OK,
this past week has so far been the biggest learning portion of my cornish cross farming! I did lose 1 bird.. HUGE MISTAKE on my behalf. I placed a barrier fence (plastic) around the bottom portion of the chicken tractor, and one (very large) bird got his neck stuck in it and choked by morning. When I found him, my heart sank. Yes, it is to be expected that these chickens have a high mortality rate, but this one was my negligence. I was trying to add a bit more security, since I have had a cat early in the year get into the pen (very small opening in corner, and PULL the chick through the small opening. I have been more careful as to how I build my coops after that (and tractors). My attempt at the secondary fence fabric was to simply keep any stray animals from even touching my tractor!
After that incident, I pulled all of that fabric up, and have gone back to the basic tractor. Lesson learned, and for the past 5-days I have had no incidents and feel they are VERY safe above what I expected. No strays have even stepped into my property for the past 2-months.
The second lesson learned was basically to get those buggers outside as soon as possible. We moved them just shy of 3-weeks (due to their weights) but I suppose my conclusion is that if the weather permits, move them outside at week 2-regardless of their size! Since we moved them out, they have sparkled (not quite, but you get the point). Their coloring improved (less poo and more air), their stink is less, they eat more!, and have exposure to the sun with all of its benefits.
The third lesson, is that the little red feeders do NOT CUT IT for 3-week old birds, and probably not 2-week olds either (unless you have 1 per 5 birds!). Many of you use the bucket feeders religiously, and I gave it a try 2 days ago. HOLY COW! the chickens gained huge amounts of weight in a short period. Why?
My best guess is that even though I filled my troff feeders up-to 4-times a day, they still did not get as much feed as they desired. I filled them when I saw the feed was out or near out, and feel that this small margin of having endless feed made a huge difference.
PROGRESS:
Welphatchery's nifty chart shows that at 3-weeks our birds SHOULD be in the 1.7 -1.9 range. We are right at 1.4-1.6 now. HOLY COW, I did not think we could catch-up and progress like we have, but the small changes in feeding and shelter made a HUGE difference.
I will post the comparison of week 4 and week 5, and feel we can catchup to average or just below average weights by week 5. The goal is to have some 5lb dressed birds by week 8.
