Problems with cornish cross pullets

[amyburemt]

I ordered some chicks from my local farm store and they sent me cornish cross chicks by mistake. I also have a wide variety of other breeds and ended up with cornish cross chicks, jersey giant chicks, and lavendar orpingtons with this delivery. I was supposed to have red rangers instead of cornish cross. My problem is that the cornish cross have grown rapidly, pretty much dwarfing my other chicks and i have ended up with some vent pecking. i'm not sure which of the 2 breeds is actually inititating the vent pecking but the injuries have all happened to the cornish cross pullets. (they are 3 weeks old and huge). so the farm store basically told me to keep these and they would order me my correct chicks. The problem is i don't know what i am dealing with as far as what protein percentage of feed do these guys need since they grow so fast and how to stop the vent pecking. Today, I put half of them out on my field with a protective box that they can run into if need be. i was going to give them a day or so to associate with the box, then put the others out there. this week is the first week we have not had super cold weather at night. so i guess my questions are these:
1. do these birds actually need a lower protein feed to slow growth down?
2. If i am ranging them should i even give them any supplemental feed or should i just occasionally throw out some scratch or corn to them?
3. any advice if the vent picking continues to happen with them out on pasture?
4. are jersey giants prone to vent picking?
5. if i slow down the cornish cross growth rate, at what weight should i process them?
thanks for your help, i was not happy that i received them by mistake lol as i have never researched this breed.

 

[potatoesgonnapotate]

I have 5 Cornish crosses. I haven't experienced any pecking issues with them, but they are isolated from my 9 week old future egg layers. I have them on grass, and I give them about 2-3 cups of 22% protein meatbird crumbles per day. They usually don't empty their feeder. I give them access to food 12 hours per day, and take it away for the next 12 hours so they don't overeat. I do have them on grass as well and I move the kennel/tractor they're in every other day. They do drink lots of water, so make sure they have access to plenty of clean water through the day.

Edit to add: I've now begun mixing 18% food with the 22% food. One of my birds died yesterday as a result of CHF and ascites (I suspect liver failure due to too much protein, overfeeding, and not enough activity). I'm also reducing the time they have food available to about 6 hours for now, and I may up it to 8 if they continue to do ok. My other 4 are still alive and seem to be doing ok. I'm still learning as well, and until yesterday I thought I was doing everything ok.

 

[FirstTimeFarmGirlTX]

Cornish Cross are ready to go out on grass at 3 to 4 weeks and you slaughter at 9 weeks of age. They should be on average 4.5 lbs (once slaughtered). You want to keep feeding them a higher protein feed. Your feed store should carry a broiler/grower feed.

These bird need to be feed chicken feed, you can help them stay active and healthy by not feeding them at night.

I have no advice or knowledge at vent pecking. Mine have not done that.

 

[JDN]

Interesting...My Cornish X's were mostly docile. The only "problem" I had was them waddling in to feed or water and pushing the others out of the way.

After butchering them, I actually miss their peacekeeping properties. Whenever there was discord, one would run to one of the fatties (what we called them) and the fattie would flare up at the "attacker" and since it was so big, the attack would settle them.

 

[FirstTimeFarmGirlTX]

I have 5 Cornish crosses. I haven't experienced any pecking issues with them, but they are isolated from my 9 week old future egg layers. I have them on grass, and I give them about 2-3 cups of 22% protein meatbird crumbles per day. They usually don't empty their feeder. I give them access to food 12 hours per day, and take it away for the next 12 hours so they don't overeat. I do have them on grass as well and I move the kennel/tractor they're in every other day. They do drink lots of water, so make sure they have access to plenty of clean water through the day.

Edit to add: I've now begun mixing 18% food with the 22% food. One of my birds died yesterday as a result of CHF and ascites (I suspect liver failure due to too much protein, overfeeding, and not enough activity). I'm also reducing the time they have food available to about 6 hours for now, and I may up it to 8 if they continue to do ok. My other 4 are still alive and seem to be doing ok. I'm still learning as well, and until yesterday I thought I was doing everything ok.

How's it going? Are they doing better?

 

[potatoesgonnapotate]

How's it going? Are they doing better?

Yes, things are so much better! My 4 birds are right around 5 lbs (4 lb 10 oz x2, 4 lb 11 oz, and 5 lb 4 oz), and everyone is quite healthy. I give them 30 minutes of food in the morning before work, then they get about 4 hours of food in the evenings. They are still moving around (though they prefer to laze about), but they're grazing well. They drink lots of water, and their sneezing has definitely slowed down. I'm very happy I was able to turn these guys around and quickly learn how to reduce issues. This batch of 4 will be slaughtered on May 1st, so I hope they gain a little more weight before then. As long as they're healthy though, I'm ok with slightly smaller birds.