April 24th, 2009
It has been a while since we posted about the meat guys. They are continuing to grow like crazy. It took 3 weeks for the chicks to go through the first bag of starter feed. It took less then a week for them to eat the second! At 5 weeks they recommend restricting the amount the White Rocks eat. It will be tough ensuring the smaller Barred Rocks are feed since they are not as attracted to the feed as the White Rocks. We may have to split them up.
Here is a pick at 3 weeks:
Here is a pic at 4 weeks:
The pictures don’t quite capture the size of these chickens. The Barred Rocks have changed the most since the last update. They have completely feathered out and you can pick out the hens and roosters easily. The weather looks amazing this weekend with temps well over 20 C! We’ll setup a temporary day time enclosure for them to free range. We’ll be sure to take some pics 
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April 23rd, 2009
After months of drooling over the Murray McMurray catalogue and many hours of painstakingly choosing breeds based on a variety of traits, our chicks have arrived. It was not an easy journey. The hatchery is located in Iowa. They are unable to ship chicks across the border, so I had them shipped to Michigan to a post office for pick up. Let me tell you, the border guards give you a funny look when you tell them your going to pick up chicks! If there are any Canadians out there that are thinking of ordering from McMurrays - the health papers are under the bedding! That will save you some time coming back! Why would I go through all this trouble just for some chicks? The answer is variety! I could not find a hatchery in Canada that had the selection of rare and heritage breeds that I was looking for. It was difficult to narrow down my choices, but somehow I controlled myself and only ordered 15. Two Cuckoo Marans (they lay chocolate coloured eggs), three Faverolles (my favorite, although I’m not sure why…..we’ll see if they live up to my expectations), two Araucanas (the “easter egg chickens” that lay blue and green eggs), a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, a Silver Dorking (they have 5 toes), a Red Cap, a White Laced Red Cornish, a Black Silkie Bantam, a White Frizzle Cochin Bantam, A Belgium Bearded D’uccle Mille Fleure Bantam(say that 3 times fast), and a mystery rare exotic chick that the hatchery threw in for free. I’m not sure exactly what he/she is, but I suspect a Black Japanese Bantam. I’m very excited to watch these guys grow and develop. Right now, the chicks are camping out at my workplace so they can have lots of socialization. Pictured above in the lab are the Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, the mystery chick and a Faverolle. If only I could teach them to run fecals!
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April 8th, 2009
The chicks are two weeks old today and growing like weeds! You can see how the White Rock X is putting on weight faster then feathers. The chicks have now moved out to the garage. Last year we kept the chicks too long in the house. They started dust bathing in the shavings and scattered a film of dust all over our spare bedroom. To save having to clean that up we opted to move them sooner rather then later. We have reserved the entire garage bay for them but for now we are keeping them confined in the dresser so they don’t stray too far from the heat lamp. Ahh experience finally pays off
You can’t see it in the pictures but the meat guys eat so much in one sitting that you can visibly see their crop bulging. This alarmed us at first as we thought they were “ill” and we’d have to put some of them down… after some reflection we realized it was their crop. They are about 2 /3 finished the initial 50lbs bag of starter crumbs. Before the weekend we’ll pick up some grower feed which is lower in protien (17% vs 20%) which should slow their growth a bit. At this age and size they could probably be “processed” as cornish game hens that you see in the grocery store freezers. We’ll let them grow for another 8 weeks or so and get them out free ranging as much as the weather permits.
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April 1st, 2009
As you can see from the photo the White Rock X chicks have grown significantly in just one week! Kelly and I are in agreement (after only 1 week!) that we will never raise this breed of chicken again. They definitely show the sad state of the commercial farming industry. These guys are barely moving around, they lay and eat from the feeders, they have trouble standing and often rest or even walk on their hocks and their breathing appears to be quite laborious. They are unnatural, unhealthy and evolution would never have allowed such a creature to survive. Maybe if we were not raising them with the heritage Barred Rocks these qualities would be overlooked. They remind me of a frail person knocking on deaths door. The Barred Rocks on the other hand are doing very well! They are darting around their enclosure up and over everything. I suspect it won’t be long before they are escaping. Currently these guys are calling an old dresser home in side the house. This weekend we’ll be moving them outside to the garage and on nice days we’ll put them into a chicken tractor to forage around. When they are fully feathered they’ll be able to live in the chicken tractor or even free range around the property.
We have not incurred any additional expenses for raising these guys. We have been lucky to only lose one White Rock X.
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March 25th, 2009
Chicks are amazing. They can survive for 72 hours after hatching without food or water. Long enough to be shipped in the mail. We didn’t order these guys through the mail though. We picked them up from Frey’s Hatchery in St. Jacobs. When the weather warms up a bit more we’ll be ordering some fancy chickens from McMurrary Hatchery in the USA. There are 13 Barred Plymouth Rocks and 13 White Rocks.
It will be very interesting to compare these two breeds as they grow. The White Rocks will eat themselves to death if you let them. Over the years this breed has undergone significant changes:
Average weight at 7 weeks in 1957 – 2 lbs.
Average weight at 7 weeks in 1986 – 4 1/2 lbs.
Average weight at 7 weeks in 1999 – 6.3 lbs.
It’ll be interesting to watch them grow along side the Barred Plymouth Rocks which are a dual purpose heritage breed. Along with comparing these two breeds we are also keeping tabs on the cost of raising these guys. So far it has cost us:
Barred Plymouth Rock $25.56
White Rock X $21.36
Feed (chick starter) $10.10 <- less discount
Wood Shavings $6.63
Head lamp $12.42
The grand total for this adventure so far has cost $76.07. The fun of raising them… priceless!
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