patient.

Just for grins, I'll show you the Rhode Island Red laying hen chicks I bought.  They are the same age.

At two weeks old they weigh 5 ounces.  These birds are very active, running around the brooder. In contrast, the meat birds just eat, sit and poop.  The birds are just different - one is bred for egg production and the other for meat.  One is a Mercedes coupe.  The other is a Ford Super duty F-250 pickup truck.

Next Wednesday, we'll take a peek at the growth changes that we see in the birds and we'll discuss other aspects of chick raising.