First time raising meat chickens--they got BIG!

[Melinda29]

My in laws live across the country and MIL visits once every summer. She wanted to teach us how to butcher chickens this year, so we ordered 15 Cornish Roasters from McMurray Hatchery. They are supposedly slower growing than Cornish X and broilers, and McMurray recommends processing at 12 weeks instead of the typical 8. I even emailed them to double check, and they said yes, 12 weeks will get you a roasting-sized chicken (what I wanted) without the leg and heart problems of Cornish X birds that grow so much faster.

Just to be safe, I took away their feed every night and fed them layer chick feed about 19% protein, instead of the typical 22-24% protein feed. I had read too many horror stories of chickens getting lame and dying of heart attacks, and this was recommended by some of you here for preventing them from getting too big.

They free ranged at first but got too big to get out of the coop door after about 8 weeks. Two died as babies from slipping in the pan of fermented feed and breaking their necks. I scrapped that plan and went with dry food after that. Only 1 more died at about 8 weeks of unknown reasons. The other 12 lived to 12 weeks.

I knew they were really big compared with the layers that we ordered in the same batch, but this was my first time with meat birds and didn't really know. When my MIL saw them for the first time, she laughed out loud and called them turkeys.

We weighed them before and after processing and they averaged....drumroll...12 pounds DRESSED! Their live weight was 15 pounds each! We couldn't even fit them in the bags I had ordered. I am having to buy turkey bags to freeze them in.

Has anyone had this experience with Cornish Roasters before?

 

[fouroaks]

My in laws live across the country and MIL visits once every summer. She wanted to teach us how to butcher chickens this year, so we ordered 15 Cornish Roasters from McMurray Hatchery. They are supposedly slower growing than Cornish X and broilers, and McMurray recommends processing at 12 weeks instead of the typical 8. I even emailed them to double check, and they said yes, 12 weeks will get you a roasting-sized chicken (what I wanted) without the leg and heart problems of Cornish X birds that grow so much faster.

Just to be safe, I took away their feed every night and fed them layer chick feed about 19% protein, instead of the typical 22-24% protein feed. I had read too many horror stories of chickens getting lame and dying of heart attacks, and this was recommended by some of you here for preventing them from getting too big.

They free ranged at first but got too big to get out of the coop door after about 8 weeks. Two died as babies from slipping in the pan of fermented feed and breaking their necks. I scrapped that plan and went with dry food after that. Only 1 more died at about 8 weeks of unknown reasons. The other 12 lived to 12 weeks.

I knew they were really big compared with the layers that we ordered in the same batch, but this was my first time with meat birds and didn't really know. When my MIL saw them for the first time, she laughed out loud and called them turkeys.

We weighed them before and after processing and they averaged....drumroll...12 pounds DRESSED! Their live weight was 15 pounds each! We couldn't even fit them in the bags I had ordered. I am having to buy turkey bags to freeze them in.

Has anyone had this experience with Cornish Roasters before?

Yup ours were the same little turkeys one was 11.25lbs at 91/2 weeks they gained all the weight the last 2 weeks I am going to try something different next year these birds are so dirty they are gross.

 

[vsmenagerie]

I don't give mine feed all day. I feed them fermented feed 2x per day starting at about 3 weeks. It helps eliminate a lot of the laziness and leg issues they can have, in my experience anyway. They still grow great, but tend to not get to be churkeys. The last batch I did, they were cornish x, we processed at 9 and 10 weeks and I had dressed birds of 6-8 lbs. I tractor them and move their pen often so they forage during the day instead of gorging on food. I put their feeders up so they have to stand to eat as well.

Ive had a batch or two go past the 12 week mark and we ended up with birds like yours. They are nice for roasting for a bigger family but yea, a pain to package!