Breeding Cornish Rocks

[BirchHatchery]

i think i am goin to try varios crosses and see what does the best for Meat/eggs id like to produce a chicken that the pullets lay lots lots eggs but the cockerals grow fast and put weight on like real Dual Propuse fowl should be

 

[BirchHatchery]

actuly if finnaly dawned on me how much to feed these birds would feed them around 4 ounces a day per bird When they 18 wks old of course 4-6 ounces a day is what a regual medium sized fowl needs just to run its body plus with free ranging it will work perfect

 

[dancingbear]

Am I understanding you correctly, that you intend to feed Cornish X's 4 oz. per day? And increase that to 6 oz. per day by the time they're 18 weeks old? I could be mistaken, but that doesn't seem like enough. What made you decide that 6 oz. is the right amount? I know DP's will do fine on that, but I don't know about CX's. But let us know how it works out, I could easily be overestimating how much they eat. It's been a few years since I raised any Cx's.

 

[SteveH]

Those figures are the rough equivelent of the restricted diets of CornishX parent lines as outlined on a link provided by Jeff of Brunty Farms . It is a very useful link IMO .

 

[BirchHatchery]

right now i let them eat 4 hours a day their lil over 2 weeks when their a month old let em eat 3 hours 2 months old 2 hrs 3 months old hour a day and then when they hit the 18 weeks roughly 4-5 ounces per bird so i have 10 of them so i figured it to be 8 cups of broiler feed a day 8 cups would equal 4 ounces to each bird. their currently not fat nor underfed and able to fly foot in the air or jump i will b sure post pics of them each month of life

 

[BirchHatchery]

how many ounces a day do dual propouse fowl chicks eat a day around the age of 3 weeks? they eat 2 ounces a bird?

 

[dancingbear]

You know, I really can't tell you. I have such a mixed flock, some fairly small layer/brooder hens, some bigger hens, some very big hens, some huge roos, and I always have guineas, and sometimes other species, and they all share the feeders. I'm guessing a 5 gal. bucket of feed weighs about 18 lbs., divide that by 73 birds (47 hens, 1 breeding roo, 8 death row roos, 16 guineas, and 1 duck) it comes out to about 3.94 oz. per bird, but that's a rough estimate, I don't have a scale to weigh the feed. A bucket full of black oil sunflower seed weighs 15 lbs, the mash I feed is denser, so I'm guessing 18 lbs for a full bucket. I top off feeders in the evenings, but the death row roos don't go through much feed. They take about 3-4 days to empty the feeder. The feeders in the hen coop are about half empty, sometimes more, sometimes less, when I go to close them up.

 

[SteveH]

Found some info on the feeding schedules for the Cobb 700 parent lines . My theories were completely off , breeding males were fed protein levels of 11% to 13% but as I figured relatively small amounts . They never allowed the breast meat to fill in , making sure the roosters maintained a " V " shaped chest to insure an upright stance and high fertility . Here's a link http://www.cobb-vantress.com/contactus/brochures/Breeder_guide_2008.pdf

 

[BirchHatchery]

well at a month old their wheights are 1lb- 1 1/2 lb doin very good and healthy fully featherd they moved to the outsied pen today

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
That's a great link! That amazes me how the feeding program works. How does any animal go all day without feed? Skip a day feedings..... that seems extreme to me. But it does make sense to feed them a complete feed every other day and then scratch grains on the off days. Especially if they are free ranging for bugs, grass and other things.


Interesting.....