MEAT BIRD'S " TELL US HOW YOU DO IT"

[chickenmama22]

caponizing a cornish x will produce you a big bird in a short time with the most juiciest self basting chicken you can find. the bird will turn out so good the next time you order you will want all males. you got my mouth watering.

I already have all male CX. Hmm, maybe I'll have to caponize 8 of them. When do you process a CX capon?

 

[Celie]

the cornish x produce a lot of body heat. so they will be fine. it is not all important to use medicated feed. i am sure i will get a rash of complaints from this comment. if you are using fermented feed and apple cider vinegar this will create an environment within the bird that is not comfortable for parasites to thrive. i never medicate. if i wanted medication in my food, i would buy a store bought chicken. high protein feed is made to copy broiler house operations. it is very hard on the birds making the organs work harder. the birds in fact will grow faster and can be brought to slaughter earlier but at what expense. the bird will not be healthy. you will lose birds from broken bones and organ failure.
i have never lost a bird and not known why until today. i contribute to the lasts week high protein feed.trail. it was my biggest bird and i just found him dead under a tree.it was very disappointing to me. life goes on. i will not do that again. all this will be posted in my weekly update

bruce

The little buggers have been in the barn for 2 days now. They will be getting FF tomorrow, when I get around to putting new ends on their 6 foot gutter feeder. They have been on ACV since the second day. Tomorrow they will be 2 weeks.Some of the 3 to 4 week old layers are larger, but I expect that to change as the CornishXRocks grow. I have 70 layers ready for a friend ho is on a hunting trip until next week. The pen looks empty with 120 little roaches running around, but when these birds start to grow they seem to get big overnight. I had a rabbit cage moving day today,so we could clean out the rabbit barn and pressurewash the dander off the walls tomorrow, but I will weigh them the first chance I get. I will start the meaties on FF tomorrow. I feed them for 12 hours and then no food for the next 12 hours, That way I do not have heart or leg problems. As soon as I get my crazy camera to upload right I will post pics and also pics of my 4 one year olds. The 3 hens are not laying yet. Still in molt, so AI experiment will have to wait a while longer. I would love to get some light Cornish hens and put a White Rock rooster over them and see what turns out! I might have to back mate a few times or put a Light Cornish roo over white rock hens and cross the results of these 2 groups and then back breed? Hate to have to keep buying instead of hatching, but who knows?

 

[Celie]

caponizing a cornish x will produce you a big bird in a short time with the most juiciest self basting chicken you can find. the bird will turn out so good the next time you order you will want all males. you got my mouth watering.

I have thought about caponizing my young roosters for a long time now, but I am squeamish that I would mess up and the poor thing would suffer if I botched it up and die in agony! If I knew someone who could show me how to do it, I might try. But until that day, it's plain old roosters stew for me.

 

[bruceh]

week 8 update:
all the birds are healthy and gaining much ground. i spoke to the hatchery this week to ask about these birds. this hatchery uses a slow growing strain. which i am ok with but not use to. i did lose 1 more bird due to a smothering while they were being switched back over to the fermented feed. the feed formula i have come up with is working wonders. all of my birds love the new feed ration. i must say the birds are shiny and healthy. the droppings from the birds are back to being formed with much less smell. water intake is 1/3 of what it was. so needless to say i am pleased. birds weigh around 4 lbs. 1 lb behind the hatchery guidelines.

being the fact i switched the feeding program. i will have to give 2 different costs and feed , i will post in edit tomorrow. 10-26-12

 

[bruceh]

The little buggers have been in the barn for 2 days now. They will be getting FF tomorrow, when I get around to putting new ends on their 6 foot gutter feeder. They have been on ACV since the second day. Tomorrow they will be 2 weeks.Some of the 3 to 4 week old layers are larger, but I expect that to change as the CornishXRocks grow. I have 70 layers ready for a friend ho is on a hunting trip until next week. The pen looks empty with 120 little roaches running around, but when these birds start to grow they seem to get big overnight. I had a rabbit cage moving day today,so we could clean out the rabbit barn and pressurewash the dander off the walls tomorrow, but I will weigh them the first chance I get. I will start the meaties on FF tomorrow. I feed them for 12 hours and then no food for the next 12 hours, That way I do not have heart or leg problems. As soon as I get my crazy camera to upload right I will post pics and also pics of my 4 one year olds. The 3 hens are not laying yet. Still in molt, so AI experiment will have to wait a while longer. I would love to get some light Cornish hens and put a White Rock rooster over them and see what turns out! I might have to back mate a few times or put a Light Cornish roo over white rock hens and cross the results of these 2 groups and then back breed? Hate to have to keep buying instead of hatching, but who knows?

i hope you did not get the slow growing strain. my gosh they are slow slow slow. they are a short bird with little legs. it takes some adjusting . i have been raising the bigger strain until this batch. they look like dwarfs compared to the lager strain.
if you are not sure about caponizing don't do it, . the bird can suffer badly . if you remove the kidney instead of the testicles the bird will die, also the bird can die of infection. i have never caponized a bird. i know how to caponize but never did it by myself .

 

[chickenmama22]

i hope you did not get the slow growing strain. my gosh they are slow slow slow. they are a short bird with little legs. it takes some adjusting . i have been raising the bigger strain until this batch. they look like dwarfs compared to the lager strain.

Have you ever seen this website/hatchery for Morris Hatchery? http://morrishatchery.com/
They list 3 different types of broilers with descriptions of their growth and uses. I found it interesting. They have Cobb 500, Ross 308 and Hubbard broilers. You probably know about them already, but I always thought all the Cornish Crosses were basically the same.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bruceh
if you are not sure about caponizing don't do it, . the bird can suffer badly . if you remove the kidney instead of the testicles the bird will die, also the bird can die of infection. i have never caponized a bird. i know how to caponize but never did it by myself .

I was more "grossed out" by the concept of removing a rooster's spurs than by caponizing.

I am hoping the capon meat is worth the effort, because culling a cockerel for 2 lbs worth of meat and bone doesn't seem worthwhile.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

My CX cost me less than $5 to raise, so, no worries there. Just need to find acceptable, healthy ways to cut feed costs while still turning out a bird that finishes out good. I've done it on two different batches now and it isn't too hard. And the birds have a great life while they are here...can't beat that with a stick!

We r raising our first batch of Cornish Crosses, they are 5 weeks old and looking very good, we have not lost any at this point. Bee I will gladly take any suggestions.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

dang bee that's really good. $5.00 to raise. i just adapted your fermented feed method. so far so good. 32 chicks at 2 weeks and have not used 40lbs of feed yet. so it works just fine. today they actually needed more feed than yesterday. 1/2 way feathered in. growing in leaps and bounds. next week they get out of the brooder on to grass. yes they will be free ranged as well as ff feed.tomorrow i will post all.

today was bag and tag the freedom rangers, tomorrow is chicken soup day with some older roosters i slaughtered..

my processor told me today he was going to change my price on the processing. i thought he was going to give me a break in price. well he tried to break my something else
( and it is not my wallet and it rhymes with halls ) . he comes and says with a smile i am going to charge $ 6.50 a bird.

i said it was nice doing business with you. i don't think so. what the heck $ 6.50 a bird. so i am building a plucker or back to the 2 hand method.

when i processed with the butcher i did most of the work anyhow. i am still in shock.

i would not pay $ 6.50 to have someone butcher a true french bresse..

Bruce I am with you on that I know it is a lot of work but I would hire myself out for that price.

 

[lbrtyldy]

We have raised freedom rangers for 3 years and have been happy with them. This year, processed 50 birds at 11 weeks and they were about 5 lb give or take. Last summer we were able to free range them from about 6 weeks, but was too nervous to do so this year due to Mr. Hawk.

Have been using a chicken tractor which has been a royal pain in the neck. It was way too big and heavy to move easily and was always a challenge not to run any of the little guys over while moving it.

I love them on fresh grass, but changing our methods in 2013. We are still going to use the tractor but putting it on a platform (that a friend gave us and they can dive under if the hawk comes around) and putting fencing around it and hopefully letting them free range when they're big enough.

They get organic grain and lots of lettuce, bread, etc.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

I plan on setting up my chicken tractors so I can use my tractor to move them, I have a tendency to over due things