Feeding Cornish Cross while away

[CaryHaven]

I’m going to be gifted eight Cornish cross hens in the next two weeks. I’ve never raised them before. I’ve been doing some research on them and know that they will go through a lot more feed than my normal free ranging hens do. My question is, I have to be away for about 2 1/2 days about four weeks into raising them. How do you all deal with being away when you don’t have anyone to feed them while you’re gone? Do you allow them to free range and deal for themselves? My other chickens have no problems with that. Do you get an automatic feeder? I feel like they would be OK but not sure how much it would affect the weight at the end or if I should extend the date of butchering by a couple of days. Thank you!

 

[Rose the Legbar]

CX chickens need to have continuous food during the day and taken away at night. They are not able to free range due to being so fat and unwilling to leave the feeder.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You are going to need some sort of feeder that stores enough feed plus a bit more. If you don't have rodent or wild bird issues almost any feeder is going to work but consider wastage too. The cheapest is the bucket feeders with the PVC elbows and if you are going to just be raising a flock of meat birds you might not attract the vermin before the flock is at butchering size.

 

[CaryHaven]

You are going to need some sort of feeder that stores enough feed plus a bit more. If you don't have rodent or wild bird issues almost any feeder is going to work but consider wastage too. The cheapest is the bucket feeders with the PVC elbows and if you are going to just be raising a flock of meat birds you might not attract the vermin before the flock is at butchering size.

So you are meaning continuous access with a feeder, even at night- not an automatic feeder?

 

[Al Gerhart]

When you say automatic feeder, are you thinking some sort of dispensing timed feeder? Generally an auto feeder is just a gravity feed hopper type feeder, a treadle feeder without the door or treadle.

Doesn't matter if the feed is available at night. The only time that matters is when you have rats and even then the rats are happy to feed during the day anyway. So if you are raising a batch of meat birds, anything that holds enough feed for the duration of the trip, around a quarter pound of feed per day per bird will do fine.

 

[NatJ]

So you are meaning continuous access with a feeder, even at night- not an automatic feeder?

Chickens typically don't eat in the dark. So if the Cornish Cross are in a place that gets dark at night, they should sleep instead of eating during the night.

For the days you will be gone, that will be the best way to provide food by day and (mostly) not by night.

Even if they have light all day and night, if you are only gone for 2 1/2 days, I think leaving food continuously will be the safest thing. I know people often recommend taking away the food at night for Cornish Cross, but this is just a few nights, not their whole life. Leaving them hungry in the day would cause more trouble.

You could try to use a feeder that dispenses food at certain times, but that is much more complicated, and that means it is more likely to go wrong somehow (feeding too much or not enough or not at the right times.) Simple is probably better for this situation.

 

[CaryHaven]

Chickens typically don't eat in the dark. So if the Cornish Cross are in a place that gets dark at night, they should sleep instead of eating during the night.

For the days you will be gone, that will be the best way to provide food by day and (mostly) not by night.

Even if they have light all day and night, if you are only gone for 2 1/2 days, I think leaving food continuously will be the safest thing. I know people often recommend taking away the food at night for Cornish Cross, but this is just a few nights, not their whole life. Leaving them hungry in the day would cause more trouble.

You could try to use a feeder that dispenses food at certain times, but that is much more complicated, and that means it is more likely to go wrong somehow (feeding too much or not enough or not at the right times.) Simple is probably better for this situation.

Thank you, I agree this makes it simpler which I’m all about!