12 on 12 off question

[Chickenfan777]

Hi all!

my first time raising meat birds. I have 10 Cornish X right now.

almost everywhere I’ve read on here says to feed them 24/7 for the first 3-4 weeks then cut back to 12 on and 12 off. But when I looked up on welp hatchery it says after 5 days to switch to 12/12 feeding. Is there a specific reason for the variance? Or does it have to do with welp specific breeds? I’ll include the quote from their website:

“You will "full feed" your broiler chicks around the clock for the first 5 days of age. At 7:00 p.m. of the 5th day, make sure your broiler chicks are completely out of feed. That means there is positively no feed from 7:00 p.m. of the 5th day of age until 7:00 a.m. the following morning. You want them out of feed for 12 consecutive hours. Water, yes, but no feed for 12 hours. Continue this "minor feed restriction" program, removing the feed every night, until time of slaughter. Failure to follow this feeding program may result in heart attacks. Sudden Death Syndrome or "flip" as it is sometimes called”
Source:
https://www.welphatchery.com/cornish_rock_care


Any insight is greatly appreciated! I will post pictures soon.

 

[iwltfum]

Seems to me like they are just covering their liability. I only raise freedom rangers now, but I grew out cornish x for a couple years when I first started. We never restricted feed. Lot's of people swear by it, and I'm not saying one way is right vs the other, but I never had a problem not restricting feed for broilers in pasture pens. Mine were not sitting at their feeders through the night eating so we just relied on the sun to "restrict" their feeding hours. Of course we lost one here and there to flip, but we grew big birds fast with a good feed conversion rate and we never lost more than a small percentage of birds to flip.

 

[igorsMistress]

If you don't restrict feed then meaties will just lay there and gorge 24/7. I have some hybrids that eat a LOT more than the layers. They were trained from day 1 to have to get out and forage to find food though. You want the birds to live long enough to make it to slaughter and not have too much fat.

 

[Chickenfan777]

Thanks for the advice! I didn’t know if there was some scientific thing I missed but that makes sense they just want to cover their bases if people over feed and they die they might try and hold welp to the fire over it. I appreciate the quick replies!

Mine at are 16 days and weighing about 1.3lbs on average so I think I’m moving along right on track...

 

[Compost King]

When raising for meat I let them have feed 24/7 until I process them. I also process a couple weeks earlier than most people and get a decent sized table bird.