Finishing the Cornish X's

[gevannos]

Has anyone come up with a feed to finish the Cornish X's before slaughter that they feel made them taste better? Last year I finished on mostly corn and they were great. Just looking for other's ideas.

Thanks
Eric

 

[Oregon Blues]

With livestock, the term "finish" means to add fat to the carcass. Corn is the best thing to add fat because it is high calorie.

My opinion is that what makes the home raised chickens taste better than the store chickens is fresh air, exercise, some greens, and some bugs.

 

[mama dixie]

I am in the home strech of my birds as well and I am giving a mix of corn and broiler feed, I will start adding greens this is a good idea. I went to the coop today and one was dead, I have no idea why it was just dead, it did look like something had chewed or pecked at the wing, eww any idea the water was out of water, but would that kill it? anyway I will feed more corn in the mix for the birds and more greens thank you for the input.

 

[SmokingPistol]

I've always fed game bird feed to finish.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Yes being out of water can kill them. They dehydrate fast and once they dehydrate, they will be disoriented. If they go down, the other birds walk all over them and basically beat them to death, not because they are malicious, but because they are heavy.

 

[mama dixie]

we are now filling the water twice a day. when do you know when it is time to process them? this is only the second time we have raised them and when we took them in last time they were very small like bantam hens and so I want to be sure they are full size this time? do you weigh them, of coarse just to be difficult we don't have a scale but I could borrow one maybe. do you just go by how many weeks old they are? what is the best way? some of them seem alot bigger than others, it is a long drive to take them in to be processed so we would like to take them all at one time, hubby said he was going to do it but then changed his mind.

 

[Elakr1]

Finished my first bunch on cracked corn, pleaty of water. At 8 weeks they weighed around 6.5-7.5lbs dressed for the hens and 9.5-10.5 lbs for the roos. Taste is fantastic.

 

[Buster52]

I'm waiting for mine to get 6 to 7.5 pounds. I weigh samples and take similar sizes to process. I think after you have done it for a while you will get a sense.

I'm not there yet.

 

[Buster52]

Finished my first bunch on cracked corn, pleaty of water. At 8 weeks they weighed around 6.5-7.5lbs dressed for the hens and 9.5-10.5 lbs for the roos. Taste is fantastic.

That's a 14 pound bird, live weight at 8 fweeks. Where do you order them from?

 

[Elakr1]

Got them from a local feed store here in Jacksonville , Florida.
Not sure where they got them from.