Cornish Cross Help

[baptistbirdman]

I posted the other day about one of our Cornish Cross chickens dying. Today I found a second one dead. We didn't realize we were supposed to be restricting them on feed, which may be the cause - bringing a heart attack because they've eaten so much.

My question is this, about how much should they weigh when you butcher them? We can't remember exactly when we bought them, and we're hoping to kill them before the other two die.

Second, is it okay to eat them while they're on medicated chick feed? Or should we switch them to grower feed, if so, how long should they be on it before we eat them.

 

[Deanner03]

I'm probably NOT the best one to ask about this as I've raised them all of ONCE, but we never restricted food, and didn't have a problem.
How old are they now?

We processed at around 12-14 weeks.

 

[baptistbirdman]

We don't know how old they are, we were figuring around 6 weeks, but we're just not sure. That's why I'm hoping to get a weight idea to gauge it by. The same person who told me to restrict them to 12 hours a day on feed also said to butcher them around 6-8 weeks.

 

[Deanner03]

Quote:
At this point, you can CERTAINLY restrict. I think I once read that optimum weight for processing is 12 weeks (when feed costs outweigh growth potential).

Do they have enough space to move around? I hear that people have a lot of problems with them dropping. It's not utterly unusual due to genetic issues in the breed.
We didn't have problems (but again, only did it once). Ours free ranged a LOT of the time.

 

[silkiechicken]

I butcher at about 8 weeks. I remove light/heat at 6 weeks and as a result only eat when there is day light. Put food and water high so they can't sit and eat and it has worked for me. I butcher when they are about 8lbs alive at 8 weeks or so. If one looks like it's on it's way out, I just butcher it earlier. Another factor is mine get open access to the yards starting at 3 weeks or so, when temps are about 40 during the day.

If your medicated feed has amprolium, it won't do anything for or to you as it is a thiamine blocker for the cocci protozoa. If the med feed contains a sulfa drug, it can only potentially hurt someone who is alergic to sulfa drugs, else, chow down.

ETA: I've let them go as far as 10 weeks, the boys were about 10lbs alive then.

 

[CoopCrazy]

Quote:
How huge where they at 12-14 weeks??? Are you sure they were cornish X ?? I cant imagine them living that long...