Fast growing and slow growing chick question

[SeanK]

Okay .. I am getting ready to order my chicks and have a couple questions.
1) Cornish Cross X chicks grow incredibly fast according to everything I read. How long are they kept in a brooder? Standard chicks seem to be 6 weeks but these Cornish are ready for butcher at 6-8 weeks.
2) How large of a brooder should I make? 25 Cornish Cross X, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Leghorns, 3 turkeys.
3) I am trying to do this on the cheap so I only want to make this one time but be fighting the cheapness either. Will a large box (refrig?) be sturdy enough?
4) I know it is not a good idea to raise chickens and turkeys together but from what I read they can be combined for a short period of time to provide heat for each other. How soon should they be seperated? Sould they be is a completely different brooder or will sectioning them off be adequate?

 

[silkiechicken]

1) Cornish Cross X chicks grow incredibly fast according to everything I read. How long are they kept in a brooder? Standard chicks seem to be 6 weeks but these Cornish are ready for butcher at 6-8 weeks.\\

I keep my cornish x in a brooder outside on the ground and just move it... really it's just a tractor with a heat lamp. I keep up to 8 in a 4x8 tractor with 4x2 attached hutch, I'd say from start to finish, an 8x8 brooder will be able to handle 25 cornish x from chick to butcher, but you will have alot of poo scooping to do, and it may be cramped.... They will need some sort of supplemental heat till about 6 weeks of age, and if weather is really cool where you are, might need heat till butcher age.



2) How large of a brooder should I make? 25 Cornish Cross X, 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Leghorns, 3 turkeys.

8x8 might be able to squeeze by for 6 weeks, but it will be packed and you'll have lots of cleaning. The cornish will make the layers big poopy messes when brooded together, but it is possible to keep both. Be wary of the layers getting overly stressed and then picking on the others if you keep them together for the whole 8 weeks. Layers have ALOT more energy than those cornish.

3) I am trying to do this on the cheap so I only want to make this one time but be fighting the cheapness either. Will a large box (refrig?) be sturdy enough?

I'll never go with cardboard for cornishes again for more than the first week. They poo so much that it soaks right through the cardboard and then soaks into the floor or table the box sits on... NOT good....

A refridgerator box would probably work for your group up to about 2-3 weeks, but may depend, as they can get crowded fast. I generally give mine more room than less.

4) I know it is not a good idea to raise chickens and turkeys together but from what I read they can be combined for a short period of time to provide heat for each other. How soon should they be seperated? Sould they be is a completely different brooder or will sectioning them off be adequate?

I hear turkeys require a slightly warmer enviornment for longer times than chickens, but don't have experience raising them.

Good luck!

 

[UncleHoot]

1) My last batch of Cornish Roasters (quite similar to "standard" Cornish X), were raised along with with my layers for the first few weeks. At 3-4 weeks, they went outside, but this was late July, and night-time temps never dropped below the 50's. Anyway, my "normal" chickens did very well when raised together with the Cornish Roasters. Two of them are even banty's.

3) Get some pine shavings (TSC carries them). I'd get 2 bags. Cardboard should be good as long as you keep putting in new shavings every day or two. I just dumped the new shavings on top of the old. I only cleaned out my cardboard box once at about 1 1/2 or 2 weeks when I accidentally dropped the waterer (and spilled a gallon of water). But even then, the shavings soaked up almost all of the water.

My experience is minimal, however. So, just take this as one voice out of many.