How would you rate my birds size progress?

[RollinWithTheStones]

This is a 4 1/2 week cornish cross. He's next to a 20 oz mustard bottle and is weighing in at 3.2lbs. Should he be more heavy or is right on schedule?

 

[Darin115]

Sounds about right to me. The last couple of weeks they seam to explode in size.
What is your target weight at 8 weeks or at time of slaughter?

Darin

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

Glad to hear he's doing good. I honestly don't know what my target size is, never really thought about it, the hatchery sites said 6-8lbs is normal. I have heard that feeding them cat fish food will pack on some extra weight so I am considering picking up a bag for them for the last 3 weeks. Also they're still on chick food.

 

[bigredfeather]

I have heard that feeding them cat fish food will pack on some extra weight so I am considering picking up a bag for them for the last 3 weeks. Also they're still on chick food.

No need for "catfish food," as they will pack on plenty of weight without it. I don't even want to know what they put in that stuff. As long as your chick feed is not medicated, you can keep using it or switch to a grower feed with a little less protein. They do not need the higher protein feed the last few weeks.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

Okay thanks. The person that told me about the cat fish food was an old time farmer, so maybe he had different practices for whatever type of meat birds he was raising.

 

[Darin115]

I would not use cat fish food. I would continue with the chick starter and move to a broiler feed.
I get my feed from Southern States and finish on Peterson Broiler Feed. They make it for Joe Peterson. I think it is 18% protein. He is a local guy that raises animals for slaughter. They make the feed to his specifications. I have no complains.

The chicks I have now are almost 2 weeks old and I had a bag left from the last batch so they got chick starter for a week and are now on the 18% broiler feed. As long as they continue to do well, that is what they will be on the entire time.

Your chicken looks great.

Darin

 

[big medicine]

Have heard of old game bird breeders adding catfish pellets to their feed, I believe the theory is to up the animal based protein. I would guess the catfish chow is formulated for human consumption of the catfish, so I doubt there would anything in it that would be detrimental to feeding to broilers, with the possible exception of a fishy taste if it is fish based. I suppose you could chew on a couple pellets to test them out first.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

LOL maybe.

I would like to find a way to stretch the feed bill so I'm thinking of mixing some flock raiser, scratch grains and cracked corn. Maybe I'll do a bit more research and see about the cat fish pellets. I emailed the person who originally told me and they mix them together with flock raiser and layena(for their egg birds in the winter).

 

[bigredfeather]

LOL maybe.

I would like to find a way to stretch the feed bill so I'm thinking of mixing some flock raiser, scratch grains and cracked corn.

Instead of mixing this in that, just get a bag of grower instead of another bag of starter. By adding all this other stuff, you're lowering the protein of the starter, but in the process you're also throwing off the amino acid balance, which will effect the rate of growth. By the time you buy all this other stuff to add, you could buy a bag of what you need and it will be balanced.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

So there isn't really a way to stretch the feed bill? Here in COL. the starter and grower are the same price.