About how much per bird?

[Roosterboy]

That's ok

I'm still learning a lot

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
... and what is a normal chicken life ??? and by who's definition ??? Originally, the chicken was a jungle fowl at the mercy of the elements and got preyed upon by every carnivore out there. Enter domestication, and there is every genetic mutation emaginable that could not survive on it's own in the wild. So man came up with every housing and care and protection from predators imaginable to have the mutants that met mans' needs survive. Again , what is a normal chicken life??? By who's definition???

 

[Guinea Goonie]

, These guys are EATING MACHINES. Last time i raised 25 and used a 25 pound metal feeder and a 5 gallon waterer. Just about every 36 hours I had to renew the water and not more than 60 the feeder. This of course is when they were pretty big.

The cornish crosses are not meant to be pet chickens or layers. They are meant to be raised and culled at about 8 to 10 weeks. These birds will literally die on you. They will have heart attacks and break ligaments, legs and wings.

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Quote:
I have 67 of these in my back yard. They have been outside since they were 9 days old. My neighbor and I each own 1/2 of the birds. So far, they are 5 weeks old now, and we just purchased bags # 6,7 & 8.

These bags are 50 lbs each. They are eating machines and pooping machine and they love water. I fixed one of the bucket feeders and two of the feeding troughs about 2 feet long each. Every morning they get 10 scoops of feed. About 7 scoops go in the buck and 1 1/2 in each of the troughs, due to the fact they will trample each other. Then in the afternoon they get 3 scoops in the bucket and 1 scoop in each of the troughs.

The scooper is your average size dog food scooper.

I also made one of the bucket waterers and this is a great thing to have. This way you don't have to water 15 times a day, I fill this up 2 to 3 times a day, according to the weather, and I am done.

So for me to answer you question about how long will a 50 # bag of feed last for 100 to 175 cornish x. Well maybe 2 days possibly 3. A bag of feed last us 5 days for 67 cornish x.


P.S.~~ burntumber--They are not tweaked Frankensteins, thank you, they are Super, Duper, Poop-er dinners.

And a lot of us here like them.

 

[providentialpastures]

I'm afraid this is off the original topic, but nobody is really being clear about the cornish X's. What hatchery did you all get them from and what did they call the birds?

 

[Western Chick]

I don't have any real solid numbers as to cost but I did some research before getting my last batch of broilers. These are estimates on 100 birds, I ended up losing half my birds to some domestic mink that moved in two weeks before butcher time.

Assuming you don't have major losses to predators, disease, freezing...anything, you should be able to get them raised and butchered for about $5 each, not including your time, housing, electricity, transport to processor.

Here's how I figure (going with 100 here because it's easier with the even numbers)

100 chicks- $77 (from Central Hatchery which I can recommend with confidence)
1400 pounds of feed- $240- possibly less if you can get it in bulk
Processing- $180 (This is what it costs at our local processor, I consider it a steal)

Total comes just under 500 for the 100 birds.

A couple other notes- the amount they eat will increase dramatically each week. The first week a 50# bag might last the whole week. By the last week you're at about a bag a day.

My birds were free range- I'm not sure how that affects feed consumption but I'm thinking they eat more because they burn off more than the free feed they get while they're ranging. They taste much better though.

My chicks were cornish cross from central hatchery in NE. I couldn't be happier. They were very active, often spread out all over their paddock. They were even a bit of a challenge to catch at butcher time- not usually a problem with broilers. The one critique I have is that they didn't finish as uniformly as other batches I've raised. Some were quite small while others were butterballs. They were straight run but there was even more of a difference even between pullets and cocks than usual. I don't have any weight measurements yet (they come back from the butcher tomorrow) but I would guess they will dress between 2.5-4.5 pounds.