24 2 week old Cornish X's eating too much?

[Armyman2007]

Hi all this is my first time raising chickens. I have 24 cornish X's that will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. They are eating 10 pounds of 20% Dumor starter feed and drinking 3 gallons of water per day. I give them food and water 24/7. Is this too much food/water intake? I can't believe they eat and drink this much!

 

[mackenjr01]

According to welp hatchery you should feed them for twelve hours on twelve hours off, water all the time. I am at 5 weeks with my cornish X and i have had to kill 3 already because i was feeding them 24 hours a day. This is also my first time with meat birds which is why i quote whelp hatchery and a lot of other people seem to think this way to. It give the birds a chance to develop their heat and lungs by not feeding them 12 hours a day. Also a good alternative should you have bad luck with them like i am freedom rangers seem to be the highest recommended for meat birds slightly slower growing but no problems.

 

[PotterWatch]

That does seem like a lot. I haven't kept total track of water consumption before but I have a batch of 26 that are about a week and a half old and they don't even get through one gallon of water in 24hrs. My waterer holds 1gal and I fill it with fresh vitamin water every day. It has yet to be totally empty when I fill it in the morning. I am restricting feed with this batch and they probably only eat a pound or two of feed in the 12hr period they have food available. I'll weigh the food tomorrow and see what the difference is, but I highly doubt it is above 2lbs, let alone close to 10.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

nope, right on track! at two weeks now you should withhold feed at night. which means they are going to trample you in the morning, lol. Expect the water consumtion to almost double every week, and don't let them go without. Even keep full wateres in their pen at night until you start turning off the lights. Have sympathy I have 88 right now!

 

[PotterWatch]

I'm still suprised at those amounts. My batch of 26 will be two weeks on Wednesday and they aren't eating or drinking nearly that much. They almost finish their 1gal waterer in 24hrs. I weighed their food yesterday and in the 12hr period they have food available they ate 2lbs 10oz.

 

[bigredfeather]

At 2 weeks, I would be giving them a little less than 4 pounds per day. Of course they will eat more than that if it's in front of them. I would back them down some if they were me.

 

[vtgirls]

I know this thread is from a couple weeks ago, but is excatly where I am at now - would love for you all to check in and update! I am new to meat birds this year. I have 2 week old cornish x and started restricting the feed a few days back. I am giving just about 3.25 pound per day, split into 2 feedings daily for 26 birds. They attack the food as if they've not eaten in a year. Then they all simmer down and finish everything off. Until dinner everything is calm - unless they hear me in the garage (where their brooder is) - then its peeping their fool heads off for more chow. I feed at 7am and 6pm. They drink about a gallon and a half a day every 24 hours. They are to be slaughtered June 20, at 10 and a half weeks. I have a smaller batch of 15 birds coming May 15, same slaughter date, so those will be about 7 weeks. I am figuring this will give me a variety in weight and final sized birds. Does this sound reasonable? Once the May birdies fledge out would it be a riot if I mixed them together just like it is when mixing new layers together - or should I just give the second group their own tractor?

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Broiler chickens should not have their feed restricted. Feed should be available to them during all the hours of light.

Restricting the light is the key. But not the 12/12 program so often recommended by hatcheries. It is completely wrong. It must just be easier for them to recommend such a program for growers they consider unable to understand, manage or cope with the realities of the birds.

If the light can be controlled (sunlight not affecting the timing) you will find this program more successful especially if money is not being wasted on rations that are overly dense in proteins.

Day one- 24 hours of light.
The off time should be established and never change for the cycle of the flock. All time adjustments should be made by changing the "on time"
Day two through twenty - one hour of darkness
Starting day twenty-one reduce the darkness by one half-hour per day until there is six hours of darkness per day.
Maintain this schedule until five days before slaughter when the light should be reduced by one hour per day until there is just one hour of light until the birds are a maximum of 9 weeks old. At this point the birds should average about eight pounds (as hatched) and will have reached the optimum maximum weight and be harvested.

If the lighting program includes sunlight the dark period will begin when the birds cease activity due to the onset of darkness. If you can add artificial light come as close as you can to the schedule outlined above.

If artificial light is not available during the post brooder stage you pretty much have to live with daylight. And that works fairly well utill mid September for most of the latitudes in the 49 states.
Alaska with its near continuous sunlight in the summer months would require special consideration.

 

[PotterWatch]

I'm not able to provide my birds with the necessary heat if I don't have a light on so feed restriction is the only way to do it for us. Once they are old enough to be out in a tractor without a heat lamp, then it might work fine, but while they are in the brooder, it's not so easy.


ETA: In re-reading the above post, I have to say I would much rather restrict feed than restrict light in that manner. Providing the birds with only several or less hours a day of light sounds cruel to me. In order to do that, I imagine the birds must be kept indoors somewhere as well. I'd much rather have my birds on pasture in a tractor and take their supplementary food away than keep them in darkness.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Neils right on the 12 on 12 off thing, it just doesn't work. Neil.... where's my waters??? You get my e-mail? : )

However it's tough to do on a backyard setup. I've kind of modified this lighting to better fit what I do here. The chickens get full light until they are about 10 days old or so sometimes three weeks if they need the extra heat. The lights are needed because of the heat.... especially in buildings / brooders that aren't insulated.

Once they hit 4-5 weeks I give them 6 hours of darkness and it seems to work perfect. 12 hours is just too long for these birds to go without feed, trust me... they will hurt each other trying to get feed, especially if you don't have feeders that can feed all the birds at once.

HUGE mistake for people is feeding too much protein like Neil said... I learned from him that it's unnecessary and a complete waste of money after 21 days.

One way to make it easy as for lighting goes is to have timers set up in your brooders. Have them go off at 12:00 in the morning that way there is complete darkness and the chicks will just lay down instead of piling like they will do if the sunlight is able to shine. Sunlight will gradually disappear and the birds tend to pile as the light goes less and less. Have the lights come back on at 6:00 that night, way before the sun goes done so they are able to not distinguish the changing of the day.

As for tractors, when I move the tractors I have little push button lights that I turn on after I make the last move before nightfall. Around 11:00-12:00 I go out and turn them off, I like checking on things around that time. I have the luxury of working for myself and I'm able to do this, but they make solar lights with timers on them that you could use. I like to check on mine, gives me the security of knowing what's going on, after midnight, the dog does all the work. She comes inside at 6:00 and the day starts all over.

Find what works for you... but feed a 16 % protein after 3 weeks and have about a 6 hour period of darkness for them.