Have many cornish have you raised???? Currently I have two freezers - possibly three which need to be cleaned out and filled with yummies <3 Was wondering how many you have raised: 1, 5, 25, 100??? at once? And how was it and the cost and what not? The most I ever raised were 2 - RIP (Mmmm... tasty) and wanted to try raising more this year. I've raised hundreds of chicks last year, just none for eating (surprisingly they all went to good homes, except for about 100 of them which still haunt me LOL) I would LOVE to raise 100 this year, but am thinking more on 25-50 instead. Though 100 WOULD BE SO FUN!!!
I've only raised 25 at a time, hadn't had the space for more till now, I've got 29 red broilers now, but I will do some cornish again. Probably go with 100 this time, and some more red broilers, I like em.
I started w/ 25 first batch, 45 second batch, 75 third batch, and this year I'm going to do 100-125 per batch. I think a progressive increase is the way to go. If I had started w/ 100, I would have likely had massive losses.
A couple years ago I raised 50 in one batch. I soon learned how hard it is to process that many on the weekend I picked. So I am back to 2 batches of 25 to break up the processing a little. (even if I took them to the locker for processing, spreading out the cost over a couple different months is appealing.
I have done 25, 50 100 and 300. 300 I don't think I'll ever do again as long as I'm also working full time. Before work and come home from a 12 hour shift and have to deal with them, no thanks. Also the processing, just way too much, too long even with the right help. 100 is nice for me for us and family but one batch of them I'd have nothing to sell, many batches like that and it's work all summer rather than getting it all done in the same 7 weeks. It's hard to know really. If I had bad weather for a large batch again so I had to keep them indoors like one year with 150 I think I'd do them all as game hen size rather than keep them for the extra 3 weeks. Wow that was way too much work to have them indoors, and I was not happy with the losses and product in the end either.
I would love to see all the pens at poly face farms. They raise 20,000 a year and I'm not sure how many batches but still it would be a lot of pens Grant
The reason I'm asking is because I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to raise 100, but I'm unsure. I know I have a lot of space... lol but I'd like them in tractors I don't think it'd hurt them to free range with my pet cow... but god, can you imagine? I have to go out and gather 100 birds by night fall I don't mind cleaning them, I think it's fun, but I'd like to freeze them for my freezer for the year (wow). 300 sounds like a lot. I'm wanting 100, because it just gets a lot cheaper then lol I'm really wanting to raise some cornish hens though - I heard they lay double yolkers
