Best priced Cornish chicks

[NorthwoodsChick]

I think three days is a lot on the birds. I happened to get them in two days and this year I had zero die in transit.

After three weeks of filling chick feeders twice a day they go into pasture coops. There they are fed a crop full twice a day. I like to go back and check on them shortly after feeding and see how full, or not, the crops are; then I can up or decrease the ration for the next feeding. I am on week 10 (we go to 10 pounds live weight) and have lost one to leg splay, one to impacted crop (my fault for not mowing the daisys), and now we have one isolated that is too tiny to be in with the big boys. We feed by putting the wet mash on the fresh ground and pulling the pasture coop over top. We run four of these coops for 100 birds. We use a nipple waterer system.View attachment 3564429View attachment 3564428View attachment 3564427View attachment 3564426

I’ve had my CX in the tractor for 3 days now. They seem active- def happier. One is isolated in a crate bc he doesn’t get on his feet. He tries to stand, ends up scooting backwards on butt with legs thrust forward. I need to prop his butt to allow feeding and water. I’m culling him today. Wt is 2.5 lbs

 

[FunClucks]

I’ve had my CX in the tractor for 3 days now. They seem active- def happier. One is isolated in a crate bc he doesn’t get on his feet. He tries to stand, ends up scooting backwards on butt with legs thrust forward. I need to prop his butt to allow feeding and water. I’m culling him today. Wt is 2.5 lbs

I had one from Welp that did that at 7 weeks. I had to isolate him right next to food and water until I could cull. He was very heavy and literally lost the ability to get off his hocks.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I had one from Welp that did that at 7 weeks. I had to isolate him right next to food and water until I could cull. He was very heavy and literally lost the ability to get off his hocks.

I culled today. 26% wt lost from live to dressed, just shy of 2 lbs. Organs looked good- liver was larger than I would expect but beautiful color with texture. Hip joints were stiff and toes beginning to curl on one foot. No outward signs of injury and no neurologic tics. Not sure why he had issues.

 

[FunClucks]

I culled today. 26% wt lost from live to dressed, just shy of 2 lbs. Organs looked good- liver was larger than I would expect but beautiful color with texture. Hip joints were stiff and toes beginning to curl on one foot. No outward signs of injury and no neurologic tics. Not sure why he had issues.

From what I can tell, they just have this issue sometimes. I think it's genetic predisposition combined with management technique (mine was fine until it reached a certain weight - maybe if I'd fed it differently it would have gained weight less fast and had a later onset or no onset of this issue?). But in my case, one chicken out of 25 with this issue wasn't bad, considering they were CX.

No obvious differences between the one I processed that had this issue and the others of similar age/gender. Everything seemed healthy for my bird also.

 

[Birdinhand]

I have been getting cobb 500 CX from Jenks Hatchery for nearly a decade. For small purchases they are about $3. Jenks is relatively close to me and has fantastic tracking. More than price or strain, I’d recommend choosing hatchery based on whomever is closest to you. Losing chicks to a long distance shipping quickly eats up any savings one hatchery offers over another.

 

[cmobley]

Let us know how they work out for you. I've been avoiding CX during the summer heat, but maybe I over-worry, and they'd do fine? My eggers obviously have trouble in the hottest part of the year, even in a mostly shaded well ventilated coop. Would love to hear how it goes for you.

I raise mine in a stationary 150 sq ft covered run.

crossing my fingers we avoid hurricanes this year!

Today was the day. I ordered 80 birds and 50 were dead on arrival. Out of the 30 left 25 made it to butcher day. I raised these on 27% game bird starter from start till today 24 hour feed I never took their food or water away. I think this is week 6 and we could tell they were a lot larger than the ones we did last year on 18% for 8 weeks. I’ve weighed a couple so far and they’ve been 5 and 5.5 lbs. that’s just a couple. I’ll weigh them all in 2 days after they rest and we get them sealed for the freezer. I won’t do meat birds in the summer again not that it was a hassle just easier to do in cooler weather.

 

[FunClucks]

Today was the day. I ordered 80 birds and 50 were dead on arrival. Out of the 30 left 25 made it to butcher day. I raised these on 27% game bird starter from start till today 24 hour feed I never took their food or water away. I think this is week 6 and we could tell they were a lot larger than the ones we did last year on 18% for 8 weeks. I’ve weighed a couple so far and they’ve been 5 and 5.5 lbs. that’s just a couple. I’ll weigh them all in 2 days after they rest and we get them sealed for the freezer. I won’t do meat birds in the summer again not that it was a hassle just easier to do in cooler weather.

that's a great survival rate after you got them, especially in this weather for CX, but goodness, what a death rate in shipping! Other than that sounds like things went well for you guys.

It is so incredibly hot here, there's no way I would want to butcher in this heat. I've been raising Ginger Broilers since the end of April, and processed two cockerels at 3 months. They were slightly tougher than CX at ~10 wks, but had a decent flavor. I had to pick a morning that wasn't too hot, but even then, had to stop by about 10am. I would have let them keep growing, but they were getting loud and difficult to care for, and I was just done.