First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[white oak creek]

Anyone now what age pioneer or Dixie rainbow hens start laying?

 

[Double Kindness]

Sorry for the lapse in posting I'm excited to pick up my next batchbof cornish x I'm getting them from the same guy I got my first batch from that dressed out at 24 lbs each at 12 weeks old.

However, I got that feeding them 23% protein non medicated non gmo organic gluten free chick starter that I have custom milled for me by the 1k lbs. I just picked up another 1k lbs of feed *I have celiac disease and need gluten free feed due to me getting sick from cross contamination in regular commercial chichen feed* and I fermented it for them too. I restricted feed after 3 weeks of age and had 20% mortality rate.

I'm definitely picking up 30 cx meaties..

but in other news, I also got Narragansett turkeys too. The tom is getting to be gobbling in the morning in about a month he goes to freezer camp. I might keep the girl whom I named Jezebel.

Oh, any my easter egger x bean line ayam cemani pullet Estella won a blue ribbon at the Denver County Fair in the beginning of august.

My chicken mentor (enabler) gifted me a mottled lf English Orpingtons and lf frizzle tolbunt polish and easter eggers that I've named the Charlie's Angels due to their hairdos.

This week I sold my bean line syam cemani trio and a mated pair of f3 and f4 crested cream legbars. The flock is going through a tough molt, so the extra protein in the food is helping feathers come in nicely.

 

[Morrigan]

Hi Double Kindness! Congrats on getting the turkeys. One day I hope to do the same.

I just got in 32 loudly peeping CX in today's mail. They are settled in the brooder now. No interest in food yet, but I expect that to change shortly.

 

[Double Kindness]

this is Punzie, the little runner duck that imprinted onto me.


Where did you get your cx meaties from Morrigan?

I'm at 5280 ft ABOVE sea level near Denver, so I found that not many hatcheries ship cx meaties here. The high elevation is hard on them.

My bf's bosses gave us a smoker recently. In my above post that is a muscovy duck that I had raised and dressed out last year, brined with bourbon, spices, oranges etc for 3 days before frozen. It was starting to get freezer burnt, so we decided to smoke it along with one of my bean line ayam cemani roosters I'd also processed. It was the best tasting bird I've ever had!!

I've been battling broodies all year too! Even my runner duck went broody, white bresse and clean faced easter egger. 8 broodies at a time sometimes lol. I have them on a dozen ccl eggs from my own flocks atm.

About a month ago a lone runner duck had hatched and was abandonded by the muscovy broody that hatched it and imprinted onto me.

 

[daskhan]

I thought fairs didn't allow mixed breeds

 

[mountain mom]

So for our first run of Cornish cross:
We bought 30 chicks 2ish weeks old at rural King $0.99 each
We lost one somewhere along the way (after we put them outside so who knows what happened to it)
We kept 3 for breeding 1 male, 2 we thought were female but we are starting to wonder about one of them.
We sent 26 to butcher $2.10-2.50 per bird. The difference was bagged vs unbagged.
I have no idea how much they ate because they were in with our layers.
They didn't weigh them so I have no idea of the weights, but they look around grocery store size, maybe slightly smaller. The breasts were smaller than grocery store. Legs were bigger. I think.
We raised them around 3 months I think.
We have 10 whole chickens, 2 gallon bags of bones/skin/meat to small to be worth cutting off, 2qt bags of boneless skinless pieces, 1qt bag of wings, 2 gallon bags legs and thighs, 2 gallon bags of cooked deboned meat that I'm debating whether we will eat or give to the chickens, 1 qt bag of cooked meat from the chicken with the wired yellow tenderloins, various bags of organ meat, I think that's it but there may be more, in the freezer.
We already have the second batch of meat chicks, got 30 straight run from the feed store, $1.30 each, got as day olds, they are about 1.5 weeks old now.
I am glad we have lots of meat. And it is yummy. But I was hoping for the chickens to be bigger. I thought raising them to 3 months would at least get them bigger than the grocery store. But I was really hoping for the 8-10+ lb ones I have read about. How do I get that raising them free range? We fed them twice a day, in the morning and at bedtime about 1.5 gallons of fermented feed or dry feed whichever we had. They were active and healthy.
Next year I definitely want to start in the spring not in the middle of the summer.

I would venture to say you will get better sizes if you start in the spring. We processed July 3 and the birds hadn't been getting much bigger for about a week. We also had synovitis though. Late summer into fall and Spring are the best time for CX, imo.

Sorry for the lapse in posting

I'm excited to pick up my next batchbof cornish x

I'm getting them from the same guy I got my first batch from that dressed out at 24 lbs each at 12 weeks old.

However, I got that feeding them 23% protein non medicated non gmo organic gluten free chick starter that I have custom milled for me by the 1k lbs. I just picked up another 1k lbs of feed *I have celiac disease and need gluten free feed due to me getting sick from cross contamination in regular commercial chichen feed* and I fermented it for them too. I restricted feed after 3 weeks of age and had 20% mortality rate.

I'm definitely picking up 30 cx meaties..

but in other news, I also got Narragansett turkeys too. The tom is getting to be gobbling in the morning

in about a month he goes to freezer camp. I might keep the girl whom I named Jezebel.

Oh, any my easter egger x bean line ayam cemani pullet Estella won a blue ribbon at the Denver County Fair in the beginning of august.

My chicken mentor (enabler) gifted me a mottled lf English Orpingtons and lf frizzle tolbunt polish and easter eggers that I've named the Charlie's Angels due to their hairdos.

This week I sold my bean line syam cemani trio and a mated pair of f3 and f4 crested cream legbars. The flock is going through a tough molt, so the extra protein in the food is helping feathers come in nicely.

Hi Double Kindness! Congrats on getting the turkeys. One day I hope to do the same.

I just got in 32 loudly peeping CX in today's mail. They are settled in the brooder now. No interest in food yet, but I expect that to change shortly.

Hooray!!!

this is Punzie, the little runner duck that imprinted onto me.


Where did you get your cx meaties from Morrigan?

I'm at 5280 ft ABOVE sea level near Denver, so I found that not many hatcheries ship cx meaties here. The high elevation is hard on them.

My bf's bosses gave us a smoker recently. In my above post that is a muscovy duck that I had raised and dressed out last year, brined with bourbon, spices, oranges etc for 3 days before frozen. It was starting to get freezer burnt, so we decided to smoke it along with one of my bean line ayam cemani roosters I'd also processed. It was the best tasting bird I've ever had!!

I've been battling broodies all year too! Even my runner duck went broody, white bresse and clean faced easter egger. 8 broodies at a time sometimes lol. I have them on a dozen ccl eggs from my own flocks atm.

About a month ago a lone runner duck had hatched and was abandonded by the muscovy broody that hatched it and imprinted onto me.

I love all the pictures DK! Glad to see you back at the B&G

 

[Double Kindness]

There was a backyard class atthe fair. The judge didn't like mixed breeds, but she placed 2nd best overall bird including 2 professional categories, so we're pretty stoked.

I was going to enter runner ducks, I might next year. I don't have any apa recognized breeds to show, but I'm looking to add to my flick because my bf realky enjoted showing the birds. Pkus we got all the fancy stuff to make the birds look pretty,so best to use it.

 

[JRNash]

this is Punzie, the little runner duck that imprinted onto me.


Where did you get your cx meaties from Morrigan?

I'm at 5280 ft ABOVE sea level near Denver, so I found that not many hatcheries ship cx meaties here. The high elevation is hard on them.

My bf's bosses gave us a smoker recently. In my above post that is a muscovy duck that I had raised and dressed out last year, brined with bourbon, spices, oranges etc for 3 days before frozen. It was starting to get freezer burnt, so we decided to smoke it along with one of my bean line ayam cemani roosters I'd also processed. It was the best tasting bird I've ever had!!

I've been battling broodies all year too! Even my runner duck went broody, white bresse and clean faced easter egger. 8 broodies at a time sometimes lol. I have them on a dozen ccl eggs from my own flocks atm.

About a month ago a lone runner duck had hatched and was abandonded by the muscovy broody that hatched it and imprinted onto me.

Welps slow broilers are supposed to be better at high altituds thn other cx

 

[JRNash]

The brooder is ready.25 welp slow broilers arrive friday. Its still real hot during the days and the nights are a long way from cooling off.So I'm thinking one light 250Watt light is sufficient.

 

[JRNash]

the lone survivors of the chuppy cobbler.lol I prefer peach cobbler

These guys in conjunction with the electric fence should keep them safe