All you who raised 10lb+ birds in three months...GIVE ME THE SECRET!!!

[cjeanean]

I'm looking to raise some more meat birds, and I have some questions for you meat bird gurus out there. This time around I want birds that will dress out at 10+ pounds in 12 weeks. I'm not looking for the freedom rangers, but the cornish X. These are my questions:

Where did you buy your chicks?

What did you feed them?

What feed regime did you follow? (restricted feed, non restricted...etc)

How much feed did they consume in that time period?

What age did you raise them to?

What was your average butchered weight after this time?

And then any other notes you want to add. My last bunch came from Estes hatchery and I only had 2 dress out at 6lbs, the rest were all 3-4 lbs. And I raised them to 16-20 weeks....I wasn't happy. I want some advice from you small turkey raisers!!!

 

[moodusnewchick]

Mine came from the local feed store.
I fed medicated chick feed for two weeks than broiler grow.
Supplemented with yogurt, milk, frozen corn (it was summer, it was their cold treat)
feed and water available at all times
they also free ranged which I imagine gave them fresh greens and keep their legs and heart as healthy as possible
I only had four, they were huge and it was a short time.

I've got 10+ right now. The growth seems slower. I'm not sure if it's weather related or number of mouths related. The new ones have run out of food between breakfast and me getting home at night. The summer batch had the luxury of me home all day.

 

[justusnak]

My first batch, we got from the feed store as well....Started them on starter crumbles, for 2 weeks....then broiler grower/finisher...for 8 weeks. They were HUGE!!! This is one from the FIRST batch we did. The scale goes to 20 pounds. It went past that, and back to 2 pounds. Now, I am sure there is water weight frozen in there...but when I cooked one...there were 4 adults eating dinner....and DH and I had some the next day....then the 3rd day I made dumplins. BIG chickens!!

 

[cjeanean]

No one sells broiler grower out here, that's the problem. MissPrissy said that she used gamebird feed for hers and has been getting 13+ dressed birds, and that she uses a feed regime of 12hrs w/ food then 12 hrs w/o food. I know other people have gotten differing and same results, so I need some of people's experiences with this. I used gamebird feed for mine, but didn't get them till they were 3-4 weeks old.

 

[cjeanean]

Quote:
Where did ur feed store get them from???

 

[silkiechicken]

10+ lbs dressed or live weight?

Live weight they are there in like 8-9 weeks. Got mine from ideal, or the feed store that orders from privett. At 8 weeks mine dressed weight were 5-6lbs

Just feed start/grow for their whole lives free choice and the birds free ranged and ate when sun was up after 4 weeks old. Feeders kept full but they didn't eat in the dark after light was taken away. Feed was 24% protein and they ate just that and what ever they picked up while out. I figure each bird eats about 10-15 lbs each during that 8-9 week life I have them for.

 

[cjeanean]

dressed weight is what I was looking for, silkieC....I wanted some monsters to actually make it worth my while! I can sell the monsters for quite a bit, you can't buy a 10lb chicken in the store....

 

[Acre of Blessings]

but cjeanean, you must remember, the cornish x start having a hard time living after about 9 weeks. They grow so fas tthat their heart and other organs can't keep up eoth the growth that good.

 

[silkiechicken]

LOL.

Yeah, really. It's even getting harder to find that 20+ turkey in the store!

I'd say you'd probably get your 10 lb dressed bird at 12 weeks and an order of males.

You'd just need about 14 lbs live weight, and at the end, they pack on about a lb a week. If you can get 8-9 lbs live weight easy at 8 weeks, an additional month should get you to 14 no problem. Their growth is pretty much exponential up to about 3 months old, but so is their feed consumpton.

 

[cjeanean]

Hmmm....I dunno....I figured that I'd have some that need to be butchered a little early, but after hearing all the stories from people having 10+...even 12+ butchered weight I kinda got my hopes up. Even MissPrissy said she raised all of hers to that weight, butchered. Thanks for the advice, though, and if anyone else has anything to add please do! I really want to look into this before I start a second batch, and I'd like to do it within the next month or so....(not doing the hot summer+meat bird poop ever again!!!!)