Cornish x's vs Heavy Breed Cockerels Any suggestions

[toddntiff]

We just ordered 25 Cornish X's too, but our delivery date was October 13th!!! Guess that gives me plenty of time to figure out how to brood 25 chicks instead of the 9 I've just finished brooding!!!

 

[Baybrio]

Chiknlady,

I'm new to meat birds and ordered 15 CX's from Welp earlier this year. They were excellent birds, not ugly, very quiet and calm, never aggressive. I followed Welp's feeding directions. Just don't keep them too long. All but one went to the processor at 7 weeks. The one I missed (I also ordered their "slow white" and brown broilers and I didn't realize I'd missed her), just died of, I guess, a heart attack. Poor girl.

Just be ready for FAST growth. It seems like they outgrew the brooder in a heartbeat.

 

[chiknlady]

Baybrio--in your opinion how was the entire experience? Rearing, Meat, Smell, Emotions??

 

[SandraMort]

that's my plan for september, too! 3 cornishx from meyer, 100 power rangers from jm minus rehomed guys.

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[silkiechicken]

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Since they are meat birds and eat as much feed between chick to table as a layer eats from chick to laying... plan on making a "brooder" big enough for 100 chicks or get them outside asap.

 

[toddntiff]

We are going to start them in an enclosed brooder for the first week or so, then turn our shed into a brooder for them to keep them warm for the months. It will be like having 100 chicks...WHAT WAS I THINKING!??? This will be an amusing experience!

 

[silkiechicken]

Oh, that's fine then. With 9 layers, it's not that all bad to keep them in a brooder for 3-4 weeks, but don't even try with the meaties!

Think of it this way, they don't flutter around nearly as much so less flapping in your face and jumping on you!

 

[dancingbear]

I have an enclosed outer pen with a small house (old dog house) in it, that the chickens can go out into via a door with a ramp from inside the hen house. I sometimes close this off from the main coop, and use it for new moms and chicks for a few days, to let the chicks get off to a good start, or as a baby pen for chicks out of the brooder, but not big enough to let free-range yet. There's a door that opens onto the fields from that pen, plus a larger run on the backside of the coop, with another door to the greater outdoors, plus the main front door to the coop. In the daytime, all the doors are open, so all the adult birds and feathered-out youngsters can go out to roam free if they want. All of them do, except when I have Cornish X's. They prefer to stay in and eat. (Yes, I do understand that this is what they are bred to do.)

When I've raised Cornish X's, I was pleased with them when they arrived. By the time they started to feather out, they just seemed like poop machines. I was mucking out the coop every few days, mostly because they don't go outside much. They don't want get away from the feeder. They eat a lot more than other chickens, and so they poop a lot as well.

The first batch, I lost a few that dropped dead from getting fat too fast, and a lot got to where they couldn't walk. The last batch, we had a killer heat wave, temps over 100 for several days in a row, and I lost several to the heat. My regular flock handled the heat without a problem, but they would go up to shady areas where it was cooler. The X's won't do that. They had shade and plenty of water, but they still didn't tolerate the heat well, and the coop's just not as cool as it is out on the grass, under the shade trees.

After the first batch, I talked to somebody on staff at Murray McMurray, and she recommended taking the food away in the evening, hanging the feeders so they have to stand to eat, rather than lying down or resting on their keels, and told me what to do if one of them stuffed himself into insensibility anyway. (isolate the bird with no food, but plenty of water, make sure he can stick his beak in it where he's lying down. If he doesn't start drinking on his own, you can drip some in his beak to get him started. I didn't have to do this, but am just passing along what she told me.)

So I did it they way she said, and the next batch did a lot better. By the time they were 8 weeks old, they were still walking, but even so, looked like it was getting difficult. I also had started taking them outside the coop in the afternoons, I'd carry them out onto the grass a ways out from the coop, so they'd get a little green stuff to eat, and have to get up and walk just that little bit back to the coop. That seems to help a bit too, with the overall condition of the birds. And give a me a chance to clean the coop while they were outside.

By the time they reached 8 weeks, I was ready to do them in, I was just sick of cleaning after them, (the stench is awful) and they just don't act like normal chickens. There's something zombie-like about them. They're sort of like feathered slugs.

I've only raised a few batches of these, but I don't think I want to raise them anymore. I want to try some of the color rangers. I know they don't get as big. They also don't stay inside pooping constantly, according to what I've read from people raising them, so not cleaning up after them as much as the C-X's would be a big plus for me.

I have a laying flock, made up of various dual-purpose birds. We eat the extra roos. No, they aren't fryers. No, they aren't as big. Yes, they do taste very good, and when prepared and cooked properly, they're nice and tender. You can't just cut them up and fry them, they're too tough. I crock pot or pressure can, and use the meat in all kinds of dishes, and the broth is wonderful. Yes, I do understand the difference between them and the meat breeds.

What I want to do is try crossing purebred Cornish roo (yes, I know the difference between purebred Cornish and the meat breeds) over various breeds of dual-purpose hens, to see what makes an acceptable table bird for my own tastes. One of the reasons I want to do this is so that I can maintain a sustainable flock of meat producing birds, without being dependent on buying hatchery chicks every time I want meat birds. I can't do that with the C-X's. This would also give me the flexibility of hatching out smaller numbers at any one time, so I could raise and process a dozen at a time (or thereabouts) and not have such heavy processing days when it's time to butcher. Over time, with some luck, perhaps I'll have a bird of cross-breed origins that can breed true and be a sustainable meatish breed, even though they will not be as big as the Cornish X's.

An acceptable table bird, for me, would dress out to around 3 1/2 to 5 lbs by the age of 12-14 weeks, and be tender enough at 10 weeks to fry, (even if it was a little chewier than the X's, that's ok) tender enough at 14 weeks to roast. Healthy enough that if I wanted to keep some of the hens and a roo for further breeding experiments, they wouldn't drop dead from CHF. They'd be fairly active and like to run around and forage in the pasture.

There are a couple of individuals that, for some reason, take great issue with me or others, for choosing to try this, and seem to find the whole idea an affront to them, personally. It isn't. It's just my choice, for myself.

Sustainability is important to me. I want to know that if something weird happened, and we couldn't get the hatchery meat chicks, I'd still be eating chicken, even if it's all crock pot birds. That's not a concern for some, and I understand that. I don't care if others choose to raise X's or any other kind of bird, that's their choice, and none of my business.

For those who like the X's, and have done well with them, great. I'm happy that you have birds you're pleased with. I'm happy to see people raising their own meat, regardless of what breed they choose.

 

[chiknlady]

Sister Bear, I thank you for your wisdom...I raise ducks and they are QUITE messy too--but thanks for the heads up regarding the smell and cleaning....I am actually excited and happy that I have come to an informed decision about how and what I choose to eat, kinda like when you know better you do better...I have been around the balding, pinkish fat broilers before--and although I respect their lives, I can't see getting too attached. I know I sound like a cavewoman, but I am making a choice to raise, process and eat my own meat---women have been doing it for millenia--so its time I learned how to hunker down and prepare for what's coming....

 

[dancingbear]

Well, from one cave woman to another, I wish you great success with your meat birds, whatever kind they are! And I thank you for the kind words.

I can't get attached to the X's, either. Which does make it easier to butcher them, and that's something to consider, but I still want to do something else.