Got my first meat birds!!! (PIC heavy!!!)

[hydroswiftrob]

Yes. These are CornishX

Here they are at two weeks old. They are going like weeds.

I am not keeping track of cost. I honestly don't want to know. We are feeding them meal worms every time we walk by and those things are not cheap!

 

[xC0000005]

Wow. I was told mine were at least a week old, but yours would eat mine for snacks - so many more feathers (I am starting to suspect that my week old meaties might have been 3-4 day old meaties). If that's what I have to look forward to, good.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

More meat chickens.

 

[cackler]

We bought 15 cornish rocks at TSC last week and these are the first meat birds that we have gotten. I am trying to figure out when is the best time for them to come out from under the brooder light. They are obviously ahead of the little pullets that we got at the same time but I don't know when to put them in the coop with the rest of the adults & a bright light. They would be separated from the adults with a fence.

 

[hydroswiftrob]

I think I am going to put mine out in the tractor at 3 1/2 weeks - 4 weeks old. I have pretty much taken all the heat off of them at 2 weeks. They are in my garage and it is plenty warm in there. If I notice them huddling, I turn on the light for them.

Again though, I am babying mine. I am feeding them whatever they want whenever they want, and after dealing with them and pullets of the same age, I would rather keep the meaties and dispatch the pullets. The cornish are such big babies. They greet us every time we come out in the garage. The pullets act like maniacs and will not even come close to us.

 

[hydroswiftrob]

3 weeks old today and I couldn't be more pleased. These creatures are a lot easier to care for than I had imagined. Just feed them, water them, and scrape up poop. They got to smelling the garage up way too much, so they found their way out to the pen a few days earlier than planned. I can't wait for the 8 weeks to be up so we can dig in and eat.

 

[xC0000005]

Look at those legs! Going to be some delicious eating there.

 

[hydroswiftrob]

We had a creature make his way into the cage and have himself a chicken dinner last night. I lost one meat bird and one pullet. They have gone back in the garage until I can further predator proof the pen.

 

[ThePigeonKid]

 

[hydroswiftrob]

I have finished creature proofing my pen and they have been doing great in it. We think it was our friendly local neighborhood owl who has swooped in on my dog a few times. Here are some pics of them 1 day before they are 4 weeks old and some are exactly 1 week behind them in the pictures. You can really tell how much they grow in one week.

The top is on hinges and folds back out of the way for cleaning and feeding.







Below is a 4 week old Cornish X, 3 week old Cornish X, and a 4 week old layer pullet.