I didn't do this(feed FF) with my last batch of meaties but they ate pretty much what my layer flock ate....layer ration mixed with some whole grains. They had appropriate finishing weights and all were healthy and thriving. They free ranged with my flock.
The batch I'm raising now are weighting in~by the hatchery schedule standards~at the 4 wk. age and mine are 5 wks. They are one week behind on their weights(which was my goal..a slower grown, healthier bird) and I have used $41 in feed. One thread on here posted their feed cost for 50 CX at 5 wks had been $130. A big difference.
I will say that these birds of mine seem to be eating an enormous amount of bugs and worms during their foraging...this place is a gold mine for foraging birds. Maybe this winter was too warm to kill off some of the bugs? I don't know. But..who knows just how much supplemental protein is going on for my flock that wouldn't be obtained by others trying this method of feeding? Too many variables in this experiment to say for sure.
Here's the question I have about protein and the thought that this particular breed of chicken needs more protein to live and develop than do layer birds. Why is that, exactly? If a laying flock stay healthy, fat and producing on layer mash and produce well, live to be a ripe ol' age and maintain good condition, why then is it imperative that these CX have extreme high percentages of protein to "put on muscle"?
They were bred with the genetics to lay on more muscle, deeper muscle layers, than their DP counterparts but does this mean that they MUST have high pro to develop those muscles? If you have the genetics to be a tall person and you eat the same thing as your shorter brother, will you just be short like him or will you develop what your genetic code says you will? If it is adequate protein for a layer bird, it is adequate protein for a meat bird~at least that is my conclusion.
Saying that lower protein feeds will stunt the ability of the CX to develop muscle is like claiming that bantam breeds need the lowest protein to keep them smaller and then the layers need a medium protein to keep them at standard size, so the CX must need high protein to make them heavier, meatier breeds. Genetics are genetics and what food suffices to keep one bird healthy will do the same with another.
Everything I've read about these CX on this forum tells me that feeding the high pro and pushing these birds to their limits of gain seems to yield the wrong kind of product...the very same product that I see hauled out of commercial broiler houses by the tractor bucket load and thrown on the litter pile, dead as a doornail.
Horror stories about "flip", malformed and weak legs, rotten flesh on the breast bones, wing tips, etc and blisters on the breasts that have pocket abscesses underneath, heat stress that results in heart attacks...you name it, I've read it here.
Why in the world would anyone want to copy that method of raising chickens and expect that it would yield meat fit for our family's consumption? I've often wondered that. Also...why would anyone continue to do it that way after you had those results? I know many here raise them to sell and are hoping to make a profit...and they seem to do so.
By moving them once a day over the grass in small pens, they can market them as pastured poultry and get more for their efforts....but I've seen that up close and personal on Salatin's place and I got an education real quick and in a hurry about what "pastured" means to Salatin....it's a marketing gimmick and has no real value for the health or nutritional value of the meat grown there. These birds are fed continuous feeds of commercially prepared feeds and the pasture they are supposedly consuming is soiled and trampled within minutes of this crowded pen being positioned upon it. If they are getting a mouthful of the poopy grass before it is trampled by the feet and bodies of their flockmates, I'd be very surprised.
Sorry....this obsession over protein gets me going. I didn't mean to drag up the soapbox but I face this over and over with the thinking about raising CX.
Gotta do it like the big boys 'cause it took 50 years of research to learn how to get these birds fat in a short amount of time! You simply can't raise CX in any other way~by their thinking~because that's the way that everyone is doing it, so it must be right.
Poor chickens.
Poor people eating that meat later on.
Glad I have access to a better way to produce a better product and I'm glad there are some folks visiting this thread that want to try a different way also.
. next time i wont.
