We bought 6 cornish rocks, 2 leghorns and 2 pullets (unsure of kind) from Tractor Supply. I have lots of questions, but I'll start with these: 1.) I've read that cornish rocks die young. Should we butcher them at a certain age/weight to be sure they just don't die on us? 2.) The chicks are now about 5 weeks old. They are way too big for the tub we have them in. We are building a coop (out of our carport) that is about 14 x 14 with roost and nesting boxes. Are they too little to go into the coop right now? 3.) If we got a straight run of 25 chickens (we want Black Australorps) and we got a bunch of males - what do you do with all the roosters? Can you have too many? Do they need to be separated? THANK YOU!!!!
Hello and welcome to BYC I've never raised meat birds, so I can't tell you anything about them, except they do grow way too quick. Why don't you have a look here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/21/meat-birds-etc If you want to put them outside I think you should supply some kind of heat for them, unless they are fully feathered and used to cooler temps. Have you been weaning them off the heat slowly? It's better to let them get used to being colder gradually. I start by putting mine outside during the day only and eventually let them sleep in the coop as well. With the meaties, I think it's different. You'll have to check the meaties section I linked for you. Straight run chicks can turn out to be 1 roo and 24 hens or 50/50 or 2 hens and 23 roosters. And anything in-between. So you will have to get rid of some roosters. Some people raise them to maturity and process them, others rehome them. Ideally you should keep 1 roo to 10-15 hens. So if you have more than 2 roosters from the 25 you should pick no more than 2 and get rid of the rest. Or... order 1 or 2 roosters and ask that the rest be pullets.
Go to the "Raising backyard chickens" forum and check out the 'Meat breeds ETC' section for advise on your cornish X. They can go into the new coop, but will probably continue to need supplemental heat depending upon your ambient temps. The excess male Australorps could be killed for fryers or raised longer for broilers/roasters - tasty, but not as tender as the commercial meat varieties. Welcome to BYC, and enjoy your new flock.
Greetings from Kansas, CloverChick, and ! Great to have you in our community! Looks like sumi and sourland have you covered so I'll just say best of luck and enjoy!!
