Maximizing 3 acres

[Ozarkoak]

Pretty much the point I was originally trying to make is if you dedicate 3 acres to nothing but meat birds you can raise enough for a small town. If it were me I would build a 8x8 or 10x10 tractor and raise enough birds for my family to eat and go from there. You will get an idea what its like raising and processing meat birds. Depending on the number of birds you decide on its a good idea to have a second tractor if there are too many for you to process in a single day. Its a good idea to "starve" the birds at least 12 hours preferably 24 hours and you will need a place to put the ones that still need to eat.

 

[raingarden]

Is Cornish X a good choice of breeds? I don't know anything about CX but hear they are bred to consume a lot of feed and grow quickly. If you are going to shovel a lot of feed to them then what the pasture provides will be of little consequence. If the pasture is of little consequence then you might as well grow them in a pen.

 

[NatJ]

Is Cornish X a good choice of breeds? I don't know anything about CX but hear they are bred to consume a lot of feed and grow quickly. If you are going to shovel a lot of feed to them then what the pasture provides will be of little consequence. If the pasture is of little consequence then you might as well grow them in a pen.

Cornish Cross in a moveable pen, on pasture, will eat some grass rather than no grass. It will not make a big difference in the feed bill or the nutrition you get from their meat, but it might make a small difference.

I would expect manure management to be the biggest gain from a portable pen: instead of adding bedding, and removing manure, you move the pen across the grass. So you don't buy bedding, and you don't have to haul manure & bedding out of the pen to put it somewhere. Whether it is less work to move the pen or the manure is a good question, but different people have different preferences here.

 

[Battlepants]

Is Cornish X a good choice of breeds? I don't know anything about CX but hear they are bred to consume a lot of feed and grow quickly. If you are going to shovel a lot of feed to them then what the pasture provides will be of little consequence. If the pasture is of little consequence then you might as well grow them in a pen.

It depends on what you mean by "good." For meat production, they are leaps beyond ANYTHING else on the market, they will bulk up to insane proportions in the matter of 8-10 weeks. This is something that no other breed comes anywhere close.

However, this comes at the cost of being a genetic mess. The breed, if allowed, will eat itself to death. The body will grow so big, so fast that the heart may simply give out under the weight or the legs could break from a poorly handled jump. If you commit to raising Cornish X, you MUST also commit to butchering them on schedule. Allowing them to live much beyond 10 weeks requires extremely careful handling to keep them alive and even then, the quality of life just won't be there.

If you are ok with a lesser productive chicken, I would suggest either the Freedom Rangers or the Bresse. The latter of which, I understand will actually breed true in that you can raise your own offspring that will still be Bresse.

 

[raingarden]

It depends on what you mean by "good." For meat production, they are leaps beyond ANYTHING else on the market, they will bulk up to insane proportions in the matter of 8-10 weeks. This is something that no other breed comes anywhere close.

However, this comes at the cost of being a genetic mess. The breed, if allowed, will eat itself to death. The body will grow so big, so fast that the heart may simply give out under the weight or the legs could break from a poorly handled jump. If you commit to raising Cornish X, you MUST also commit to butchering them on schedule. Allowing them to live much beyond 10 weeks requires extremely careful handling to keep them alive and even then, the quality of life just won't be there.

If you are ok with a lesser productive chicken, I would suggest either the Freedom Rangers or the Bresse. The latter of which, I understand will actually breed true in that you can raise your own offspring that will still be Bresse.

Since OP's 3 acres can accomodate way more CX than anyone would need, do CX make the best use of the resources the 3 acres provides? Would a "lesser" breed be more efficient at producing meat by virtue of their reduced feed consumption, slower growth and more/longer opportunity to forage on the resources? Would the cost per pound of meat or the feed conversion ratio be better with another breed ? I think you are saying that the rapid growth of CX trumps everything else. After thinking about it, I'm sure you are correct. Thank you.