Broiler Chickens

[Miki]

Hi Gary & Co., I've just joined up and am fascinated by your information. We have just moved to acreage and are looking for this kind of info to get us going. We have added 5 pullets to the rooster and chook left behind (we started with 8 pullets but 3 didn't make it). We are setting up a simple AC system - we eat so much fish and chicken - and now BC's (Broiler Chickens) are on the long ToDo list..... as this is all totally new to me even though we have wanted to do this for a long time I am not looking forward to my first slaughter (chooks) and then preparing it.... Any tips?

[GaryD]

Hi Miki,

Welcome to the Aquaponics HQ Forum.

I'd be happy to induct you into the Royal Order of the Chicken Raiser.

As the celebrated cook and author Mrs Beeton used to say at the commencement of many of her recipes, "First, get yourself some chickens."

You should be paying something in the $1.60 - $2.00 range for day old chicks. They might be available from your local fodder store or (preferably) perhaps you have a commercial hatchery nearby.

You'll need to prepare somewhere protected (from predators and cold draughts) for the chickens to live for their first four weeks. We use a nice 2 tier pen for ours but they will still be quite comfortable in simpler circumstances.

Day old chicks will need supplementary heat for at least three weeks. I suggest that you invest in a small hover brooder like the one in one of my photos. These accommodate a UV heater globe which produces heat but no light. I wouldn't bother with ordinary incandescent light globes - they produce too much light (which encourages cannibalism) and not enough heat.

You should be able to buy chick waterers and feeders from your local fodder store. You can adapt other containers but remember that day old chicks will drown in any container large enough for them to climb into.

I'll post some photos of everything I've spoken about.....later today. In the meantime, you can get busy with the phone and source the chicks, brooder, feeders and waterers........and some broiler starter and finisher/grower (the feed).

Gary

[Miki]

Thanks Gary, much appreciated and looking forward to the pictures and info. My aim is to first to get the AP started and keep an eye out for the BC gear in the meantime. As luck has it we have a chook breeding farm just down the road so I will call them soon to find out if I can get some day olds from them otherwise the Rural store will have to do. I guess we'll be eating home grown chicken before the fish! but then, hopefully, the veggies will grow to feed the chooks.... and that is the aim in the end

[Miki]

ps. what about feeding chooks cracked barley? we also have a couple of horses and bought the wrong barley (according to my daughter) just as we were moving. We couldn't return the bag because the mice had a chew on it. We are using bits at a time, soaked in boiling water, to feed up some of the horses and trying it out on the chooks and young ducklings.

Any tips for the final hand in the BC - as in the slaughter - we have read up on most details but still have to put theory into practice

[GaryD]

Hi Miki,

You can certainly feed your chickens cracked barley.

If you soak the barley in boiling water and leave it overnight, it will soften to the point where the chickens can make the most of it.....otherwise it passes out of the back of the chicken without having been completely digested.

Ensure that your chickens have access to hardgrit.......finely crushed granite (or similar rock). If you can't buy hardgrit from your feed store, go to your local landscaping supplier and buy a few shovelsful of crusher dust. That will have lots of tiny stones in it.

The chickens eat the tiny stones which gather in their gizzard..a specialized stomach with a thick, muscular wall used for grinding up food

The only issue that is likely to arise with wet grain is that of mould......do not feed grain (or any other food) that has gone mouldy.

When you get closer to having to slaughter and process your own broiler chickens, I'll get into more detail. For the moment, however, the important details include:

• The best way to kill a chicken for processing is to cut its throat - by drawing a sharp knife across either side of its neck. If you are uncertain about this, you can simply chop its head off with a clean axe. While some might argue that this method may not allow for complete bleeding out of the bird, I've never had it happen.
• Once you remove the bird's head (or cut its throat) the bird is, for all intents and purposes) dead. The violent struggling that ensues is post mortem and is caused by muscle spasm.
• To ensure optimum food quality, process your chickens as quickly as possible after they are dead. Scald them immediately they stop struggling.
• 65 degreesC - is the optimum temperature for scalding your dead birds for easy feather removal - much lower than this and the feathers will be hard to remove and much higher and the skin will tear and the bird won't keep quite as well.
• The feathers should be easy to remove by hand. Work quickly and rinse the carcase in chilled water to remove any loose feathers.
• Evisceration (removal of the internal organs) is easy enough but you'll benefit from seeing it first hand (or from some photos) before you attempt it yourself.
• The two things to avoid when removing the guts is knicking the digestive system and spilling undigested food/chicken poop on the meat.....and breaking a little green sac (the bile duct) attached to the liver. If you spill bile on the meat it will become very bitter and inedible.

That's probably the key things to remember about killing and processing chickens.

I'll take some photos of the whole process as I do the remaining broilers during the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

We processed another 8 chickens this morning.

They were 58 days old and dressed out at a total weight of 14.9kg.

The heaviest bird was 2.1kgs and the lightest was 1.6kg...for an average of 1.86kg.

Over the years, we've discovered that, when processing chickens you have good days and bad days. Today was the latter.

Having said that, we probably had a better day than the chickens.

Annie.....I followed up the Kialla Foods lead you provided. I think we'll feed the next batch on Kialla feed for the entire growing period.....so that we can determine the difference in growth between their organic product and the stuff we've just used.

I agree with everything that you say about the insipid fat that is to be found in chickens fed on proprietary rations. The birds are so much harder to process when they are full of that fat.

Gary

[Jimmie]

Do you have any idea what you have spent on food for the chickens Gary.
I guess it doesn't matter really, because you have grown them yourself you know they are not full of chemicals etc.

[anniefish]

Hi Gary,
I'm looking forward to see how you go with the new rations. In regards to killing the chooks - we made up a funnel out of a shet of steel which tapers from about the size of a dinner plate to approx 3-4 inches at the bottom. We hang this up and simply put the bird in head first, it's head pops out the bottom, we just hold the head in one hand and the knife in the other. One swift cut and the deed is done. The bird still moves but doesn't flap about and can bleed out really well. If we have more birds to do we wait till the most energetic flapping is over then lay the bird on the grass (or a clean surface with the drought). We have found this to be the easiest way for us and the birds.
Best wishes, Ann

[GaryD]

Hi Annie,

This is what we use.....this is a killing funnel that we purchased from a poultry supply business in Brisbane.

You can buy these in a variety of sizes.....for all types of poultry from chickens to turkeys.

Jimmie......I've recorded all of the outgoings for this batch (and the two that preceded it) and I'll post the figures once we've processed the last 8 birds.

Gary

[Miki]

Gary, your last results are fantastic, have you been feeding the BC's anything other than the last batch? how many 'batches' do you currently have - as in how many groups and how many in each group?

Thanks for the tip with the slaughter 'aid'.