Hello from Western NC

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC!
We are glad you joined our flock!

This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

Coop Ideas:
Chicken Coops
There are a couple of links in my signature that are worth the short read.
BYC has an APP

 

[Duckymark]

View attachment 1552005 Awesome that you're getting back into chickens... I guess for both eggs and meat? I've heard that CX grow super fast and may encounter problems as a result, and also have a tendency to get picked on by other breeds so some additional care may be needed.

This site has been really helpful for me, I continue to research and I'm always learning something new. I just discovered a couple articles on cornish cross if you're interested:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/raising-cornish-x-for-meat-–-the-truth.66015/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/raising-broilers-in-your-backyard.72433/

Congratulations on your partridge hatch and good luck with your new chickens!!
View attachment 1552004

I have the broilers in with the egg birds now. I only leave the feed in with them for 12 hours a day and I make them walk 5 ft between the food and water. The more lively birds seem to encourage the broilers to move around and scratch more then I've seen cornish cross do in the videos I've watched. The C monsters are about 4 times the size of the leghorns already.

 

[rjohns39]

I just introduced my broilers to meal worms... Yea, I threw monsters into the brooder. we'll see how they respond tomorrow. The few who figured out that it was feed were very nonchalant. And just picked it up and walked away.

 

[rjohns39]

That's likely a good plan. When I raised out a heritage bird with a group of CX that pen was way more into foraging and much better tasting.

 

[feathermaid]

I have the broilers in with the egg birds now. I only leave the feed in with them for 12 hours a day and I make them walk 5 ft between the food and water. The more lively birds seem to encourage the broilers to move around and scratch more then I've seen cornish cross do in the videos I've watched. The C monsters are about 4 times the size of the leghorns already.

Hey that's great! I'm a little intimidated by meat birds... and confused. I know their feed should be limited, but the layer birds need to have food available all the time, and require different protein levels and such. So how does that work out when they're raised together? @rjohns39 ?

 

[Duckymark]

Hey that's great! I'm a little intimidated by meat birds... and confused. I know their feed should be limited, but the layer birds need to have food available all the time, and require different protein levels and such. So how does that work out when they're raised together? @rjohns39 ?

I am also curious about how it effects the heritage birds development to be raised with CXs and have feed restricted to 12 hour shifts. I have them started on 24% starter and plan on reducing it down to 22% after 3 weeks and then again to 19% at 6 weeks. I'm attempting to get my CXs out to 10-12 weeks.

 

[rjohns39]

I use 18% start to finish, feed what they can eat in 45 minutes twice a day and move them to fresh grass every day. They average out at about 6 pounds in 8 weeks (3 weeks in the brooder, 35 days on grass). My heritage birds develop just fine on the 18% feed and move into the main flock at 8 weeks.

 

[Duckymark]

I've mainly had game birds so the 24% was left over from my chukars. I bought a bag of meat bird food at 22% before I read up about the meat birds getting too big too fast on high protein so got the 19%. I'm hoping that fast growth early on will not be harmful to the birds. Any left over feed can be scattered for the neighborhood free range bantams or fed to my chukars when I switch protein levels.

 

[Duckymark]

Here are some pictures of my brooder setup with the birds from a few days ago. I have since replaced the layed down lamp with a second dome light. My place tends towards darkness and the cats lay on the top curled around the heat lamp so I added regular light 12 hours a day as well as the ceramic heat emitter 24 hours a day. The lamp is on when they have available food. I'm not worried about the cats stressing the birds. They have all attempted to jump and peck at the cats. The cats are not fans of it. They assume a chick will hurt as much as a full grown bantam rooster and are largely uninterested.

 

[Duckymark]

And my chukars. Their coop has an upstairs with a nightlight and heat lamp. It's getting down into the 40s at night and they aren't quite fully feathered yet. They wouldn't go in it at all until I put the nightlight in. It's raised 16 inches high. Enough for the neighbors free range bantams to eat whatever food the chuckars drop.

The neighbor bought the banties but they are always at my back door crowing for treats. I haven't seen them leave my yard in weeks.