Diet

[horsesNchicks]

My 25 meaties are being fed organic commercial feed. What else can I give the little omnivores? They are only 17 days old. When they are feathered and go outside to the barn, I will try to get them to free range.....appreciate this group and all suggestions

 

[SunHwaKwon]

What kind of "meaties"?

 

[horsesNchicks]

Cornish X

 

[SunHwaKwon]

From my understanding, cornish x do not benefit much from free ranging; they will just sit around the food and/or water dishes rather than actually foraging. For your next batch, look into one of the other types of meat birds (freedom rangers, etc) so you can benefit from the lowered cost of having them forage (though perhaps it evens out given that they take slightly longer to grow out).

As far as supplementing the feed, the commercial feeds are designed to help optimally pack on the meat.