How much feed for meat birds

[cmobley]

I have 23 cornish cross that are 5 weeks old. I'm feeding them from a 3 foot trough feeder I give them the trough at 430 am when I leave for work and noticed it's empty at 330 when I get home but not sure how many hours it's empty before I get home. I've been refilling the trough at 330 and giving it back to them and they act like they aint ate all day. They usually never empty the trough a second time and I take it back out at 430-500 pm. Am I over feeding them or is this about what they should be eating at this stage. They can walk run and fly surprisingly they're out in a large grassy fenced in area so they have access to fresh grass and bugs also. Should I cut back on the 18% feed or keep goin like I'm goin?

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I'm no expert but I used the chart on this page to make sure my birds' weights were on-track. https://meyerhatchery.zendesk.com/h...ers-101-How-to-raise-from-hatch-to-processing Keep in mind that "dressed weight" is the weight after processing, which you usually lose about 30% weight after. So whatever the dressed weight is for their age on the chart, add 30% and that should be their live weight.

With that said, CX always act like they are starving. They just love to eat. If their weights are on track, then don't worry about it. Just know that they do eat more as time goes by though. I do think it was around the 4 or 5 week mark that I noticed a huge gain in how much they were eating.

Lots of people do the 12 hour on 12 hour off feed schedule. I did. If you aren't sure, maybe set out an extra feeder so you can make it to the 12 hours.

 

[iwltfum]

They probably just really like eating in the morning as most birds do. I would give them a second feeder for the morning feeding if you can. That amount of birds will need two feeders at this point anyway on account of having enough space for everyone to eat at once so you don't end up will a runt that can't bully it's way to the food before it's gone.