Feed Cornish X Rocks 24/7 ?

[CU]

Hi all,

New to raising chickens. In fact, I'm only about 48 hours into it with 25 Cornish X Rocks and 15 Golden Commets. Do I want to feed the X Rocks 24/7 or take their food away at night? So far they're eating night and day...

Thanks in advance!

 

[smith2]

Good morning. I have never had Cornish, but I have had friends that have had them. You can feed them 24 hours, but some of them might died of "overgrowth." This causes heart attacks and strokes. My friends feed in the morning, withdraw for several hours after lunch, and feed again until evening, then they stop for the night. Their chicks get ready to eat in about 10-12 weeks instead of the fast 8.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I remove the food at night as suggested to me by someone else on here. They seem to do very well with that method. But it is a feeding frenzy in the morning.

 

[CU]

Thanks! I'll take their food away at night and see how that goes...I plan on ranging these guys as well as soon as they are ready.

 

[HFC]

I take the food away at night while they're in the brooder. As soon as they go to the tractor and lose the light I don't watch it very closely. I won't fill them up at dark, but I don't take it away either. They sleep at night.

 

[greyfields]

It seems a 50/50 split here. Some people feed 24/7, some feed 12 hours.

I have never seen a published research paper comparing the two methods; and people certainly are successfully raising broilers under either system.

 

[mommy9994]

I won't fill them up at dark, but I don't take it away either

This is what I do. Mine forage though, and don't eat so much out of the feeder.​

 

[Peruvian]

Good info from Welp Hatchery here - http://www.welphatchery.com/cornish_rock_care.asp

This is the system I used and my CX are very healthy and active.

 

[bluebirdfarm]

i fed mine 24 hrs and they were ready to butcher at 8 weeks , if u want to wait longer u can take away the feed at night.
I could not imagine wanting to keep them any longer ?
mine were plenty big at that age and any longer u may be asking for trouble with heart attacks and legs problems.
just my opinion though.

 

[Sparky]

Yesterday we butchered 29 Cornish Cross after starting out with 30 (lost 1 at three days old). We followed the recommendations from Welp Hatchery and had better success than ever before, no leg problems or heart attacks. At 10 weeks some of the big ones dressed out at nearly 8 pounds. A beautiful sight.

Starting these big birds now is a bit more difficult because of the heat. When you get them out of the brooder, keeping them as cool as possible is critical. I mounted a 3 speed box fan 6 inches off the ground on the chicken wire in the coop. It was on a lamp timer to come on at 9 in the morning and go off at 9 at night. We have been in the mid 90s - and in the heat of the day the birds that were not out in the run in the shade would come in and back up to the wire in front of the fan and just chill. This batch didn't seem to hardly mind the heat compared to last year's when we lost nearly 50% to the same temperatures without the fan.

With 25 CX you will also need to be ready to keep plenty of water in front of them once they get about 4 or 5 weeks old. I cut the bottom 8 inches off some 5 gallon buckets so that I could go around with a hose a few times a day to fill the water quickly. They will need to be rinsed daily but the alternative was buying additional waterers for the month the Cornish would need them.

Good luck.