Cornish rocks ?!!

[shellz131]

I got some major questions right now ...first off I got some Cornish rock chicks from tsc about three months ago....for the most part they have lived in the coop since day 2 of my having them...my brooder was just not going to got it with these birds because they were soo messy.my question is just why are they not growing like they should..?I have in the past week lost 3 birds and it starts with them having trouble walking. The most recent one wasjust this morning when my rooster decided that the chicken laying down was a hen and proceded to mate with him/her? That resulted in him breaking the littler chickens neck and I had to put him out of his misery.now we have 2 more having trouble walking and I told my mom we have to start processing even though they are about the size of my silkies and with very little meat on the bones at all..I am just at my wits end on this and they told us that they would get to be the size of a regular chicken and they are not

 

[shellz131]

asked Tsc and they told us that they were just plain Cornish Rock game hens...when we bought them they told us that they would get as big as a regular chicken and be ready to butcher around 12-16 weeks..we have now started butchering them..did 4 today (the ones with leg problems) and all were healthy and about what you would expect for a cornish game hen in regards to the meat on them.
very miffed in regards to Tsc right now..I feel they lied just to make a sale at the time..

next year I am probably going to just order em from a hatchery so we get the right birds.

 

[homesteadapps]

How much do they weigh?

What are you feeding them?

They may never look as big as a larger breed chicken.

 

[hhong3138]

I agree! they are messy! I got 25 Cornish rock about 5 weeks ago. I took food away from them from 7pm to 7am since they were 1 week old. Now I feed them twice a day and they seems doing fine. It seems that they don't grow as fast as in other time of the year because of the heat. I also add a few drop of multivitamins in their water, so their bones will grow stronger and less likely to have legs problem. I attached a picture of my Cornish rock.

Good luck!

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Are you sure they are Cornish Rocks? At 12 wks your birds should have already been large enough to butcher. You should be feeding them a 20% protein feed. Can you post a pic of your birds? If they are meat birds, you can keep a low wattage bulb on at night so they can eat 24/7. Good luck.

 

[myhubbycallsmechickeemama]

I have heard that lots of people buying from TSC got white leghorns this year when they thought they were getting cornish rocks. Could they be leghorns?

 

[gmendoza]

got ours from TC in april. 3 died early from mysterious reasons,butchered 6 two weeks ago (yummy) have 2 more to butcher tomorrow,and one became a white ee roo. They finished out at around 6-9 lbs.The last two are a good 9-ers.

 

[Blaineiac]

I'm guessing that it might be a feed problem. I highly doubt that leghorns would be having leg problems.

 

[Blaineiac]

I have a 3 month cockerel who weighs about 10 lbs live weight. I kept him as a buddy for my BBW turkey. I lost 2 other turkeys and felt bad leaving him all alone. I have really restricted his feed. He is doing great. Mainly he free ranges eating mullberries and bugs. Your birds should be atleast 7 lbs processed. Breast meat should be 1 1/2" to 2" thick. If I had kept him on growing rations, I'm sure he would be kicking at the sun by now. Sorry about your luck this year. Mine were from Schlect and did awesome after I got them outside. I had them on Nutrena meatbird feed from day one (only fed in the morning, free ranged all day) and at 8 weeks I had 6-7lb processed birds. For being the fat lazy birds I read about, mine sure covered some ground.

 

[shellz131]

mine probably are in ounces in regards to weight ....they are fed the right food and they have it 24 hours a day..under light 24 hours a day as well..just not the bird I thought they were

...was soo looking forward to a nice big plump chicken and all I got are these scrawny things..

Tsc you are on my !@#$ list
going to be processing the rest in the next 2 days