Chicks were picked up near noon at the hatchery. They were all dried off, looking good, healthy and active.  They all drank and ate well from the start.  Two died or were culled in the first few days.

Birds were brooded in a 32 square foot pen on peat moss and wood shavings with red heat lamp on thermostat reduced a couple of degrees per day. Only the area immediately below the lamp was heated. Birds were moved outside to grass in 120 square foot pen on day 14.  There was no major weather related stress throughout the growout period. One chick got its leg hurt during first week.  By week three I could no longer identify the bird, so presume full recovery.  One bird got rolled by the trailing edge of the pen about day 16 or 17 and also made full recovery.  Another bird got run over during a pen move at about eight weeks and was immediately bled out, skinned and dressed for our own freezer.

Feed was Timothy Yoder's broiler ration which contains Fertrell Poultry Nutri-Balancer.  Seven hundred thirty four (734) pounds of this feed were consumed by these birds.  Feed conversion was 2.7:1. (All weights throughout this discussion are carcass (dressed) weights with necks and tails but no livers, hearts or gizzards. Since the portion of the diet consisting of forage from fresh pasture was unmeasurable, the feed conversion is calculated only from the ration provided in the feeders.) This data has an estimated  +/- 10% reliability since I was sometimes weighing feed in buckets with old spring scales and sometimes just counting dead-full scoops as weighing three pounds each.  This figure is the difference (out of thirteen hundred ninety four pounds) of what was fed to an equal number of DH experimentals which were hatched three weeks earlier.  Feed was never more than three weeks old. Feeders were allowed to run empty each night for four or five days from about day ten to day fourteen, and again the night before any partial pen harvest. Otherwise feed was always available. Water was always available.  A handful of granite grit was added to the feeders every few days. Hard-boiled eggs were added to the feed for the first few days. Chopped raw beef liver was added to the ration for a few days around the two week mark.  Fresh grass clippings were given during the last week in the brooder.

The taste of these birds is excellent. (Several customers reported that they were the best chickens they had ever eaten!)

There were no leg problems, other than that noted in paragraph two above, nor were there any other sort of problems with these birds.  They began to sit around a lot at about five weeks, but still remained reasonably active.

Taste, economics and availability will be the determining factors for me in deciding what chicks to buy in the future. At this time it looks as if raising Cobbs is more than forty dollars more profitable per pen than raising the experimental D x H birds, with most of the added profit coming from weight rather than from the better feed conversion.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

First harvest at six weeks three days
Median harvest at seven weeks three days
Final harvest at eight weeks three days