First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JRNash]

I tried to get MORE information on welps slow broilers. All they would say is that it is a proprietary strain developed by welp in the 50s and 60s.
They are starting to get the "broiler look" from what I've read they take a couple of weeks longer to reach processes weight than the CX. I'm thinking they have missed their mark by a WIDE margin. We will know the answer when they reach 12weeks.
One of the most notable characteristics of CX broilers IMO is the size of the chicks legs,and the width they display from day one. The welp slow broilers didn't have these characteristics at first. They are starting to show now,the legs have suddenly thickened and some are displaying some nice width. I have also noted the roosters are very aggressive. They will (try) to stand up to Big Boy,ruffling their neck feathers like a game chicken. I'm intensely interested to see how this breed turns out.

 

[JRNash]

After a bunch of searching all I could find were references to a slow CX broiler strain.

 

[JRNash]

They are three days from being 4weeks old. Out of 25 straight run chicks it looks like I ended up with 11 roosters. All of which will be goi.g to freezer camp at aprox. 12 wks.

 

[JRNash]

the males got a yellow mark on their right wing as I was clipping their wings. Females got the left wing clipped

 

[JRNash]

Next week Im buying a scale so I can start checking weight gains

 

[JRNash]

I did a search here on BYC for welp slow broilers. I came across a thread where a member had posted 2nd generation birds. They don't breed true,the offspring IMO looked alot like Delawares.

 

[Double Kindness]

The beekeeping class at my house this past Saturday was so awesome! Both my hives had died and last weekend my remaining hive got robbed in front of my eyes by msurauding bees!! Thankfully due to social media and me posting about my little urban farm for over a year has brought me new friends and mentors. Which is how I got my new bees!! I'm pretty stoked!
These are my remaining cx broilers and misc breed roosters from Mt Healthy at 2.5 weeks old taken Saturday

 

[JRNash]

That's good news on the bees. Any idea.what type of bee.was raiding? My only foray into honey bees was brought to a halt by fire ants.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

That's good news on the bees. Any idea.what type of bee.was raiding? My only foray into honey bees was brought to a halt by fire ants.

I keep going back and forth in my head on whether to start keeping bees - I have a lot of wild bees (honey, mason, and others) all over my property, so I hesitate to add more population pressure until I get my orchard started to keep them fed...

How do the CXs sleep at night in the tractors? I ask because my New Hampshires and Naked Necks (about 6 weeks old) still prefer to sleep in a big chick pile. They have started making a real racket at bedtime, so tonight I went to watch them to see what was up. All 23 of them (big boys and girls, at that) were smooshed into their dust bath to sleep, and they were pushing and shoving to get comfortable (with some crowd surfing over the top). I gave them a second sand bin thinking they'd appreciate more room. They weren't interested - they seemed determined to squeeze themselves into the smallest possible area. (For reference, highs are mid-80s, lows are low 60s. It was over 80F when they started piling up... Not cold.)

There are 23 chickens in here!





- Ant Farm

 

[JRNash]

Ant farm the 8 juveniles I have all try to crowd on 4 cinderblocks.They are around 14 weeks old. It's funny to watch. They are steadily knocking each other down. I've put up perches but they have chosen the blocks for some reason