I am raising CornishX broilers from Meyers special. They arrived on Oct 12th. I put them on dry 22% game bird feed to start with because that was the closest the feed store had to Broiler feed. I brooded them in a spare bathroom, where I brood Turkey poults, which has a dehumidifier and heater with an adjustable thermostat. I unfortunately got all females, so I know they will take longer to grow out. I usually only do broilers in Early spring and grow them out in a 10x10 pen set up inside the barn, until it is warm enough to let them free range during the day. At that stage, usually 4 to 6 weeks, they are integrated into the flock of juvenile heavy duel purpose chicks I hatch out a couple or three weeks before I get the broilers. That way they all eat together and nobody gets too heavy before their legs develop good! These chicks went to the barn at 2 weeks old, because we were having 80 degree daytime weather and 60's nigh time, and lots of adult birds in the barn to supply body heat. Before moving them to the barn, someone said the 22% protein crumbles, fermented with equal parts of oats, mixed grains(scratch) and cracked corn I planned to feed with a hand full of BOSS every day was too high in protein. It was suggested by a BYC member, who has done broilers on FF before, to reduce the protein crumbles in the FF from 22% to 19%, which I did. They have been in the barn for 2 weeks now Half on ff and half on wet feed and ACV in their drinking water. After 2 weeks, I see no difference in appearance or weight (size) of the 2 groups. They are all approx 1 pound each and have lost their chick fuzz but not feathering enough to cover their bare bodies, much less their huge rumps. They are messy with the wet feed, but I have good circulation in the barn and never much of an odor problem with any of the birds. I see other people's pictures of huge, well feathered broilers on BYC and am wondering what I am doing wrong? I have gone through a lot of ACV and a good fermentation. My turkeys have even learned how to open one of the buckets, to help themselves. They love it (and anything else eatable LOL).
I was thinking of eliminating the corn, using a straight 18% protein feed ( cost wise much cheaper and give them equal amounts of oats, since oats are 11.5% protein. Ferment this combination as I want meat, not fat, but these guys aren't getting large, for boilers and definitely not very meaty. What do you think? Am I due for a growth spurt at say 5 weeks, or am I feeding them wrong ratio or what? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I thought mine were growing slow on the FF too and I didn't even feed as high a protein as you are but they did grow and I had wanted it to be slower, so I wasn't concerned. They really started filling out and getting heavy at about 10 wks and after, so they will catch up. Some of the broiler strains they have out now are much slower in development than those just a few years back and the ones that I had certainly were. What you are feeding seems to be just fine...I'd just give it time and you will see them filling out. I don't think the 22% was a bad amount of protein if it was cut with the whole grains and such, but they should do well on the 19% also.
Could you post some pics and state their ages?
