Cornish X - slow growth

[NJWMaine]

I know that the point of meat birds/Cornish X is a faster rate of growth with less feed expense. At this point I am on my third batch and just experimenting with improving quality of life and foraging ability. I'm after slow growth to reduce health problems, and to be honest I just really like their personalities. I'm fine with a smaller bird or extending the time until processing. Next year we will try a different breed with Cornish X at 50/50 for comparison.

In my experience, with free ranging, veggie scrap supplementation and feed restriction, they are awesome birds and most definitely real chickens.

 

[rjohns39]

You might want to try and find a Ross708 breed, they are slower growing and tend to be healthier for grass based systems.

 

[RUNuts]

Interested in your thoughts. I'm exploring options and CX are leading. But no experience - yet.

One idea that I thought was interesting was raising them with a heritage breed to teach them foraging. My heritage breed (Leghorn, PR & RIR) will eat grubs, but not earth worms. Not sure how this happened.

Limiting feed will drive them to forage. Looks like that is what you are doing. Cheers

 

[rjohns39]

Interested in your thoughts. I'm exploring options and CX are leading. But no experience - yet.

One idea that I thought was interesting was raising them with a heritage breed to teach them foraging. My heritage breed (Leghorn, PR & RIR) will eat grubs, but not earth worms. Not sure how this happened.

Limiting feed will drive them to forage. Looks like that is what you are doing. Cheers

I got a "free extra rare chick" with my last Cx order that turned out to be a silver spangled hamburg. Raising him in my Cx shelter totally changed the dynamic with that group. They ate less feed and were way more active than the shelter right next to them. I had del's in one of my earlier batches and they were vicious toward the Cx. So I'm thinking a breed that tends to be smaller, more flighty and less vicious is the way to go.

Edited to add: and you only need one heritage chick.

 

[Folly's place]

Why not raise Freedom Rangers, or something similar, instead? Just to be contrary here, but they are what you seem to be trying to achieve with the Cornishx birds. Mary

 

[RUNuts]

broilers are sold straight run & being in close proximity to neighbors, I'm rooster averse.

CX will grow out before the hormones & crowing start. Quail looked real good, but would take an entirely different setup. Using backyard chicken tractors keeps the CX separate from the egg layers & moving daily is better (?) than cleaning cages.

 

[NJWMaine]

Interested in your thoughts. I'm exploring options and CX are leading. But no experience - yet.

One idea that I thought was interesting was raising them with a heritage breed to teach them foraging. My heritage breed (Leghorn, PR & RIR) will eat grubs, but not earth worms. Not sure how this happened.

Limiting feed will drive them to forage. Looks like that is what you are doing. Cheers

Yes, I limit commercial feed, but they do get veggies from the garden and scraps from inside. The other day one caught a small snake and was running around playing keep away before eating it. They haven't needed to be taught to forage, and they do eat grass and things like clover and dandelion leaves. I try and get them out of the brooder ASAP and in a dog pen on grass during nice days. They always figure out what to do.

I don't claim to know what I'm doing, but they seem happy and healthy and I'm on my third batch and so far so good. Only problem is the food motivation - they crowd me and I gave one a limp for a week by stepping on its foot. . .

 

[NJWMaine]

Why not raise Freedom Rangers, or something similar, instead? Just to be contrary here, but they are what you seem to be trying to achieve with the Cornishx birds. Mary

I thought about it, and I probably will next year or at least 50/50 because I want some different experiences. I guess my whole problem is reading all the hate about the Cornish X and I have had a different experience with them. Even though they're meat birds and I process them in the end, I guess I just want to give the ones I get a really good life until that time and to be honest they're funny as hell. And they still end up gigantic.