Cornish X progress questions

[Moffomv]

My 17 cornish X (and 4 RR's) are 28 days old today and after doing a little research, I am wondering if they are under weight. The first 3 weeks I was feeding them 24% fermented feed. I recently in the last week have switched to 21% FF. They are somewhat active and have been moved from brooder to tractor this week. I have basically been feeding twice a day and the first 3 weeks they didn't finish it completely before each feed. Recently they are usually empty when I go to feed. They seem to be healthy and I have been fortunate enough not to lose any. But when I weighed one (who isn't the biggest, but certainly not the smallest) today, she was only 1.89 lbs. I will mention that they are all female, so I understand that they should be smaller on average, but after looking at a few charts they appear to be about a week behind. Just curious what others expect or if I should make any adjustments. This is my first attempt at meat birds and I am not opposed to waiting 9 or 10 weeks to slaughter. All opinions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Sandyd]

Your females are going to be lighter weight and take more time than males to get to your desired weight. I process my x rocks at 9 to 10 weeks and I usually order all males. The last two times of processing I had anywhere from 5 to 8.5 lb dressed birds. If you want 5 lb dressed out broilers, that does not include the neck or giblets, I think my husband calculated you loose approx 4 lbs in feathers, etc. Our processed 5 lb broilers were just right giving us nice breast, legs, etc. They will start putting on a lot of weight the 8th week. I always keep their feeders full and have a night light on. I found that they gained faster with continuous light versus no light on after dark. I always put all natural Avia Charge (smells like choc yogurt) in their water up until I take their food away for processing and have never had splay leg or health problems with them.

 

[phalenbeck]

I been wondering too if mine are a bit smaller due to cold.

 

[AgroUrica]

On my first group of 300 cornish X's, I weighed 5 birds at random every 7 days or so up to 22 days. At day 22 the average was 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds.

If your birds are all female, then as others have mentioned here, they'll tend to lag the males in overall size/weight. On day 38 I weighed a number of birds and some went 3 kilos or 6.6 pounds.....so they do grow fast.

I've seen a number of posters here mentioning limiting or rationing their meat bird's feed. I don't know enough about the reasons for the practice to comment one way or the other, but it sure seems to me that it'd be better to let them eat all they want to eat. The entire reason a meat bird is bred the way it is is to gain weight as fast as possible. Yeah, perhaps some health issues might be delayed or avoided for a while, but these hybrids (cornish X) were never meant to become full-time yard birds. At 40 days or so, they should go in the freezer.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Tabasco Jack]

I weigh mine every week until they get to big to sit on the scales

This years batch average weights were:
Arrival - 1.75 oz
Week 1 - 5.3 oz
Week 2 - 13.9 oz
Week 3 - 1.75 lbs
Week 4 - 2.65 lbs

Last years averages were:
Arrival - 1.6 oz
Week 1 - 4.41 oz
Week 2 - 1.06 lbs
Week 3 - 1.68 lbs
Week 4 - 2 lbs
Week 8-9 butchering - 8 lbs live weight

 

[CoopDeViIIe]

This is my first experience but I thought mine might be a bit underweight too. There is a picture at 4 weeks old.

 

[gbounds2007]

This is what mine look like at 4 weeks. To me they look just about the same.

 

[CoopDeViIIe]

Ya its hard to tell. I really need to get a scale.

 

[Tabasco Jack]

Ya its hard to tell. I really need to get a scale.

I use a little digital kitchen scale that weighs up to 6 lbs. The platform is just big enough for them to stand on up till they are about 4-5 weeks old.