Help! Cornish Cross!!

[Nomadicus]

I just kept feeders filled for mine and let them eat for 12 hours after the 2nd week. How much they ate I don't know as I didn't keep track of the feed consumed. I had a pen of 25 and when a 50 lb bag of 18% was over half gone I would just buy another one. At the normal butchering age I switched them to layer feed and give just enough to maintain them and they get to free range during the day.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How much feed per chick per day?

How much do they waste? Different feeding methods can have a different amount of waste which would affect your measurements.

Another thought. Even among Cornish X you can have food hogs and bullies. If you are going to offer specific amounts per chicken you need to be sure all can eat at the same time. You need to put out a measured amount with feeders they can all eat at the same time when they are all hungry. They need to be able to clean it all up so there is none left. Then do this again throughout the day until they have all had their ration. Otherwise the bullies will eat their own portion and part of someone else's. It's how the commercial operations do it, both egg laying and meat.

 

[cmobley]

How much do they waste? Different feeding methods can have a different amount of waste which would affect your measurements.

Another thought. Even among Cornish X you can have food hogs and bullies. If you are going to offer specific amounts per chicken you need to be sure all can eat at the same time. You need to put out a measured amount with feeders they can all eat at the same time when they are all hungry. They need to be able to clean it all up so there is none left. Then do this again throughout the day until they have all had their ration. Otherwise the bullies will eat their own portion and part of someone else's. It's how the commercial operations do it, both egg laying and meat.

If mine ever scraped out the feeder and made a pile in the grass I’d pull the feeders and make em eat that until it was gone. Luckily it didn’t take much convincing because I raised mine in the fall and they wanted that body to keep warm at night.