First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

Double Kindness said:

Well I've given up on the idea of getting cornish x at least until spring!

A slw can't walk, curled toes, so I've had her inside giving nutridrench and vitamin/electrolytes water, 18% protein all flock pellets soaked in nutridrench water for 24+ hours now. I might have to cull her this weekend. That leaves me 25 dp chickens 6-7 weeks old.

Linda- you have experience with this right? Or maybe not. Maybe at the end of the month when we go pick up our whole pasture raised hog from the butchers I can swing up north to check out if they have cornish x at that feed store near ft collins? It's too late in the year this year.. but in the spring! !

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Most feed stores will have them. Or you can order. Min of 25 from Schletch Hatchery are about $45 for me. That's including shipping. Search at the top the the reputation of Schletch Hatchery.

KCMOLisa said:

Mine are 9 days old now, but I am worrying that I got them too late also, especially with restricting feed!  I live in Missouri and the weather is usually decent until mid-October or so.  But the low tonight is 39, and my babies are in an outdoor brooder box!  If this weather keeps up, they might not make it to processing day at all! 

I do think a lot of people raise them around this time of year though because I went to my local farm and home store for feed and was surprised they were having a Cornish Cross chick days.  Those chicks were even a week younger than mine.  Next year I'm going to start them a couple of weeks earlier for sure, though! 

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You have a heat lamp, right?! They will be fine with one. I am moving mine outside once the cold snap is over here, which I assume you are getting now:/

I'm not using a heat lamp, but they have the Premier brooder heat plate (similar to Brinsea EcoGlow). I just checked on them and they are all snuggled under there. I am sure they will be fine. I'm just being a nervous first-time mom! It's supposed to warm up a little Sunday, and I'm planning to get them on the grass for the first time.

I will also say that I'm having a great experience with this breed so far. Everything I had heard about Cornish X was that they are stupid and lazy. From what I've seen, that is so not true. Mine are smart and curious. When I stick my hand in the box, they all jump up and perch on my arm. They love getting pets on the head. In fact, they are going out of their little bird brains from boredom in the brooder box because they are so active and love scratching through the shavings. I can't wait to see them free ranging!

Yes I was planning on eating the slw, but she's too little. It's not bumblefoot, but something is wrong with her hips I think. Idk.

I'm nervous about the ayam cemani and white bresse chicks I'm expecting in the next 2 weeks. They are my fm meat (black meat) and sustainable meat project chicks. I don't really want to cull her yet, she's healthy otherwise.

I see lots of posts about ordering/hatching Cornish Cross. I realize the hatcheries may have this cross perfected but is there a good viable option to doing the cross myself by raising the correct stock, collecting the eggs, hatching and raising them all the while collecting eggs over the winter?

podgal said:

I see lots of posts about ordering/hatching Cornish Cross. I realize the hatcheries may have this cross perfected but is there a good viable option to doing the cross myself by raising the correct stock, collecting the eggs, hatching and raising them all the while collecting eggs over the winter?

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Hi podgap. good to have you on the forum. So much to learn and enjoy. There is a search button at the top of the page. Search for raising CX's . You can read and find out what your special needs are as well as what type of chicken you want to raise for eggs and meat. I plan on getting some Cx's and raising the females as regular chickens. Same feed, and let them roam. They will live a lot longer. (The males I will raise for meat). After the females (pullets) are starting to lay I will breed them to a White Plymouth Rock Rooster. It takes longer to raise than regular CX's, maybe 12-14 weeks but will I think give me what I want. A sustainable bird. Keep breeding the new pullets back to the white rock and the new male that you want to have for a breeder, breed him back to his mother. This is called line breeding. Occasionally add back in new CX pullets to the mix. Does that make sense? I don't want to blow your mind with facts. I was a newbie not too long ago and knew absolutely nothing. I even ask the question. "Can you have eggs without a rooster".

LindaB220, wow thanks so much, that's exactly what I was looking for. eggs without a rooster reminds of an episode of "survivor" where the tribe was given 3 hens and a roo. When they got back to camp they harvested one of the hens because they thought they had to have a roo for eggs-what a waste. I was laughing at their lack of awareness and also remembered not so long ago I didn't know the answer either. I'll keep reading... I've got turkeys and 10 breeds of chickens. Hence, I'm subscribing to another thread every night. The amount of info is amazing. I just read a thread about culling chicks... Anyway, back to meat birds - I want to avoid raising birds with so much quick weight gain that they become crippled and have seen recs on this thread to avoid that. Right now I just cull excess roos to the freezer. I really like the idea of a sustainable meat production flock. I'm getting the eggs already. thanks again.

I was terrified to get my CX after reading all of the frankenbird, and fat, lazy boring bird stories. I can tell you that my CX with free ranging are awesome. These guys outrun me. They are curious and interested in exploring everything. Tonight, when it started to get dark, they came looking for me and found me in the garage to put them to bed. The batch I have currently is my second one. I was so worried about losing them to a predator with the first batch that I only let them out when I could stay and watch or check on them often. This batch is free to run 8-10 hours per day. They have squeezed through the fence to visit the neighbors and met me at the back porch to "take me" to dinner time. They have covered more ground than the last and are just simply pretty awesome! It is great to see them all out pecking and scratching right along side my layers. I will definitely be raising more CX in the spring!

I imagine that these guys would be fine in the cold if you keep drafts down and make sure they have a heat source. I think I remember reading in a thread that someone had raised them in very cold temps and they didn't have great results in the amount of meat in the end. Much of their food energy was converted to keeping them warm rather than to meat. I don't recall the details of the story. I think if it were me, I would provide a heat source to reduce that from happening.

I haven't even gone back to read the past posts (I've got 18 updates on this thread it says), because I'm up at 5am for work.
Yesterday my birds were slaughtered/attacked. By a mother Fing raccoon. I was at work. I called DH at lunch time, he was home working on our stove in the basement (my sister was watching my kids and dog for me at my mother's house----and I thank the LORD for that, from the bottom of my heart). He said we had lost another bird to the cyanotic gasping action. I thought it was due to stress, because it's been in the 40s here, and at night the low 40s and rainy and the birds were wet (two nights ago from ranging all day in the rain---their choice, they loved it and didn't want to come in right away) so I turned the heat lamp on at night. They clustered below it, but were very restless and repositioning and jockeying position all night to get closer for warmth----so I attributed his death to rough handling the night before/stress.... that was lunch time that this happened yesterday.
I worked 14 hours, so at 8pm when I left last night I called home to let DH know my departure and see if my kids were sleeping yet to say good night, and he was whispering. He told me he was holding vigilance with a gun over the coop, that yesterday IN THE BROAD DAYLIGHT while he was IN THE YARD WITH THE BIRDS WATCHING-----2 raccoons came and tore through my birds.

DH is liking the birds and free ranging them, he let the big ladies intermingle with the babies in the yard yesterday and it was great, they all hung out together foraging. My property is about .6 of an acre, so not very big, and the birds are all ranging up close to my house/garden. He said he heard what he thought was "the egg song" when someone lays an egg. Only they all 6 of them were doing it at once. He thought that meant he had a lot of eggs to collect, so he rounded the corner of the house (the garden is off to the side of the house). All the hens were in the coop, sounding off---they put themselves back inside, 1st day free ranging-----no eggs. He stepped out, turned the bend of the chicken house and there the b*astards were. Plowed though my chicks and killed them in my pepper patch. The girls sounded the alarm but it was too late. The coons ran off when they saw DH coming toward them. THIS WAS IN THE DAYTIME, like 4 or 5pm. Not even close to dark!!!!! DH got a gun and took off after the raccoons, but he was too noisy from being upset, he couldn't find them. So he held vigil. Didn't even eat dinner last night. I got home, and I held vigil with a gun. Nothing.

We left the bodies in the garden where they were killed to use as bait, but they haven't come back for them. They beheaded 2 of the chicks yesterday, 1 died of other causes, so that is 3 dead. I've got 17 birds left and a few not doing so hot, because of being roughed up from the coons. I'm the only nurse for my half of the clinic today so I have to work and cant call off, but I'm beside myself.

The biggest sick factor in my gut is if my kids had been home, they free range in the yard, as long as we are within earshot/eyesite----they could've been attacked. My dog, gets her rabies vaccines tomorrow at the clinic in town and she would've been mauled had my sister not taken her. Its not safe. I'm not used to my home not being safe. Wild animals are everywhere, I live in the sticks, but something is wrong with these raccoons to attack while my DH was within site and in the middle of the afternoon. In a pair. They're solo hunters/scavengers....this pair tactic is foreign to me. I'm a hunter, have been for 7 years, but I'm knocked for a loop. I want them dead so that my family and my livestock are not in danger. I am waiting by the window now, listening, before work. Nothing.

He said the little birds didn't make anymore noise than normal, which they are very vocal anyway. He's sick over it and so am I, for what could have happened and what did happen.

I will work my shift and come home late again tonight and then I will sit up again and wait.

Tomorrow---rabies shots for all my animals, and my tomatoe canning will be put on hold. Talked to DH and I'm going to be building a large run. and my CX and layers will all share it together. It'll be like a horse pasture, but predator proof with hardware cloth and probably electric wire.

Do not want to go to work right now.

Plaid,

I am sorry hear about your problem. I know what that feels like.

I hope you are wearing a coon skin hat tomorrow!

I worried today Grouse hunting season opened. I wonder how m chickens I will lose to the slob hunters. My CX's are safe, but my EE could be in danger. There is no fence between our land the land the federal government stole from us (to make a game refuge and then open the refuge to hunting).

I find it unbelievable people cannot tell the difference between a grouse and a chicken.

BUT back to the CX's. Yesterday I fed them there mash on a paper feed bag instead of dumping it on the ground. I thought they were wasting too much on the ground. The Silly Birds never touched the feed all day long!

When I dumped it on the ground inside their tractor they ate it.......What kind of bird does not eat food on a piece of paper while free ranging???

They are really gaining weight now. I think they doubled in the last week. Which is a good thing, it froze hard last night here, the pumpkins are done growing now. Ice on the windows of the cars. This is no time of the year to be raising chicks! Oh well....