Letting my broody raise 20 meaties. Now I have a rooster raising 50 CX chicks~new batch!

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Beekissed

Beekissed

Free Ranging
16 Years
Feb 14, 2008
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Anyone else do this sort of thing with their meaties? It was just a rare fortune that I had a broody at the same time that I saw some healthy Cornish X chicks at TSC. Bought 20 of them and placed them under my broody last night and she thinks they are hers this morning.

So....anyone else and did it turn out okay? I free range my birds, so these meaties will be free ranged with the flock when they are fully fledged. Until then, they will have a White Rock momma.
 
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No I have not, however I do want to try it and see how they grow. I would believe they would grow a lot slower and forage really well compared to how they grow in a regular brooder. Very interesting, would love to here how they are doing in a couple of weeks... maybe even perhaps some pictures when you get some free time.
 
Haha, I can just imagine one hen trying to cover several meat birds after a few weeks
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It will be interesting to see how things go. After a few weeks, my meat birds barely do any walking (except between the food and water). They will probably not get as big, but I would assume the free range meat would taste better.
 
At my old place, I used several broody banty hens to each raise 12 - 18 day old RIR s . After a few weeks, when the banty tried to brood her charges, she would be sitting on top of them without her legs touching the ground. When the time came to send the RIR chicks to freezer camp, we had to catch the broody first to avoid being flogged by her.
 
I took pics of her and the chicks this morning and will try to post them soonest. It will be interesting to see how meaties do on free ranging and without free choice feed in front of them. Anyone else did this and had good results?

I feed my free rangers in the evening before they go to bed and they usually have a small amount left over in the morning to start the day...other than that, they forage full time.

I keep you all posted with pics of their development. Right now they are very active and coming out from under her in the early morning while it is still in the 30s here and they act like they are not a bit cold....eating, drinking and scratching about like the cold doesn't affect them!
 
As promised...a pic of my White Rock broody with her 20 adopted Cornish X chicks. She is very happy and the chicks are thriving well without a heat lamp or other considerations....just feed, water and mommy!

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This post is going to be very interesting. I think that this will promote slower growth and more foraging... please keep up with the updates. This is so cool...


Good luck...
 
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can't wait to see them at about 3 weeks. I was hoping to do this, but non of my hens went broody before the chicks came. My meat chicks are 2 weeks old an about twice as big as the standard chics that came the same day. I take the food away at night now, and they attack the food dish as soon as I put it down. I can't imagine them totally free ranging I'm not sure there are enough bugs or worms out there just yet, to fill them up; their genetics are set up so differently. but it will be interesting to see if it works. Good luck!!
 
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I'll document their progress with pics so you all can see how they do on free range and a regular feeding schedule. I do think I will have to get out one of my extra feeders to accomodate the extra big eaters in the flock but they will still only have access to it in the evening and early mornings.

So far, their brooder pen is open air and it is around 40-50s here with temps in the 30s at night and Mama hen seems to be meeting their needs with keeping them warm.

If you look closely you will see tiny orange legs under her belly where many little chicks are hiding....these pics were taken their second day here. What you cannot see are the other chicks acting like the cold, windy day is nothing and running around eating and scratching. They really are amazing when you think they came from a climate controlled environment with a heat lamp, and went into these cool temps without a hitch.
 

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