Maple Runners, Farmer's Plate Special
Fast Maples maple rocks, ready acer, red acer ????
Are you looking for an ethical meat bird without having to raise a heritage bird 16+ weeks? With feed prices, land, and taxes on an upward climb you can be assured great conversion rates and livability with this bird. If you were to cruise by the farm on any given summer day and look out on pasture you would find a sea of red birds. Given that this bird is one of our high end table birds. From afar you might think it was part of a New Hampshire breeding program. You might be partially right. This is a composite of several 1950's meat type chickens that were common before the inception of what we know as today's modern industrial broiler. These are active birds built for an active life on pasture. Under the right conditions these birds typically finish out in under 10 weeks for your table market at 6.5 lbs. We test several times per year and to date we are still salmonella and avian influenza free.
Rearing;
We recommend a non medicated 20% starter for the first few weeks of life and the switching over to 18% starter until 6 weeks when you can transfer them to pasture. Alternately if you have spoken to me on the phone I have described what we term as stacking feed. This a process we have used for many years with great success. Especially given the many types of poultry we raise together. To stack feed you simply put the lower protein feed on top of the troughs to allow the heavier eaters to eat until the remaining high percentage feed is left for those less aggressive feeders. This should maintain a fairly balanced ratio of birds come harvest. Alternately if your wild bird, mouse and predator population is low you can broadcast feed on the clean pasture to promote foraging. Due to the additional proteins found in a true pasture diet you should reduce your protein to a diet of 70% cereal grains and 30% starter for the remainder of grow out. It's best when raised on pasture with warm nights and when use of pesticides are at a low. In our non-scientific common sense studies we have found that exposure to pesticides leads to feather picking,suppression of the immune system , and well as but not linited psychological and physiological damage. Supplemental heat should be used to prevent piling
Are you looking for an ethical meat bird without having to raise a heritage bird 16+ weeks? With feed prices, land, and taxes on an upward climb you can be assured great conversion rates and livability with this bird. If you were to cruise by the farm on any given summer day and look out on pasture you would find a sea of red birds. Given that this bird is one of our high end table birds. From afar you might think it was part of a New Hampshire breeding program. You might be partially right. This is a composite of several 1950's meat type chickens that were common before the inception of what we know as today's modern industrial broiler. These are active birds built for an active life on pasture. Under the right conditions these birds typically finish out in under 10 weeks for your table market at 6.5 lbs. We test several times per year and to date we are still salmonella and avian influenza free.
Rearing;
We recommend a non medicated 20% starter for the first few weeks of life and the switching over to 18% starter until 6 weeks when you can transfer them to pasture. Alternately if you have spoken to me on the phone I have described what we term as stacking feed. This a process we have used for many years with great success. Especially given the many types of poultry we raise together. To stack feed you simply put the lower protein feed on top of the troughs to allow the heavier eaters to eat until the remaining high percentage feed is left for those less aggressive feeders. This should maintain a fairly balanced ratio of birds come harvest. Alternately if your wild bird, mouse and predator population is low you can broadcast feed on the clean pasture to promote foraging. Due to the additional proteins found in a true pasture diet you should reduce your protein to a diet of 70% cereal grains and 30% starter for the remainder of grow out. It's best when raised on pasture with warm nights and when use of pesticides are at a low. In our non-scientific common sense studies we have found that exposure to pesticides leads to feather picking,suppression of the immune system , and well as but not linited psychological and physiological damage. Supplemental heat should be used to prevent piling
