How many of you FULLY Free Range your Cornish X Meaties? Tractors do not count.

[JRNash]

I eat ALOT of chicken.

 

[crobbins2009]

Ugh so my Cornish X are well over 8 weeks now, and still really small. Is this common with free ranging? I expected it to take them quite a while longer, but these things draw in the predators like no other, and they randomly drop dead. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Beekissed]

Ugh so my Cornish X are well over 8 weeks now, and still really small. Is this common with free ranging? I expected it to take them quite a while longer, but these things draw in the predators like no other, and they randomly drop dead. Am I doing something wrong?

To be really small and randomly drop dead? Could be the strain of CX you've got that could cause that....poor genetics. That doesn't have a thing to do with free ranging....some of the biggest chickens I've ever butchered in my old life were free ranged CX and not a one of her group dropped dead suddenly. She kept them for 15 wks and they were HUGE...and still out free ranging every day.

 

[JRNash]

I second what Beekissed said. And they are definitely predator magnets

 

[jolenesdad]

To anyone still active from this thread...

I have a few questions, this will be my first time with Cornish.

Im slightly wary of overhead predators, but I am willing to give it a shot, I'll keep their nighttime enclosure at a size that if they need to be confined, it will be fine. I am only starting with 8 or 10. Maybe I will make a tractor for their nighttime enclosure on concrete, and if hawks come back I can still have them on grass for the day in that if needed.

Whats the best feeding plan for free ranging? Do most people do 2x a day, morning and evening? What protein level food did you find best? Im interested in providing for a humane life, not necessarily feed conversion or the largest birds.

Whats the typical slaughtering age for those of you who have free ranged? I am not going to process myself yet, and I need to make an appointment. I'd rather err on the side of earlier and smaller birds I suppose than dealing with any issues that could come up.

 

[colleen4nier]

I do. My first two chicks were accidents from TSC. I say accidents because they were supposed to be Americaunas. I figured it out at 6 weeks when one broke her leg. She just died at 16 months old, she lived her life as a very loved and affectionate handicapped chicken. Her mobility was very limited due to her limp, but what she lacked in speed she made up for in personality. She sang everyday and mothered all the other chicks that came after her.

The second one is my best layer. She is 15 months old now, and as healthy as can be. She can't fly or roost, but she runs right next to the rest of the flock.

I feed once in the morning, and the rest of the day they free range. I should add they are in excess of 26 pounds. A very large chicken!

 

[Gabrielpsherry]

Are you putting them in a coop at night?

 

[colleen4nier]

Are you putting them in a coop at night?

I do! She goes in with the other girls. She just lays on the floor under the egg baskets.

 

[DuckWhisperer06]

Yes, it can ... however in my corner of the world, I would be feeding Mother Nature's hords of coyotes, foxes,, racoons, possums, cougar, bobcats, neighbors' dogs, eagles and hawks more than myself if any are left to eat.

So Fort Knox it is.

So true

 

[Compost King]

I have one Cornish X hen that I am keeping for breeding and she has 1/8th of an acre to free range on, but its not fully free range, its called yarding. Not sure if full free range is safe for Cornish X because they are so predator prone. Eventually she will be penned up with a large compost pile to dig through after I complete building the compost pile.
I do feed her an hour before sundown but she spend the day scratching for food with her BFF a Naked Neck x Red Ranger.

NN/RR is 4 weeks in this picture, the Cornish X is 3 weeks moments after leaving the brooder as they explore their new world. This picture was about a week ago.