Doing a meat breed comparison, White Rocks and Cornish X

[cutechick2010]

I have a brooder full of now 15 day old chicks, my layers and my meat birds for the year. With my meat birds this year, I decided to go with half of them the Jumbo Cornish Cross to butcher this spring, and the White rocks to do later on in the year. Saves on freezer storage! LOL Anyway, I decided to do a size/growth rate comparison just out of curiosity. So here are my results so far. I am going to try to update this twice a month, more if I have time.These birds are all on the same feed, in the same brooder, etc. I weighed them on a food scale, ironically enough, and the Cornish X weighs 10.6 ounces. The White Rock is 4.2 ounces, it is a cockerel BTW. The Cornish I don't know, I got those straight run. Pictures for visual comparison below, is this nuts or what?

 

[cutechick2010]

That was some years ago, and no, i had no 'special instructions' as to caring for them any differently than the white rocks. That was pre-internet days, info wasn't at the tip of our fingers then. I didn't find any info on that until the problems had already started...THEN the feed store guy told me, well, sometimes you have to be careful feeding too much with those! They didn't mention it when I bought them, and I didn't ask because I didn't know to. I had never heard of them before that. I did ask how they compared to the white rocks, they just said they are supposed to grow bigger faster. Sounded good to me. I didn't even know I shouldn't try to keep any pullets...with the rocks, I alwyas bought straight run, butchered the cokcerals, kept the pullets for layers. I didn't know you couldn't do that with the cornish. As to limiting feed to 12/12, no, but then, I did not have any of them under lights, so they wouldn't have been eating 24 hrs, plus, I did not, even with the white rocks or any other chicks i raised, beyond the first several weeks, keep full feeders in front of them constantly. They eat their fill, start wasting it from that point. They were offerred what they would clean up in a reasonable time several times a day, like I did with any chicks. Specialized broiler raisers might have raising them down to a fine art. Maybe knowing more now, if I needed to raise meat as economically as possible, might try. I don't, so I won't, lol. i just chalked the whole mess off as a lesson learned. No more CornishX for me.

That sentence is what made me ask the question about a heat source. I totally agree that the CC need special consideration, and since you had no way of knowing that when you got yours it's quite understandable that you had the problems you did. All I was saying was that it is possible to raise them without all those problems, or at least to greatly minimize them.

 

[caelfi]

I have a brooder full of now 15 day old chicks, my layers and my meat birds for the year. With my meat birds this year, I decided to go with half of them the Jumbo Cornish Cross to butcher this spring, and the White rocks to do later on in the year. Saves on freezer storage! LOL Anyway, I decided to do a size/growth rate comparison just out of curiosity. So here are my results so far. I am going to try to update this twice a month, more if I have time.These birds are all on the same feed, in the same brooder, etc. I weighed them on a food scale, ironically enough, and the Cornish X weighs 10.6 ounces. The White Rock is 4.2 ounces, it is a cockerel BTW. The Cornish I don't know, I got those straight run. Pictures for visual comparison below, is this nuts or what?

The Cornish cross need a different diet at least 22-24% protein. They need to be allowed to eat 24/7 for 2-3 weeks then 12 hours feed 12 hours no feed and as much water as they can get. They will be ready to butcher between 7-9 weeks. I did mine at 7 weeks they 6 out of 9 were over 6 pounds dress out weight and 3 of those 6 were over 7.25 pounds. Be sure food is at one end and water is at other end or they will not get any exercise you want them to get some exercise. They grow so fast that they will still be lacking feathers at 7-9 weeks.
These birds consume a lot of food and water. If not butchered they will eat themselves to death. You will go through about 2 1/2 50# bags of meatbird food before you butcher them. I space mine 4 weeks apart when they are at 3-4 weeks I buy by next batch for the brooder. I sell high quality meat to my friends and family at less than the grocery stores charge for a cage free chicken. The stores charge 5.99 a pound I was able to do 3.99 a pound I still profited 100 dollars back after feed and chick costs.
If you decide to sell to people be sure you check your states laws.
I can sell up to 2000 birds per year w/o usda registration as long as they pick up the chicken at my home and I don’t deliver it. I sell the birds whole completely cleaned and oven ready in vacuum sealed bags.
I weigh them and let my friends know what weights I have, they tell me what they want and I put their names on their bags. I use an 11 # kitchen scale.

 

[HEChicken]

Great experiment - I'll look forward to following along. If these are the same two birds you weighed, I'd wager the Cornish is a roo as well.

 

[Chicks on DL]

I am looking forward to following along as I have considered buying chicks for meat but haven't decided what type.

 

[cutechick2010]

It's quite possible the Cornish is a rooster, although one thing I have noticed about this breed is that even when they get to butchering size it can be hard to tell the roos from the hens. I think the longest I have ever kept one is about four months, you had to look closely to tell. The internal male anatomy on the Cornish breed is a lot less, *ahem* impressive than on a Buff Rock roo of about the same age that I butchered last month also, so that may be why. Oh, the two chicks in the picture are the same two I weighed, I meant to say that in my last post, sorry.

 

[HEChicken]

I would agree with that. I've only had one Cornish X and I was certain it was a girl. "She" dropped dead at the age of 10 weeks and I basically saw it happen from my kitchen window so, not wanting the meat to go to waste (I figured it was flip), I processed and was stunned to find two rather large, well-developed gonads when I did.

 

[floridapoultry]

Very worthwhile project. Will be watching for an update on your results.

 

[cutechick2010]

I would agree with that. I've only had one Cornish X and I was certain it was a girl. "She" dropped dead at the age of 10 weeks and I basically saw it happen from my kitchen window so, not wanting the meat to go to waste (I figured it was flip), I processed and was stunned to find two rather large, well-developed gonads when I did.

Yes, they are very prone to heart attacks and respiratory failure. Basically they put so much energy into growing meat that they don't have any energy left over to grow their own internal organs. It's sort of sad, but that is the reason that the big commercial "chicken factories" use these birds, even with the losses to heart attacks etc they are still so much cheaper to raise. The commercial places process them at right about 45 days old, they basically just pump feed into them day and night.

 

[jamband]

Yes, they are very prone to heart attacks and respiratory failure. Basically they put so much energy into growing meat that they don't have any energy left over to grow their own internal organs. It's sort of sad, but that is the reason that the big commercial "chicken factories" use these birds, even with the losses to heart attacks etc they are still so much cheaper to raise. The commercial places process them at right about 45 days old, they basically just pump feed into them day and night.

They have issues due to fast growth not small hearts....in fact their organs are much bigger than standard breeds. The hatcheries recommend food 12 on 12 off to reduce losses.