first try at cornish x

[Oregon Blues]

Cornish Cross don't get good feather coverage, so I suspect you will have to provide heat if you want to raise them in the winter.

If you are raising them in stalls, look up how to build a brooder hood. The birds go under and you aren't paying to heat the entire barn. I think I've seen them called a hover. That's the way chicks used to be raised.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Are there going to be any other animals living in the barn with the meaties?

I have been in old empty barns in WI during the winter and they can get pretty cold in there. I have also been in old barns like you are describing when they have horses or cows in them and those are nice and toasty - darn near t-shirt weather - but then they also have a high humidity because of the moisture given off by the animals.

My advice would be to either try just a few and see if they can take your set-up or wait till spring.

 

[jessicayarno]

I would say wait til spring, if they get too cold, they could pile on top of each other. Were planning on starting the babies in the barn, or in a brooder inside like a garage or spare room? I just processed 31 birds on the 1st of this month and they did fine in the cold with heat lamps, but I didn't put them outside til they were 2wks old, but it was alot warmer then and that was in Oct... Oh and 20# of feed per bird is high.. I feed 25% the first 4wks and 20% the last 4 and keep precise records and they ate close to 16lbs of feed per bird.