First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[LindaB220]

Right now I have been begging my bf for 2 incubators. I showed him pictures. I am being pretty specific, this is our 8th holiday season together. I know I need to be insanely precise, or I get house hold appliances for presents or nothing at all. (We went without celebrating for 3 years to buy equipment and tools to build our business).

I'm liking the janoel jn7-56 for incubating, and the genisis 1588 for hatching. What do you guys think of my choices? Is there something different I should be looking at?

I'll likely use the 2 big brooder boxes we made from closet doors and 1/2" hardware cloth. I can use them as tractors in my front yard. I think I want to do 2 batches of 25-35 in lare feb and late april. As long as I have a plucker. Or start them in the brooder boxes then move them to the big raised garden bed in back. I can't wait for spring planting in that raised bed area with all that chicken/duck poop/straw.

The last of the dp meaties (2 roos, 3 pullets, 1 production red capon and 1 pr roo) are in the expanded raised garden bed area.

I'm procrastinating moving the 2 pullets into my laying flock. The last freezer camp is slated for the 21st. The other slw pullet Wobbles is in with the ayam cemani. Who are the most arrogant breed btw. They are younger/smaller than the muscovies and they boss everyone around.

I kept 3 muscovies, Elvis, Truffle and Trouble. 6 (3 & 3 boys/girls) white bresse. 2 haffie pullets, 3 ayam cemani pullets, 2 keeper ac roos, 3 non keeper ac roos, 2 slw pullets, 1 br pullet, 1 rc leghorn, 1 splash polish, 3 little ee's, 3 bigger ee's, 1 ameracuna, 1 big roo salmon favorelle x wellsummer x light brahma, and the other 3 roos and 1 capon, 2 meat bunnies, 1 is pregnant, 2 greyhounds (who are in the doghouse b/c they ate my new Christmas candy last night).

I am not busy at all. Being sick. The gluten is really making me sooo sick from cross contamination due to gluten in the chicken feed.

I love coming here to this thread. Even though I have no cx. I tried many times to get them though!

Does it strike anyone else as odd that I couldn't seem to get my hands on cx to raise this past year, but I got white bresse and ayam cemani? The 2 breeds I thought would always remain on my wish list?

Mountain mom- I definitely want to get cx with u or cohomestead or someone local ish in CO. Maybe we can start to plan, so order in bulk for a discount?

Check out Schletcht hatchery. They are priced right and the reviews on them are great. Big birds.

 

[Double Kindness]

I do keep their buckets of ff inside. I bring it outside and they are not interested in it. And they lost weight, so I'm just trying to make sure they are at least eating since it's so cold. I even have a heated watering bowl and tried that for their food. Not interested.

 

[duluthralphie]

. ( It was 103 for a couple of days last year, Not that hot,)

Dear Linda:

Please take this seriously and remember it is written with love.

Any person making the above statement should see a physician, or mental health worker as soon as possible. You could be suffering from severe dehydration or may have suffered a recent bump to the head.

Because I am such a sweet sugar based life form I start to suffer from melting and stickiness at around 80 degrees. A couple days at 103 would be a living, well you know what.

 

[11mini]

Fermented feed for sure. I wonder about hosing the poop away - one of the first major issues I had with my hens was the smell, there was no floor on the coop, I just had the pine shavings mixing with the dirt. After a few times using the hose to clean the coop and run the smell was awful. I put a plywood floor in the run and added a roof, the shavings stay dry in all but the heaviest rains and I hardly notice the smell. The ground where the coop was still smells, months later. I thought about adding lyme(?) to the soil but it is in the chicken pasture and I don't think it would be good for them.

 

[JessicaThistle]

11mini: I personally don't do ff but I never really had a problem with the smell from my cx on pasture because I move them so often. I am very sensitive to smells. The brooder is a different story and even adding shavings twice daily still bothers me once they get into the second week of age. I usually move them out to pasture before they reach 3 weeks old because of that. I never smell my layers and do pine shaving deep litter method on them.

How ever many cx you decide to do, you will learn quickly whether or not it is the right amount for the area you have. They grow so fast that they make their presence known very quickly. I do worry that if the smell from your layers bothered you that cx may knock you over.

FF may solve that but I haven't tried it. Mostly because I am actually quite happy with the results that I have gotten with the dry feed and my cx surround me so much that I don't think I could deal with a bucket and ladle without being mauled to death.

 

[11mini]

It didn't bother me as much as I was worried about the neighbors. Then come to find out 4 months later they didn't even know I had chickens! This was not a normal chicken poo smell, it was rotting poop and mud and pine shavings all mixed together. The current setup is working fine (pine shavings and sweet PDZ). I am starting to think another coop with bedding might be the way to go, letting them roam the yard like my layers do when I am home.

 

[duluthralphie]

It didn't bother me as much as I was worried about the neighbors. Then come to find out 4 months later they didn't even know I had chickens! This was not a normal chicken poo smell, it was rotting poop and mud and pine shavings all mixed together. The current setup is working fine (pine shavings and sweet PDZ). I am starting to think another coop with bedding might be the way to go, letting them roam the yard like my layers do when I am home.

Just convince your neighbors to get chickens and everything will be great!

 

[NiaAbbott]

Hi everyone! I've been MIA since the summer, but am day dreaming of spring and another batch of CX's so I wanted to stop in!

We made it through last summer with only one CX loss. Being my first try at them, I though that was pretty good! I let them go a little longer, we processed the biggest 10 at 12 weeks, and then the remaining 10 at 13 weeks. It was just a girlfriend and myself. SO much easier than I had anticipated. We spent 3.5-4 hours total, including prep and clean up for each batch. The only thing I would do differently is have a plucker. That part was not so fun. We ended up 142lbs of meat in the freezer. There were two roos that should have been done at the first cut that evaded us and wouldn't fit in the freezer bags, they were huge!

This year I'm going to get 55 of them. They we're so easy and so worth it!

 

[mountain mom]

11mini: I personally don't do ff but I never really had a problem with the smell from my cx on pasture because I move them so often. I am very sensitive to smells. The brooder is a different story and even adding shavings twice daily still bothers me once they get into the second week of age. I usually move them out to pasture before they reach 3 weeks old because of that. I never smell my layers and do pine shaving deep litter method on them.

How ever many cx you decide to do, you will learn quickly whether or not it is the right amount for the area you have. They grow so fast that they make their presence known very quickly. I do worry that if the smell from your layers bothered you that cx may knock you over.

FF may solve that but I haven't tried it. Mostly because I am actually quite happy with the results that I have gotten with the dry feed and my cx surround me so much that I don't think I could deal with a bucket and ladle without being mauled to death.

In order to avoid mauling, we would throw a "fake out" bit of slop in the opposite direction of where we were going to feed them (we just put it on the ground to encourage foraging). They always fell for it, then rushed over the second they heard the next plop. They always got it all over their heads. But, sweet chickens that they are, they would lovingly clean each other after meal times.
I suppose I should also include that we were lovingly mauled on a daily basis... just not to death

 

[duluthralphie]

Hi everyone! I've been MIA since the summer, but am day dreaming of spring and another batch of CX's so I wanted to stop in!

We made it through last summer with only one CX loss. Being my first try at them, I though that was pretty good! I let them go a little longer, we processed the biggest 10 at 12 weeks, and then the remaining 10 at 13 weeks. It was just a girlfriend and myself. SO much easier than I had anticipated. We spent 3.5-4 hours total, including prep and clean up for each batch. The only thing I would do differently is have a plucker. That part was not so fun. We ended up 142lbs of meat in the freezer. There were two roos that should have been done at the first cut that evaded us and wouldn't fit in the freezer bags, they were huge!

This year I'm going to get 55 of them. They we're so easy and so worth it!

I am just curious what was the dressed weight of those at 13 weeks?

It is a great feeling knowing you have lots of meat in the freezer. I have 5 freezers full of meat right now and am happy as a pig in mud!

I am seriously looking at a sausage stuffer and making my own lunch meat, wieners and so forth. I have a smoker and think it would be great to avoid buying any sandwich meats too.



BTW I have decided I am not all "there". I had to go to town today and the radio announcer said " We will be warming tomorrow with an unseasonably high of 29 degrees" . Normally people would not live in these temps!

I am dressing now to go back out and put the birds away. I will have 5 chickens I will have to run into the coop as they want to sleep outside, Silly birds!