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What I did differently..well I did several things, but this was the first time I raised CX. All my birds were meat birds, I had CX and Colored Rangers (and later had RIR but not in the same time frame). I got my CX about a week before my Rangers arrived. I had a large brooder set up for all of them. It was about 4x5 feet. So they had a large area to themselves for a week, I kept their food and water separate and they had to move around. Then when my rangers came I just put them all in the same brooder. The Rangers are naturally more active and so I guess it motivated the CX to act more like regular chicks. They were only slightly lazier as chicks and as adults they were the same activity level. So I guess they were more active out of habit of watching the others.
For feeding I fed them all free feed until they were about four weeks old then I fed them generously twice a day. At the age of four weeks I moved them all outside during the day to free range in an enclosure that was 10x22 feet. At night I would bring them in. This happened until they were about three months old. Then my coop was finished and they were outside after that.
I had six Cx to start out with. Three pullets and three cockerels. We butchered the three cockerels, kept two pullets for breeding. One pullet got injured so I ended her suffering and didn't eat her, I would have also kept her for breeding had she not been injured.
No I never saw then mating but I did get fertile eggs from them for several weeks before I sold my flock. I did see my rooster courting them and they squatted always but never saw him mount.
What I did differently..well I did several things, but this was the first time I raised CX. All my birds were meat birds, I had CX and Colored Rangers (and later had RIR but not in the same time frame). I got my CX about a week before my Rangers arrived. I had a large brooder set up for all of them. It was about 4x5 feet. So they had a large area to themselves for a week, I kept their food and water separate and they had to move around. Then when my rangers came I just put them all in the same brooder. The Rangers are naturally more active and so I guess it motivated the CX to act more like regular chicks. They were only slightly lazier as chicks and as adults they were the same activity level. So I guess they were more active out of habit of watching the others.
For feeding I fed them all free feed until they were about four weeks old then I fed them generously twice a day. At the age of four weeks I moved them all outside during the day to free range in an enclosure that was 10x22 feet. At night I would bring them in. This happened until they were about three months old. Then my coop was finished and they were outside after that.
I had six Cx to start out with. Three pullets and three cockerels. We butchered the three cockerels, kept two pullets for breeding. One pullet got injured so I ended her suffering and didn't eat her, I would have also kept her for breeding had she not been injured.
No I never saw then mating but I did get fertile eggs from them for several weeks before I sold my flock. I did see my rooster courting them and they squatted always but never saw him mount.
