Cobb 500 meat bird

[Faraz1]

Does anyone have any experience raising cobb 500 meat birds ? I have a batch that is due to hatch next week and will be experimenting with a few chicks placing them on a restricted regiment to try and get them to breed later on perhaps with a white leghorn rooster i have.

From what i have researched the first 2 weeks they should have unlimited access to food /water after which they should only be provided access to food in a limited amount twice a day ?

The batch that i will experiment on will be allowed to free range during the day so that they can get in exercise and hopefully develop a healthier cardiovascular system along with stronger bone structure.

 

[FunClucks]

Have you ever raised meat chickens, any type of cornish cross before?

I raised 25 Cornish Rock Cross recently - did 5 days free feeding, light on 24 hrs/day, then switched to 12 hrs on, 12 hrs off feeding regime for the rest of their lives. When I put them outside, I didn't pull the food at night, because we had 12 hrs of daylight, and they didn't eat when it was dark. Used 22% NatureWise Meat Bird food. [Wanted to use my Purina All Flock 20% protein but it was more expensive.] 21 of them made it to processing age of 5 wks to 9 wks. I would have processed them all at 7 wks and 8 wks if I could - they got super large. At 9 wks, one hen fell on her back and physically couldn't get up. If I hadn't heard her and helped, I think she'd have died from stress.

I had two losses to heart attack, one whose legs gave out, and one who I lost in a brooder accident (my fault). I ate the one whose legs gave out.

CX are EXTREMELY food aggressive. Each needs space the width of their shoulders at the feeder, all at the same time - they will not take turns, but will cut each other up on their rear ends with their claws trying to climb over each other to get to the food.

The only way I got them to exercise was putting the food and water at the opposite ends of the pen. They will lay with their heads in their food trough if they could.

If you plan to restrict food at all, carefully clip their nails first to try and prevent injuries. I had to put one food dish in one end of the brooder and slip the main feeder in the other end of the brooder while they were fighting over the first feeder. Once they went out to the covered run, they used a 10 ft gutter trough, and it was about the right amount of space.

3x the poop, 3x the water needed of normal/egger chickens.

Honestly, if you want a meat bird that acts more like a normal chicken, check out Freedom Ranger hatchery, their Freedom Rangers, Red Rangers, white rangers(?) or Mc Murray's Hatchery Ginger Broilers. Those are healthier birds that you don't have to partially starve and force to exercise in order to lengthen their lives. Also they are more tolerance to heat and high altitude. Someone else already did the work to create a CX type chicken with more liveability, I can't wait to try them myself.

 

[Faraz1]

Never raised meat birds before but have watched lots of videos about them.

If i restrict their feed, will they have a slower growth and forage around the garden a bit more ?

 

[NatJ]

get them to breed later on perhaps with a white leghorn rooster i have.

What is your goal? If it's just curiosity, then of course there is no real substitute for doing it and seeing for yourself.

But if you want to raise a specific kind of chicken, someone might have already developed it, and you could save time and money by learning what kind it is and buying it.

Crossing extremes like Cornish Cross and Leghorns is likely to produce a middle type of chicken. Many middle types already exist, without any need for special management as they grow.

If i restrict their feed, will they have a slower growth and forage around the garden a bit more ?

I have read some anecdotes of Cornish Cross that foraged when their food was restricted. I have never read of them foraging any useful amount while other food was available. One example is the book Chicken Tractor by Andy Lee. He described using a portable pen, moving it to fresh grass each morning, and withholding feed for 1/2 to 1 hour. So the Cornish Cross chicks would eat the grass and scratch the ground a bit in that time, because they were hungry and eager for breakfast.

One problem is that Cornish Cross are usually butchered quite young (8 weeks or so). So they do not have much time to learn how to forage and what to eat. Brooding them on the ground will help a bit, but no 8-week chick is going to forage as efficiently as an adult chicken who has plenty of experience.

To some extent, being a really good meat bird is opposed to being a good forager. The "best" meat bird just eats and grows fast, without wasting energy on moving around much. That way produces the most meat for the least feed, which is what the commercial raisers want. Cornish Cross are strongly selected to do that. Trying to get them to do anything else is going to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

will be experimenting with a few chicks placing them on a restricted regiment to try and get them to breed later on...

The batch that i will experiment on will be allowed to free range during the day so that they can get in exercise and hopefully develop a healthier cardiovascular system along with stronger bone structure.

Probably some will do a bit better than others at ranging and foraging.
If you want to keep a few for breeding, you may want to put legbands or other markers on each chick, and pay attention to which ones do better, so you can keep those ones.

If you restrict feed for the whole batch, you will stunt the growth of all of them (so you get less meat from each one). That might be the best way to pick some for breeding, but it's not making the best use of the meat-producing abilities of the ones you intend to eat.

 

[Faraz1]

Just purely experimental at this stage. I have around 21 eggs that are due to hatch so will separate around 5-6 for the "experiement"

Currently these meat bird hatching eggs have cost me $4 per egg delivered (im not in the usa) which is not really cost effective so i am looking to come up with a solution where i can get some of these birds to either lay eggs and cross with my leghorn rooster or get a rooster out of them to breed with one of my leghorn hens

 

[FunClucks]

Just purely experimental at this stage. I have around 21 eggs that are due to hatch so will separate around 5-6 for the "experiement"

Currently these meat bird hatching eggs have cost me $4 per egg delivered (im not in the usa) which is not really cost effective so i am looking to come up with a solution where i can get some of these birds to either lay eggs and cross with my leghorn rooster or get a rooster out of them to breed with one of my leghorn hens

FYI, once you breed meat birds, they become less regular in their growth, size, and ability to grow. Cornish cross are a terminal cross. If you want a meat bird that will regularly give you repeatable size birds with the same growth characteristics, then you may want to pick a different breed. Or you can start with CX, breed them, and see what you get, and breed the best ones from that. A number of folks on here have CX barnyard mix and are happy with them. They don't put as much meat on as fast as pure CX, but you also don't have to buy chicks every time. Or you can start with a heritage breed selected for meat production (New Hampshires from Freedom Ranger hatchery and McMurray Delaware Broilers are on my to-try list).

Odds are good you'll get at least one rooster out of your 21 eggs. They are obvious by 2-3 weeks old, and are easy to figure out compared to the females.

 

[Klutch]

The industry has produced a few breeds of chicken that were used commercially, if you really need the supersonic CX, then you only have one choice.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

From what i have researched the first 2 weeks they should have unlimited access to food /water after which they should only be provided access to food in a limited amount twice a day ?

You can do that, or you can do "12 hours on 12 hours off" feeding, which is what I do. Put the feed out in the morning and pull it 12 hours later. I've raised CX only once and am on my second batch now, but I had excellent results with that last time.

 

[Faraz1]

Odds are good you'll get at least one rooster out of your 21 eggs. They are obvious by 2-3 weeks old, and are easy to figure out compared to the females.

Do you recommend using a rooster for breeding or trying to get the pullets to start laying ?

 

[FunClucks]

Do you recommend using a rooster for breeding or trying to get the pullets to start laying ?

If you have cornish cross hatching eggs, I think most folks recommend to keep the females and cross them with whatever rooster you have available. You can try to restrict feed and breed CX to CX, but results will be variable in the offspring (growth rate and size). You'll get variable results any time you breed the CX, whether hen or roo. The CX rooster can get too fat/large to breed, so you'll have to watch for that. So I guess I'm saying you could do it either way.