Hatching Meat Bird Eggs

[ghulst]

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Where does the 2 lbs for 7 meat birds come from. I haven't met anyone that knew before do you breed meaties in NZ? Please let me know about the information you have. I have been worried about them not laying if their feed was cut back too far. It is only with the Cornish that we have foot problems the Freedom Rangers are Free of problems. I was wondering if part of the foot problems could be, because they are breeding the Cornish X's here with such thin skin anymore.

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All they call them is Le Poulet tri-color. It is J.M Hatchery's fancy way of saying ' the tri-color chicken' in french. http://www.jmhatchery.com/free-range-broiler/colored-range-chicks/prod_5.html

I think both Sugar and Honey are beautiful and we did keep Honey because of his wonderful markings.

I'm in Zeeland Michigan not new zeeland.Zeelan was the chick capital of the world years ago. The Zeeland Highschool are called the chix.
All hens need only .25 lbs of feed a day to produce eggs good.Most will eat much more.I do know that cornishx breeders are very limited fed. The cocks and hens are fed a different ration.You can view it on YouTube.

 

[growinupinfl]

I am sorry about that misunderstanding. Hmmm.. I will have to see hwo cutting their feed bacck works. If all hens only need .25 lb of feed, how come people have the misconception about them needing more food?

Christal

 

[mama dixie]

are you thinking of selling any of the cornish cross hatching eggs. I would be very interested we have some broodies and I want a good meat bird line. they would have a loving home and it would be cool to see what they turn out like....

 

[ghulst]

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Because they feel if the feeder is empty that the birds need more or are starving.Most people on here never farmed for a living.Most small stock,chickens,rabbits,pigeons are over fed.I have obsurved that many times over the years.
Gary

 

[growinupinfl]

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I might let me see how this turns out for this hatch. If it turns out well I will most likely sell some. But some of the eggs might be freedom ranger/ cornish x and I'm not sure how they will turn out but I think they should make some decent meat birds.

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It is not the empty feeder that worries me, If empty feeders worried me I would have ulcers by now

. I have been thinking about what you said about cutting down feed to .25 lb, but after careful consideration I don't think I'm going to, here is the reasons for my conclusion the average chicken weighs much less than my Meaties. The logic being that Leghorns were developed for the low feed high egg out put even more so than other Standards. That means there is a feed difference that has been recognized in the creation of different breeds. Even with humans there is a basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day with minimal movement. This BMR varies with weight, age etc, here is an example. Based on a nutrition course I took, I learned how to figure this BMR out, it works out that a 200 pound male that is 20 yrs requires about 2000 calories for his basic metabolic functions before movement, whereas a 80 pound male 20 yrs old ( I know he would have some issues in human world!) would only require around 1300 calories a day for basic functioning. The 200 pound vs 80 pound difference is the same percentage of a 10 pound Cornish cross hen vs a 4 pound leghorn hen. That is why I don't think I should feed my 10-12 pound meat hens the same amount of food recommended for most breeds, they are not the same size as most breeds. My hens on average out weigh most Large fowl Roosters, not to mention my roo's that are topping scales at 14 pounds. Plus the hens have a nutrition requirement greater of than that of roosters of the same size in order to produce eggs. Then if you add in the fact they run around almost an acre of land and have a much higher energy out put than most meat birds ever do. I wish I could find out what the Basal Metabolic Rate per a pound was average for chickens then I could figure out an exact amount of feed they would be required. But alas I have yet to stumble upon that information

. I can tell you they are consuming less than a 1/2 pound of food a day though. On that same acre eating the same food is a couple of ducks who really enjoy the pond and feed, and 3 juvenile turkeys. So that is 4 pounds of feed that feeds 12 different animals. If it is divided equally it would be about a third of a pound per an animal. Do I think it is evenly divided, heck if I know.

It very well may be closer to your estimate, but unlike birds that survive off of souly chicken feed they also eat bugs.. Large amount of big nasty Florida Palmetto bugs, also known as giant nasty cockroaches that freak me out.

No that is not me but illustrates ,my point. Those nasties hide in trees, and leaves, and any dark damp area you can find more than you like. These lovely meaties spend a large majority of their day digging up leaves, tearing apart a decaying tree, and looking under stuff for these things that seem to be a delicacy to them and keeps those creepy things from my house!

That being said, if you were to raise them in a traditional coup and feed them only traditional chicken feed I would tell anyone to air on the side of caution and feed them the 1/2 lb and then if they want they can start slowly cutting back on feed to figure out what they need exactly. I think it may be around the 1/3 of pound mark personally.

Anyhow Gary if you know anyone who does raise meat birds for breeding purposes it would be interesting to know what they feed them.

In speaking with a friend of mine who does the biology thing she pointed out something with the bumble foot epidemic I am now fighting. One that staph bumble foot can spread in any flock because of the contagious factor of staph which is very high, and I also had zero knowledge of this ailment before this outbreak and had no idea of how to control it or anything. Meat chickens have been bred to have tender meat, which means softer tissue in general which would include the skin on their feet, they also a very disproportionate weight on their feet compared to other chickens, when combined with tender skin means they are just prone to foot lesions. We have decided that if I am going to keep the meaties as for as long as possible I will most likely keep their feet in "sneakers" as we now call them. Which is a thin wrap of vet wrap that will just help them from getting as many pokes to the feet that normal Chickens can easily withstand. Especially until everyone has been staph free for a while, we will change them out at a minimum twice a week.

It is defiantly interesting raising free range Cornish crosses!

For anyone who wants to know out of the 18 I started incubating on 12/30 it looks like about a dozen are still viable and about 15 showed development and three turned into blood rings. So we shall see.

Punk-A-Doodle My daughter wore one of Honey's feathers to school in her hair even some guys were mentioning how cool and neat looking it was! I told her I better not find a bald Honey out there!

Christal

 

[soap&eggs]

very interesting read & info. .. i had one cornish x hen...excape butchering day...and was given the well deserved new name of LUCKY !!! she runs with free ranging flock, outweighing all others by ..ALOT !!! not sure of actual weight of her but i grunt & groan few times ive picked her up..... Roosters in flock are different colored standard cochins..altho 2 themselves are more of a giant rather then standard size..... incubator has a few of her marked - fertile eggs..just candled last night....am excited to see outcome. not due to hatch until 23 of jan. fingers crossed !!!

 

[growinupinfl]

Ok they Meaties are defiantly nuggets. At hatching they weighed an average of 45-50 grams. The Swedish Flowers that hatched at the same time were about 30-35 grams. This batch hatched February 9-10. I weighed them again this morning, the Swedish Flower Hen is 89-93 grams, the Nuggets are 205-215! We are having about 80% hatch rate, I'm going to declare this a success!

Growinupinfl

 

[growinupinfl]

I was finally talked into it.. Meat Bird eggs are up for sale on the sale page.. If any of ya'll want some. Funny little nuggets..

In a few more weeks my freezers gonna be FULL!! Buy some eggs and yours will be TOO!

 

[eggbuster]

I feed my meaty breeders the same as my other chickens. They have to compete with 5 ducks, 5 geese 4 turkeys (2 -2yr. old BBW turkey hens every bit as nice as Cx chickens) and about 50 other chickens. They do quite well. As stated, bumble foot is the biggest problem after a year.