Doing a meat breed comparison, White Rocks and Cornish X

[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.