Cornish Xs turned out BEAUTIFULLY!

[ChikeeMomma]

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Aww..... Thanks Bossroo!


I picked these chicks up at my closest Family Farm & Home (Alma, MI). So I don't know which strain or some of both. They were only $ .99 a chick -- that's regular price. It's a cheaper route for me. They order a ton of chicks every week from March until the end of May. When I picked up my chicks, an employee said that the Cornish X order was around 500 chicks and that was a smaller order than normal -- must be why the prices where cheaper. The laying pullets and bantams I picked up at the same time all are nice and healthy, also (came from Townline Hatchery, too). It was funny to see my two little bantams amongst the big meaties. They all got along nicely. The meaties were very gentle, friendly birds.

My friend and an uncle also picked up Cornish Xs from the same place and didn't have any losses. A total of 35 birds between the two of them. So not bad at all.

 

[randyandmegs]

Awesome.... Hope I get those type of results.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

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I hope you do, too!

 

[goatranch]

Congrats on the great experience. We just finished freezing our birds today. We had a pretty good experience for being first timers. I am trying to bring some Cornish genes into a sustainable flock. I know it is pretty questionable, but we shall see. We ordered 50 Jumbo cornish from Cackle Hatchery, we received 52 beautiful fluffy chicks. I fed mine the same as ChikeeMama. We finished at 7 weeks because we were afraid of increase stress from the heat. Clean birds at 7 weeks weighed 3.5- 4#. The only problem we had was that their skin was so tender that it tore. I am glad we didn't get our hands on a chicken plucker or it would have been a mess!! We had chicken for dinner and it was so tender!!! I was worried about not wanting to eat chicken, but there is a good feeling about knowing where your food comes from and that it was given a good life. We saved a smaller healthy weight roo to put in with our layers. He was snuggled up to my favorite hen when I tucked them in tonight

I hope I don't regret, but I would like to keep a flock going and not have to worry about mail order chicks and wondering what you will get. Good luck to everyone else who is trying to get a sustainable flock, no matter what breed you choose!

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Here's some pics of my meaties before I packaged them for the freezer. I did not weigh them after having a mishap with the scale. I had one that was smaller than the others -- probably about 4.5 lbs. The rest I would bet weighed around 7lbs for the most part.

I grilled one that I'd marinated in Italian dressing overnight -- it was delish!

 

[erthymom2]

yumm - looks like they came out very healthy and plump for you. we did 55 meaty's this year also and they were very easy for us to grow out and care for. they had to walk a distance from their food to their water and we did the 12 hours of food down, 12 hours of food up. they foraged the rest of the time. seemed alot healthier then the ones we did last year. ideal is who we got ours from this year.

 

[Kim_NC]

Congrats on such a great experience. The finished birds look fabulous!

 

[ElioraImmanuel]

This is encouraging! Our 1st batch of Cornish X are 11 days old. They'll be out free ranging, too.