Cornish cross chicks arriving next week

[wolfwalker]

Well the post office received my chick shipment at 11:36 am yesterday, and they state I will not receive my chicks until Friday. Here's hoping they are wrong. I will be placing tiny green zip ties around legs of 5 of them to weigh and monitor during this grow out. that way I am always weighing the same ones. will post back when they arrive with pictures.

 

[123RedBeard]

Maybe ... they were just hungry from their trip?

Or maybe your feed is different than welp uses?

Or ... you got feathered piglets!

 

[wolfwalker]

And today was weight day.

According to the Broiler standard chart, which also has them on free feed 24/7 they should weigh between 13 and 16 ounces depending on sex. I'm close to 13 and they have had a cumulative feed of 24.2 ounces. I have to also add in that they are wasting a lot of feed. and for one full day, when I tried to change to a low waste feeder they refused to eat. So the goal is to change the feeders this week to try to cut down on wasted feed. I also pulled the biggest chick from the brooder and weighed them, 15.2 ounces, but he is not part of the charting as I have marked the birds and weighing each week the same ones.

 

[wolfwalker]

I need to grab a new battery for the scale, I had one of the Delaware chicks with poopy but I needed to clean today, they are growing like weeds and their crops are bulging from the way they are stuffing themselves. It almost makes me wonder if they sent the wrong breed, except they look and act nothing like the Cornish X. I'll grab a pic tomorrow as they are easily twice the size of the Lavender Orpington and FBCM chicks which are also large birds.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Of course keep us informed about your progress with the cornishX

 

[wolfwalker]

There are 25 Cornish broilers in the brooder, I or should I say in the next brooder over, decided to hop the wall and join the Cornish. Its funny to see the FBCM chicks huddling on top of the Cornish, sitting there looking around and I can imagine them strutting about, "I'm on top of the world".

So 30 chicks in the brooder right now and so far today they have gone through 6 pounds of feed and since the other chicks joined them and showed them how to scratch at the feed, are spilling it all over.

They did so last night too and I pulled the feed an hour early. This morning there was no feed around, they ended up cleaning it up. I can't wait to get them up to the farm and put in the pen in the greenhouse so they have more room. I picked up one at random and placed them on the scale, 7.9 ounces. I do think I'll see half a pound from the tagged ones on Tuesday, if not more.

 

[wolfwalker]

Another Tuesday. And week 7.

Well I lost two more of teh broilers. Hard to tell what from as they were flattened. It looks like piling for some odd reason. Both of which were the last of the smaller birds and did not show any signs of distress during the day. Who knows. But if 1 more broiler is in distress or dies, I will harvest all of them immediately. Considering harvesting them next week anyway as most of them are near 9 pounds now.

Nothing has survived under 7 pounds at this point. I weighed them all. And what a job that was.

So another 80 pounds of feed for the week and for the most part another pound of gain in weight.

 

[wolfwalker]

No update today. Why you might ask when Wolfie has been updating weekly like clockwork.

Because I start harvest in the morning.

It seems at my elevation the sweet spot on Welp Hatcheries Cornish Broilers is 7 weeks. Today is 8 weeks and I am down to 19, from the original 25. the last 3 deaths due to heart attack. Running over as I put feed in the trough and keeling over.

The thing I noticed, and it might not be an issue for those not over a mile high, is the lungs of the last 3 birds are half the size of a non meat bird at this age. they are just tiny, compared to what they should be. So add exertion to not able to bring in enough oxygen and you have birds falling over dead.

So far no issues with weak legs, or weak bone structures during butchering. Even the joints are nice and strong. My issue seems to be the elevation. the weakest looking went today, the stronger and larger ones tomorrow and by Thursday I should be posting a recap and cost per pound. 1 of which was one of the tracked ones and it had only gained a half pound.

I planned to put them all in the freezer for self use, but I am starting to field questions about costs and supply from friends and the post office personnel.

There is one farm about 50 miles from me who does advertise and books pretty solidly that sells for 6.50$ a pound and 7$ a pound for split chicken.

I do know I went through 440 pounds of feed

 

[wolfwalker]

Small lungs could be a fluke?
Other birds lungs were normal?

Yes they were. Now that they are all done and in the freezer my next post will be the final breakdown.

 

[wolfwalker]

Well, Murray McMurray called me.

seems my shipment is being pushed back to June 1st. Their large incubator failed and they lost over 100,00 eggs ready to hatch next week. So I'm not the only one having their shipment re-arranged.

My issue is, I expect a lot of deaths in this shipment due to our unseasonable high heat. We've hit July temps now, so they are going to be stressed big time.