First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[duluthralphie]

Bunch of questions:

Morrigan, I put mine out at a week, but in a brooder/tractor. I have a couple 4x4 ft boxes with no bottom or wire bottoms and doors cut into them. I cut a hole in the "roof" and put a heat lamp in it and covered it with a plastic tub. I then just lock the door to keep them in the brooder at night. I kept the water in there to start so they had a reason to go in, and gave them treats in the evening. They will do anything for food. Maybe you could make something like that in your pen. I am a firm believer in getting CX's outside as soon as possible to lesson heart, lung and leg problems.

Holm: Did you have a bad experience with the CX's? Why would you not raise them again?

Duoblekindness, I am sorry, I double over in sympathy pain for your semi-capon......ewwwww


Jessica, can you post your chicken pictures here? Do you mind if we get slightly of CX's on this thread? I love my CX's, which is obvious as mine are 12 weeks old with no end in sight. I like just talking to the people on this thread. However, I understand if you want the thread to remain purely CX's.

I had a few more questions for some here, but alas at my age my memory is short. ( not that it ever was long)


I have only one Roo left to send to camp, he is so sneaky I may just let him live. I had to resort to the 22 in the head trick to get the last 2. We ate one of my non-CX's last night and were disappointed. The legs and thighs were extremely tough, but the breast were great. I rested him 2 days, I am not sure why. I am wondering if my little hunt for him got his adrenaline was pumping. He knew I was after him and was running from me before I could get a safe shot at him.


I have a real excuse to not process my CX's for a while. I need bigger bags from Nadya. I could hardly get my 7.5 pound Dixie rainbow in the bag no way my meatballs will go into the bags. I may have to cut a bigger doorway in their brooder. They have to get done on their knees and wiggle through the door. It is too low and too narrow for them.

And on a happy note, One of my CX's crowed a real crow this morning! It was so cute. Then he attempted to fly. He went about 2 feet high and 4 feet in length, a real athlete.

 

[JessicaThistle]

I will take some updated pics of my rescuees and post here today. Maybe you all can help me figure out what these cuties are.

Ralph: I don't mind if the topic skews some. I also enjoy chatting with everyone that has contributed to this thread. I find it kind of irritating when I post in a different thread and no one responds or talks to me. It makes me never want to leave this one!! Maybe we need to create a new thread. I got the name for it. "Jessica's Friends that talk about CX's, Frogs, Processing Day, Vodka and Etc." Haha!

Your CX roo crowed a real crow and flew? You may just want to keep him and see if you can get some CX babies instead of frogs! He's a winner! And yes, cut that door bigger! The CX hen that I kept is happily living with the silkies in their tiny house. It now means I have to clean tiny house way more, but she's happy. However, the door to the outside of the run was silkie size and it was kinda funny to watch Sunny (the CX) squeeze threw that door. It was like a cartoon where the large person gets stuck and the small person is behind pushing. My hubby did enlarge the door for her and she is much happier now.

 

[duluthralphie]

I doubt I will keep the one that flew to be the frog Daddy. He is VERY large. I am thinking of keeping the smallest rooster just to increase the odds he sees spring.

It was really funny to see this baby Huey type meatball flying! I wish I could have gotten it on video. I am sure he burned 100,000 calories keeping his wide body airborne for those 2 seconds.

 

[Betsy57]

My 4 week old meaties are enjoying this sunshine we've had the last several days. They're running, jumping, butting chests and chasing each other. Now they're exhausted and sleeping on each other in the sun. Sounds like a good idea.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Is keeping yourself airborne for 2 seconds how to burn 100,000 calories?? OMG, I'm in! I think I could possibly pull it off. I'll be skinny in no time. Whoop! Unfortunately, the rain stopped me from getting pics of the chicks. Darn it Oregon! Also, I have to take a pic of my meatie hen with her two silkie buddies. She is so huge compared to them but she does everything they tell her to do. Hilarious!!

 

[LindaB220]

Morrigan - Welcome to the thread!! I think your plan to put them out at 2 weeks is excellent. Trust me: moving them back and forth is a pain! What are you putting them in outside? Is it possible to just put the heat lamp there for warmth at night? The guys are little cookers, so they do better in cooler temps over high ones. I don't think that 40 is too cold if you have a heat lamp so they can take the chill off if they need to. They snuggle for warmth too. If you were to see none of them under the lamp at all, you could feel comfortable just removing it.

Mine were almost 3 weeks when I put them out with a heat lamp. None of them were interested in being under it even at 40-50 degree temps.

Another thought Morrigan, is to make one of those little faux brooder thingys like one of the heat plated that they go under. Safer than a lamp. I'm going to strap a waterproof (washable) Sunbeam heating pad to a wire rack and cover with a pillowcase. Put on wooden 2" x 4" planks that is higher in front. Maybe 3" in back and 5 or so in front. There is a thread on this. And a video on youtube. Sorry I can't think what it's called.

Edited for content: I found it. Lacy Blues was talking about it on another thread. She uses it.

 

[LindaB220]

Well I don't know if I am going to raise CornishX anymore I really want to stick with Heritage breeds so I am probably go with Barred Rock roos .

Get a few CX's along with your rocks and raise them together. See which you like better. It's worth a shot.

 

[LindaB220]

I will take some updated pics of my rescuees and post here today. Maybe you all can help me figure out what these cuties are.

Ralph: I don't mind if the topic skews some. I also enjoy chatting with everyone that has contributed to this thread. I find it kind of irritating when I post in a different thread and no one responds or talks to me. It makes me never want to leave this one!! Maybe we need to create a new thread. I got the name for it. "Jessica's Friends that talk about CX's, Frogs, Processing Day, Vodka and Etc." Haha!

Your CX roo crowed a real crow and flew? You may just want to keep him and see if you can get some CX babies instead of frogs! He's a winner! And yes, cut that door bigger! The CX hen that I kept is happily living with the silkies in their tiny house. It now means I have to clean tiny house way more, but she's happy. However, the door to the outside of the run was silkie size and it was kinda funny to watch Sunny (the CX) squeeze threw that door. It was like a cartoon where the large person gets stuck and the small person is behind pushing. My hubby did enlarge the door for her and she is much happier now.

Still the best thread. We're like Cheers, "where everybody knows your name."

Even the vodka fits right in.

 

[LindaB220]

My bf has become a full blown enabler now in regards to my backyard farm. He has started helping me caponize. We have 1.5 capons lol.. ok. I capon and I has 1 teste still in. 13.5 roosters to go, not including the 5 roos I suspect I have out of the last ayam cemani hatch. My smallest ac roo Reginald weighed 2.75 lbs at 9 week old. My 2 best ac are at the chicken vet getting decrowing surgery. Such is the price if one wants to breed in the urban city sprawl.

Why did you decide on heritage barred rock roos for meat holm25?

Ralphie- that's a lotta roos and cx, and turkeys. I'm still researching turkeys, if I'm doing it in the spring or not.

We need to process 5-6 muscovy ducks in 2-3 weeks. The new roos I picked up with 4 more scovies had roundworms, so they just got done being treated. Which is one reason freezer camp is 2-3 weeks away, the other is... I can't sex muscovy ducks yet. They're butcher size/weight. And the 4 I just got, 2 are chocolates. I want to use a chocolate drake to have sex linked ducklings in the spring so I don't continue to play are you a girl or boy for months.

I never really had any feedback on the decrowing procedure. Did it work? Details please.

 

[CoHomestead]

Hi All,

Lots to catch up on. We moved from Texas to Colorado just before I got the chicks, and our household goods arrived last week. Hubby came from Texas, he's active Army, last Friday. Been super busy and reintegrating. The babies are a month old today and doing great. We moved them out of the garage and into the coop on Monday, but they don't have full run of the coop yet. I haven't weighed any of the girls, but all are growing steadily. My second batch of chicks is set to ship on Monday and I'm so excited for more fluffy butts

Much bigger than the layer chicks