Grit and Cornish Cross, Important

[Oregon Blues]

Chicken luck finally ran out and the boys are all in the freezer.

This is something I noticed while processing and I think it is important:

My few birds that were undersized, including one who was looking a bit purplish in the comb, had no grit in their gizzards. It was very noticeable. I've never processed poultry that didn't have grit in the gizzard, even with food withheld for 24 hours.

My guys were on dirt and most of them had the collect amount of grit in their gizzards. Because all the birds with no grit were under-size, next time I am going to have commercial grit available in multiple places in their pen and might even mix a bit into their food.

 

[what did I do]

The nice thing about free ranging is they can pick their own grit. I think they need more grit than a laying hen.

 

[WinklerFarms]

It depends on what you feed them and if you free range. It also depends on what your property is like if they free range. Some places may not have enough for them. I never give grit and I raise them in my barn in large pens. These pens could easily fit 200 birds in them but I won't do any more than 100. The birds need room to move and get some exercise. If you are feeding crumbles or mash you shouldn't need grit. On the other hand it is cheap (I think it was $5 for a 50 lb bag of cherrystone grit)
and it doesn't hurt them if they don't really needed it. It would be neat to do two groups side by side and give one grit and the other no grit and see who finishes faster.

 

[Oregon Blues]

These birds had access to all the dirt and rock they wanted. The majority of the chickens had the correct grit in their gizzards. All my ducks and geese have no problem with grit. It was just 3 birds (out of 50) who didn't have any grit at all in their gizzards. Absolutely none. Those birds were under-sized.

They didn't get all the pasture that I'd planned because as soon as they were out of their run, the crows killed them. But they did live in a large covered pen on a dirt floor and most of them figured out how to get sufficient grit. At about 7 weeks, they started to have access to a half acre orchard. Still not even a single tiny little rock in the gizzards of 3 of them.

There is possibly a link between the lack of grit and the lack of growth. So i think it is important to make sure that every Cornish Cross is getting grit.