How many of you FULLY Free Range your Cornish X Meaties? Tractors do not count.

[aoxa]

Our first year we tractored our CX but ended up not caring for that method. They mowed down the grass too fast and moving the tractors was a pain. Now we don't truly free range due to dog and fox issues but have a very large expanse of electric netting and love raising them that way. They are much healthier and happier.

I consider paddocks to be free ranging. So long as they have lots and lots of room and fresh grass. I bet they are much happier that way! I'd hate moving a tractor.

 

[pfoster]

We NOW fully free ranger our cornishx. We too believed 100% from others that you could never free range CX. So we raised 3 batches of 50 in tractors. never really liked that either since they didn't move around much. Our change occured when we processed a friends 12 CX that she had in a net paddock. They looked great (slightly smaller than our CX chicks at the same age) and dressed out with "muscles". We still had 1 batch of 50 in the brooder ready to go out, so we get up a huge area with 2 rolls of poultry net, took the front off of the chicken tractor and moved the 3 week old chicks out. They are currently moved to another new area and are almost 7 weeks old. we are SOOOO pleased we did the free range. They venture around hunting grasshoopers and other treats. They nestle in the tall grass for shade. It's so good to see them be chickens when we were told they wouldn't. We feed them grain 2x day and feed them really far away from the tractor, and we pour the feed directly on the ground in a long line. They are scratch around for more morsels later in the day. They forage the most early morning and evening. The heat of the day seems to get to them. It's great to hear them making their happy chicken sounds. And yes they are comical running/waddling across the field wings flapping when it's feeding time. We did decided to wait an extra week to process, but I really don't see any difference in size than the tractor raised chicks.

 

[aoxa]

We NOW fully free ranger our cornishx. We too believed 100% from others that you could never free range CX. So we raised 3 batches of 50 in tractors. never really liked that either since they didn't move around much. Our change occured when we processed a friends 12 CX that she had in a net paddock. They looked great (slightly smaller than our CX chicks at the same age) and dressed out with "muscles". We still had 1 batch of 50 in the brooder ready to go out, so we get up a huge area with 2 rolls of poultry net, took the front off of the chicken tractor and moved the 3 week old chicks out. They are currently moved to another new area and are almost 7 weeks old. we are SOOOO pleased we did the free range. They venture around hunting grasshoopers and other treats. They nestle in the tall grass for shade. It's so good to see them be chickens when we were told they wouldn't. We feed them grain 2x day and feed them really far away from the tractor, and we pour the feed directly on the ground in a long line. They are scratch around for more morsels later in the day. They forage the most early morning and evening. The heat of the day seems to get to them. It's great to hear them making their happy chicken sounds. And yes they are comical running/waddling across the field wings flapping when it's feeding time. We did decided to wait an extra week to process, but I really don't see any difference in size than the tractor raised chicks.

All the misinformation is confusing. You do it the right way, and you shouldn't have any issues.

I do think they are more aggressive when it comes to feeding time. Often squishing the smaller heritage breeds out of it. I now feed in a long line as you do because feeder space was limited with as many birds as I have right now.

One has some walking issues. Something happened to his toe - it was severed. Time to process him tonight.


Here they are getting their twice daily feeding, along with some adults who I didn't feed at all until recently when I ran out of feeder space. Can't really prevent them from joining in. The skinny white in the picture is not a CX and the one to the far left is a full grown laying hen. You can see some of the CX are bigger than my heritage rocks!


This one is one of the smaller boys with a Penny. They are the exact same age.

 

[Beekissed]

Excellent pics and the birds are all so healthy in appearance and also seem extraordinarily content.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

If I tried to fully free-range my CX's they'd fly away!

So much for these birds being fat, and lazy, and too big to even walk!

 

[aoxa]

I'm trying to keep good picture documentation of the CX week by week. Here they are at week 8: Close ups







Because drinking water from puddles is what free range CX do Actually they still have water stations, but really prefer the 'pond' created by my leaky hose.

 

[aoxa]

One week


Two weeks


Three weeks


Four weeks


Five weeks





Six weeks


Seven weeks


and Eight

These aren't my bigger boys pictured. I have some boys much smaller than others. Probably the smaller ones are the better foragers, not so aggressive at the food line.

 

[Beekissed]

Wonderful pic progression and great pic quality! Put that in their pipe and smoke it! Free range CX being natural birds on good forage and STILL gaining weights, not dying, and not "too lazy to forage anyway".

 

[aoxa]

Wonderful pic progression and great pic quality! Put that in their pipe and smoke it! Free range CX being natural birds on good forage and STILL gaining weights, not dying, and not "too lazy to forage anyway".

They jump right up on the goats' backs to get at the grain I give them to keep them away from me and the birds at their feeding time. I'm surprised the goats haven't squished any of them yet. They get right underfoot.

Furthest foragers I have next to the Buckeyes. I'd say they are equally good. They have invaded my neighbour's yard as well. Love watching them be chickens. I have 23 more that are 1 week old now. Lots of chicken in the freezer for the winter!

 

[aoxa]

Processed 14 birds this weekend. Still have about 15-20 left to do, but got the biggest ones taken care of. Smallest was just under 4 pounds, largest was 5 pounds. Not too bad. They have a lot of breast meat. They are 9 weeks old. Next ones will be done next week. They are all very healthy, so I am not worried about their hearts giving out.

I do find that compared to the heritage roosters I processed in January, they seem to have more blood. That or they just take longer for their heart to stop while butchering. Oh and it was quite the job plucking too. Do they have more feathers? It seems like they do.