Summer Pastured Poultry – Beech Meadow Farm 2009
Here’s more video of the broilers doing their thing. This is a group of all cockerels from a hatchery in PA that we were trying for the first time this year. These are still Cornish-cross hybrids, but they mature about a week slower (later generation cross) and are alleged to have less health problems than their faster growing brothers. In practice we have not found any difference in health between these later crosses and the first generation crosses from Meyer Hatchery in Polk OH. Their chicks have been top quality and very healthy. The health also speaks to the quality of the environment on the birds and the nutrition from the pasture. In addition our feeding and mineral program is the best we can find and that helps support the birds rapid and dramatic growth.
2 Responses to Summer Pastured Poultry – Beech Meadow Farm 2009
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We actually have very low losses and in general I’m pretty pleased with these units. I’d like to standardize them a bit (each is a bit different right now). The electric poultry netting perimeter is an absolute requirement and must be managed properly. In particular, one must be very careful about LOW cut pasture and any dips in the land. This is most important along fence rows and tree lines where predators may regularly patrol the fence. Otherwise we loose < 1-2% once on the pasture.
beechmeadowfarm
September 29, 2012 at 10:25 am
How did it go with this set-up? Any predator problems?
ozarksharvest
September 29, 2012 at 11:01 am