2018 Meat Birds - 2 Weeks Old

Another week has passed and our Cornish Cross Meat Birds continue to change.  We've expanded the size of the brooder to accommodate their growth.  We have had them on game bird ration and they have responded to the high protein.  We are going to back them down to an 18% ration.  If you leave them on the high protein feed, their body weight can outpace their skeleton's ability to support the weight.  For the most part, with the temperatures warming, we've turned off the heat lamps.  Their body heat keeps them warm enough.  They are eating a lot and pooping a lot.  As a result, it is virtually impossible to keep the brooder clean with fresh shavings.  As soon as you put fresh wood shavings in, the birds soil them.

We did have two more fatalities this past week, unfortunately.  One of them was expected.  It was a runt that was just smaller than the others.  We tried separating it from the others, and it would respond well.  Then we'd put it back with the others and it just couldn't hold its own with the larger more aggressive birds.  In the end, it died.  Survival of the fittest.  The other loss was a nice-sized bird.  We speculate that when we had a few nights of cooler weather (50's), we must not have had the heat lamps positioned low enough and over-night the birds piled up on one another to keep warm and one suffocated.

About out of space.  Time to move them out to the chicken tractor in the pasture in 6 days...

So let's go weight them and see just how much they've grown.  I picked up an average-sized bird.  He (or she) feels hot.  They generate a lot of body heat.  It is a fat little creature.  I put the bird on the kitchen scale and he promptly sat down.  Except for his head, all of his fuzz has been replaced with white feathers.

So let's see what the scale says:

At two weeks old, the bird weighs 18 ounces.
Last week, he weighed 7 ounces, giving him a 1 week weight gain of 11 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2017 birds weighed 13 ounces.
At two weeks old, the 2016 birds weighed 18 ounces.

Looks like we're right on track!  We'll have another update next week.  Stay tuned.