Not exactly for the garden...

[MuranoFarms]

you can buy those things in cheap kitchens. I once saw beautiful kitchens in red color that suits me...

WHAT???? I'm not clicking that link, but I think we just got spammed!

ok...back on topic. The little butterballs will just sit by the feed and eat all day if you let them. Be very careful with their size though. They grow so fast they can get heart failure if you wait too long to butcher them. Have you checked out the meat birds section on BYC?

 

[farmettehopeful]

This is my first time with the meaties also. We have already had one at about 5 weeks due to slow growth and a bum leg. The rest will stay here for another 2 1/2 weeks. They are in their chicken tractor but everyday when I go out to move the tractor and give food and fresh water, they go out to flutter around for a second and then just go lay in the sun! Once they got out of the house, I didn't mind them as much and they were much better when their feathers came in and didn't look so weird! I was repulsed by them from about week 2-4 but now, as long as I move the tractor once or twice a day and always have the rake handy, they are sweet meals...I mean chickens
I would also suggest BYC, search the forum for "Meaties 101"
There are differing opinions on the restricted feed idea and some just measure the food instead of withholding. I personally don't purposely withhold. If they run out, they run out but it's never longer than a few hours. They seem healthy enough but I guess they could drop at any time because I wouldn't know if they had heart problems or not!

 

[vfem]

I posted over on BYC and started a thread on following the attempt with the broody.

First attempt... total fail! She rejected and had a cow about all those chicks under her in the morning. So I moved her back to the coop and brought all the little guys back in under the lamp for the night. They're 1 week old now.

I also hatched a duckling under another broody yesterday, I'm planning on moving her to the pen and reintroducing the ducking and meat birds to see what happens. Glad I had a back up broody, but not sure this will work either. Never hurts to try... anything to keep from having to raise them in the bathroom.

So here are the butterballs & their friend the 'DUCK' as we're calling it, but its probably headed to the freezer too. Pekin's a great meat ducks! YUM!

 

[vfem]

Ok, here I got them out with my second broody who accepted them in a heart beat! Such a good mama to take all 6 meaties and 1 duck!

 

[Kassaundra]

That's great that you got a broody to take them!

I got a batch of NN chicks this week that were 4-6wks old and have been informed by the NN thread that they are mostly all boys!!!!!! So I may be processing my first sooner then I thought, or try my hand at the big "C" I've been gathering the tools but haven't got to watch anyone do it yet. I won't do it unless I KNOW which are girls b/c I appearently only have a few so I don't want to loose the few I have.

 

[vfem]

It looks like out of these meaties, maybe 2 are boys and the rest are girls. Too bad they don't live long and I'd try to breed more! LOL

 

[Kassaundra]

It looks like out of these meaties, maybe 2 are boys and the rest are girls. Too bad they don't live long and I'd try to breed more! LOL

With strict husbandry you can get them to live long enough to be sexually mature, but they do not breed true.

 

[farmettehopeful]

That is awesome that you got them out already! I wish my layer chicks were old enough for that as it would have saved a lot of work and smell in the sunroom. I understood after reading so much on BYC beforehand that they were big poopers but wow, it's as big as my cats poo! You will get plenty of compost poo from them in their short lifetime I'm getting excited as mine only have 2-3 weeks til freezer time and then we have yummy chicken and no more twice daily tractor moving and raking mounds of poo I would love to continue to hear about your new adventure as time goes on! Best of luck! Oh and mine are also extremely loving (which is hard for me to keep the detachment that I know I need in order to process them!) They know every morning when I come to move their tractor that they are getting "released into the wild" for a while...although they never go further than 10 feet...they come waddling over to me as soon as they hear my footsteps! So cute.
This is my first year with chickens of my own

 

[lesa]

Farmette, you are the first person who has considered meaties, cute! Great! I have read so many reports of them being ugly and smelly- I never imagined loving meaties! Back to the grocery store for me....

 

[curly_kate]

I've started calling ours the chicken nuggets, but man they are going to outgrow that name soon. It is really unnerving how quick they grow, and how LAZY they are! We're taking the feed away at night, but I was wondering if we should give them less food. They seriously just sleep with their head on the feeder! But I guess it's just how they are.