CornishX questions :)

[IcarusSomnio]

I'm trying to figure out how much raising a flock of Cornish cross meat birds is going to cost, then I realized I don't even know how much they eat

So, questions that (hopefully) someone will be able to answer!
1. How much, on average, does each bird eat in an 8 week time period? (when I would likely slaughter them)
2. How much, on average, does each bird drink per day?
3. At 8 weeks old, what has been your average live weight, and processed weight?
4. Do you take your chickens to someone else to be processed? How much does outside processing normally cost? (I'd be processing myself, but I'm curious)
5. How much do farm-raised, processed birds usually sell for in your area?


Thanks in advance guys

I figured if I didn't have answers to all my questions, I'd try to get five or six Cornish X's and do a sort of chicken study

 

[randyandmegs]

I just finished off a group of 105 from Central Hatchery. I can give you my experience and answer a few questions but Im sure its different everywhere to a certain degree. I know they eat more than any other chicken I have ever raised but they were also grown at 7-8 weeks. I have hot a very dry and hot summer. It has been in the 90's with no rain in over 6 weeks. Mine are on an automatic watering system but as 3 week old birds they would drink over 5 gallons a day. Considering the crappy weather and my grass crunches now when you walk on it (my birds are in a Pastured Poultry Pen moved daily) my birds dressed out averaging 4.75 lbs. I have a large buyer that wants every bird I can produce and I sell to them at $2.00 a pound otherwise it will be around $3.00 per pound. Others in my region sell for $3.50 but they are close to the big city. I process myself and my first batch of birds will just about cover all my cost of processing equipment. I use trash cans for scalders and I just bought a table top plucker. I had rented at Whizbang to start with and will build one over the winter. I found great deals on used stainless steel tables that were dented or needed welding which was no problem for us on our farm. A guy I talked to the other day said it cost him $3.00 or $3.50 a bird processing fee. Anoter big cost savings I found was a local farmer that used to have a dairy and all he does now is grow corn and soybeans and grind his own feed. It's $6.50 per 50lbs versus $13.00 at TSC. Hope this helps some.

 

[Hillsvale]

a rule of thuimb is the birds will eat double their finished weight so if you have a 10 live weight bird at 8 weeks they probably ate about 20 pounds of feed.

Water differs as they age but they drink LOTS!

Processing in Nova Scotia runs 3.50 to 4.00 a bird plus the cost of the organs if you want them.. I processed my own.

A bird will loose about 35% of its weight from live to dressed.

 

[IcarusSomnio]

Thanks for the information guys! I love this forum, everyones so incredibly helpful

There's a local hatchery selling Cornish crosses, between me and my dad, and his bosses family, I figure we'd easily eat 25 bird breasts within 2 months. My dads bosses family could probably eat 25 bird breasts PER month, but thats an awful lot of poop

Now all I gotta do is find a good, but low-cost feed and then...I'll have my grower-cost-per-bird!