Meaty Madness - Page 3

Amazing how fast these birds grow and the amount of feed to poop conversion !

Yours do look a little smaller than mine. Perhaps it's the feed?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hydroswiftrob 

Yours do look a little smaller than mine. Perhaps it's the feed?

I have 24 meaties that should be ready to process within the next week/two weeks. I have some tipping the scales at over 6 pounds and some that are only 4.. Considering the growth rate and appearances I'm pretty sure the heavier ones are the cockerels and the lighter ones are the pullets.. I can process most of the boys soon and the girls I can hold off a week or two, or more to get larger sizes. Unfortunately.. the feed conversion isn't as good with the girls as it is with the boys, but if I were to spend the 13 cents more for all boys, I could have them all ready at once, with less feed, but even though the girls have to go a few more weeks, for better size, Is it worth the extra food, and the less stress that you have to process all at once?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xC0000005 

They aren't quite eating the "right" amount for their age.  I go off the welp hatchery CX feed chart, and they basically consume food like they would if they were one week younger than I was told they are.  When I bought them the feed store guy said "these are a week old," and they looked huge compared to the EE chicks, so I figured he was right.  Now I'm not so sure.  I think I'll just stick to the feed plan (12 on, 12 off) and see how they do.  I've been putting them on a scale and they are definitely gaining but just don't look as large as other two week old ones I've seen.  So we shall see.

I started with the 12 on - 12 off, but now they have feed in front of them 24/7. I am using Dumor starter/ grower 20% protein, throwing in scratch everyday, and feeding them a ton of meal worms that are 56% protein. That could be the size difference. I have bought a bag of game bird feed that is 28% that I am going to mix with the next bag of Dumor to give me the roughly 24% protein I am trying to achieve. My birds are pretty active and I make them work for their meal worms. I have layers in with them so they have a little competition and have to get up and move for their food.

If we're thinking of the same feed store in Monroe, I like that place.

They probably said a week old, but really could have been anything between 3-8 days. 

That said, I've gotten cornish x from various sources and they are always a bit slower than "industry standards". Industry standard has the birds in temp/humidity controlled rooms with minimal energy loss due to moving about. I would not worry about them being a bit "slow". You'll likly have less leg issues if they are not packing on the pounds so fast. And near the end, they really really will pack on the pounds. 

I feed 24/7, but at a few weeks old, let them go run around outside in the rain. They learn quickly to go back inside to dry off and get warm. Food is inside, and I do find they will go outside. By 6 weeks old, I remove light, so they eat by sunlight which effectively puts them on a diet restriction till I butcher at 8 or 9 weeks. 

From the one year I weighed a few birds. Their weight in ounces per date. I don't remember what day they were delivered though... You can see exponential growth at like week 4-7. 

At 3 weeks old, I still can't tell my cockrels from the pullets. They are very close to the same size. I am thinking I lucked out and picked all males out of the tub.

So turns out that weighed bunch was delivered march 20th of that year, after 2 days of shipping, so 18 ounces at 3 weeks sounds about how I did with the meaties in the PNW, raised predominantly outside.