Cornish X's at 3 weeks and 5 days...

[greyfields]

You will barely be able to tell males apart from females at butchering age. There is no reason not to do a straight run.

 

[beebiz]

Quote:
Except for the fact that the ones through Murray McMurray are cheaper if you buy females than they are if you order roos or straight run.

 

[hinkjc]

The roos tend to put meat on faster, which is why they are more. Our roos have crowed by 8 weeks and also attempt mating that early. If you butcher by 6 weeks, which is the recommended age anyways, you should be fine.

As for the scratch - I wouldn't feed it until the week before butcher. It puts a lot of fat on them and does increase body heat, putting stress on them. The fat is great for flavor, so add it at the end. They should be eating chick starter or turkey starter and then moved to grower or flockraiser, then to finisher (altho we keep ours on flockraiser till the end with no problems).

Jody

 

[Cara]

I've been using ours to keep the other chicks warm! The ducklings were really messy and stinky, so we put them outside earlier along with 4 other chicks, in a rabbit hutch. The Cornish are so hot that they keep the other chickens warm at night.