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I have unfortunately ended up with 2 cockeralls about 18 weeks old.I want to eat them.Can anyone help with what I should feed to fatten and when is the bset time to slaughter?
Thanks
Clare

I fatten mine on a mixture of potatoes and whole barley, and at this time of year they get the old peas (cooked) that got missed when picking, plus bread crusts when we get to the end of a loaf and of course whatever they find when free ranging.
Ours are dispatched from 16 weeks to about 20 weeks, after that they tend not to put on much more weight for the food they eat and also tend to get a bit too tough.

I fatten mine on broken maize for about 10 weeks before the pot adds to the flavour.

Eddy;

oldfella wrote:I fatten mine on broken maize for about 10 weeks before the pot adds to the flavour.

Eddy;

What he said plus some cracked dried peas.

we fatten them up more or less the same way as odsox does.

We feed them as many boiled seed patatoes, bread and "broken grains" as the will eat. Never leaving there feeding bowls empty.

The bread i buy from the local bakery, its about two days old before we get it. But then it only costs 1 euro for a 50 liter bag full of breads and "bakery scraps" i think bread is an excellent fattener.

I read once that the famous (Around here that is) Poule de Bresse chickens are fattened using milk powder and wheat flower. I intend to try this way of fattening coming spring.

Dave

Slaughtered batch of 7 yesterday and have just had one of my favourite dinners, sautéed chicken's livers and fried shallots.
Well worth the hatching, rearing, fattening and despatching.

All the above,any maize adds colour.I like the boiled mash pots as it's easy to incorporate other stuff into it.If your'e raising the white hybrids (which I know you personally aren't)you must kill them before 12 weeks cos they put on weight so quick their heart can give out.

nb..the waste bread thing (in UK) is probably illegal but hey ho,.......DEFRA...oxygen thieves in my opinion.. BWs.

We finish ours for the last ten days on just corn, seems to work well.