My Cornish X experiment

[JessicaThistle]

Weighing chicks and monitoring them the way you are describing is overkill. There is no benefit from it. The free range birds are definitely a 100% improvement in taste and quality.
Try this test. Buy one from the store, and cook it along side the one you free range. Put them in the 'fridge and the next morning the store bought one will be covered in fat, while the free range will still look good and lean, but still have the same amount of meat. Free range is the way to go, and if that's not possible, then large enclosure with scratch grains and grower fed sparingly, is a gret second best.
Good luck
Chicken Tin (Alaska)

I weigh and monitor my chickens because I love to! I am newer to chicken keeping and trying to learn everything I can about them right now. Since I don't know how much a Cornish X chick should weigh each week or what they are supposed to look like, I am doing this monitoring so that I can learn those things. I am a person that likes to learn the ins and outs of everything I do, so I can do it the best that I can possibly do it.

I am also monitoring everything I spend taking care of them so that I know how much I will charge when friends want to buy chickens from me. It is also super awesome to know that I spend less raising my own meat birds than I would spend buying cruddy commercial chickens at the grocery store!

I'm sure I won't continue the weighing and documenting as time goes on and I learn these things. But for now, I am learning and I can share the information with others on this site that are new and learning too. I love that!

 

[JessicaThistle]

I just weighed mine tonight. They are between 5 1/2/ and 6 1/2 lbs....

That is right on target, I think!


The ones I weighed were not happy about it.

I don't know what kind of scale you used but I found mine are alot more comfortable if I put the scale on the ground. I have to lay a small piece of plywood down for my scale first to make my scale more level. They complain at first but once I have them standing there on the scale, they calm down.

I can't remember how old yours are but that sounds like they are definitely getting there!

 

[Luvmybob]

I think your chickens are right on target, Duluthralph. I posted a picture of my Cornish Xx..lol, 3.5 weeks let me know what you think.

I agree with everyone, those 3 week olds look big.

I'm sorry to hear about the predator problems, I too had the same problem, this week... I believe it's a coon reaching in when the chicks get close and they pull them through the fence..the ones I found, Cornish X baby, was still in the coop, too big to get through the fence but looks like a broken neck. My littler size chicks were gone, headless or skinned, probably trying to get through the wire.

I need a big dog...ugh...my pig just ain't cutting it...

Chickens look good!! Keep it up.

 

[duluthralphie]

Jessica, Can you help an old non-tech savvy guy?


How do you upload a video? I always get an error message saying parts of it failed to upload.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Jessica, Can you help an old non-tech savvy guy?


How do you upload a video? I always get an error message saying parts of it failed to upload.

You have to upload to Youtube first, then copy the link they give you, click the video link button by the smiley face up there and paste into the bar. It's an annoying extra step as I am not a youtuber, but I don't know of another way.

 

[Betsy57]

My 3 week old meaties. I have raised these now for 6 years and have no complaints about the breed. They serve the purpose they were created for. Excellent feed to growth conversion and ready for processing in a very short amount of time.

They look pretty bare on their buttoms. Is that from picking or ???? I just got 15 meat birds 2 days ago and this is my first time raising them. So, I have a lot to learn.

 

[duluthralphie]

I find with CornishX's they grow so fast the feathers are spread out and they look bare for a longer time than a "normal" bird. Give them a few weeks they will fill out.

 

[KCMOLisa]

Mine have the bare bottoms too at 3 weeks old. They don't peck at each other that I have seen. They just don't have all their feathers yet.

 

[NewBreeder]

Wow this thread really took off

The birds are bare by design

Minimal amount feathering to make it easier for plucking they are even breeding them in warmer countries with no feathers
since they do have issues with warm weather

Pluck a normal chicken and you will see the difference it is night and day for the amount of feathers

I've been raising these birds now for a few years and learn much about their traits

All my meat birds I order get treated like the rest of my Americana flock
You get some poor doers in a batch and not to worry it is normal

This season I ordered some birds and had a 70% lost complained to the hatchery and they replaced them
with no issues with plenty of extras they still did poor not sure if it was who they do business with or just
a bad breeding cycle with the breeders

My understanding there is only about a handful of breeders for meat birds but plenty of hatcheries

All my birds get fed once a day and then forage for the rest of day with the other birds they just take twice as long to get to weight

I also have a project going on 5 years now crossing these meaties with my Americana's I am now in the 3rd generation and seeing much progress

I have a few meaties I kept for breeding going into their 2 winter with no problems

These birds lay less eggs than a normal chicken but are doing fine and breed without problems

Without getting into a long story about my project I hope to have a Americana Meat bird breeding consistent this spring

I did this project because I like the colored eggs and wanted more meat on the Americana so I decided to see for myself if this could be done

 

[duluthralphie]

Wow this thread really took off

The birds are bare by design

Minimal amount feathering to make it easier for plucking they are even breeding them in warmer countries with no feathers
since they do have issues with warm weather

Pluck a normal chicken and you will see the difference it is night and day for the amount of feathers

I've been raising these birds now for a few years and learn much about their traits

All my meat birds I order get treated like the rest of my Americana flock
You get some poor doers in a batch and not to worry it is normal

This season I ordered some birds and had a 70% lost complained to the hatchery and they replaced them
with no issues with plenty of extras they still did poor not sure if it was who they do business with or just
a bad breeding cycle with the breeders

My understanding there is only about a handful of breeders for meat birds but plenty of hatcheries

All my birds get fed once a day and then forage for the rest of day with the other birds they just take twice as long to get to weight

I also have a project going on 5 years now crossing these meaties with my Americana's I am now in the 3rd generation and seeing much progress

I have a few meaties I kept for breeding going into their 2 winter with no problems

These birds lay less eggs than a normal chicken but are doing fine and breed without problems

Without getting into a long story about my project I hope to have a Americana Meat bird breeding consistent this spring

I did this project because I like the colored eggs and wanted more meat on the Americana so I decided to see for myself if this could be done

Can you tell us more about your crosses, their traits, their meat quality, white versus dark meat, how long to full size, what is full size and so on. I am very interested.