Cornish X - Going longer than 8 weeks?

[HickoryGuy]

Is there anything wrong with letting your birds go to 10 or 11 weeks, provided they are healthy? Planning on feeding a restricted diet of 12 on/12 off. Simply want larger "roasting" type birds that are a little larger than the standard 8 week bird.

 

[bigredfeather]

No problem at all as long as you do what you say. I would say the chance of mortality will increase, but many people have raised them longer than 8 weeks successfully.

 

[LuckyDozen Farm]

Ive gone as long as 20 weeks before butcher..I had too many to butcher in one weekend..They key is to reduce feed..no more all you can eat buffet..I put out half a pound per bird per day...I had one 20 week rooster weigh in at 15 pounds!! made a great beer-can chicken roaster, and wasnt too tough at all...I let it set in the fridge for about 3 days before cooking..Yummy!!

 

[HickoryGuy]

Quote:
That sounds delicious. I don't know about a 15 pounder, though! lol But that's the kind of thing I'm shooting for. Large roasting birds that you can eat on for a few days. Thanks for sharing your exact feed rationing amount.

 

[LuckyDozen Farm]

Yeah that 15 pounder was the exception. The thing is (at more that 10 weeks) when you get home every night, the feeder will be empty, and you will have the urge to fill it up to the top...DONT!! they will surround you like starving kids, but dont give in...its for their own good...a 10-15 week old Cornish X will eat as much food as you will give it...and kill itself doing so...even at 1/2 pound feed/bird a day, you will still see lots of fat under the skin (esp the hens), therefore showing they were not under-nourished. But you are risking chickens going any longer than 10 weeks and definitely not getting the same feed to meat weight ratio that starts tapering off at 10 weeks...but the meat will still be delicious and huge (that 15 pounder... we ate some that night and made sandwiches with it for at least 3 more days). I use Purina Flock-Raiser as rations at all times..

 

[dan_grow]

at the feed store i go to the second in command keeps some roos for over a year for some breeding project hes doing but keeps them somewhere that they wont get too excited with stable temp and no feed only grass and water. even with all of this they were huge and easily 50+ pounds (these suckers were fat i mean huge)(but a few of them were probably only 20 pounds)