raised our first meat birds.... my experience.

[wjallen05]

I am literally sitting here eating cut-up chicken (one that we raised) with honey mustard lol

Just wanted to share our experience. It is not really negative or positive but I definitely won't be doing it again.

I ordered 10 Cornish/Rock SR chicks from Ideal; they hatched on 1-13-10. Most of them died in the first week or two. (I also ordered 5 Gold SL pullets in the same batch- didn't loose any of them). One made it to about 6-7 weeks then died- it had HUUUUGE legs and could barely walk. Poor thing. We killed the first one about 3 weeks ago. It was a rooster (the only one) and was very big. I cooked it in our rotisserie oven, but forgot that we took the skin off, so it was over cooked, way to chewy and dry, so I fed it to the dogs. My husband was pretty upset and I felt awful about it (atleast the dogs enjoyed it...)

My husband FINALLY killed the second one two nights ago. I cooked it today, in the oven this time. It did turn out good. BUT- the dang thing was, what, 14 weeks old? We have two left that need to be in the freezer... one is the same size as the one my husband processed (probably 8 lbs) the other is tiny (maybe 3 lbs at best). I am tired of feeding them. I got tired of feeding them about 2 months ago. I estimated that I have about $20 invested in each bird.... which is ridiculous.

I'm sure other people have had better experiences, and I sure hope so! But we certainly won't be ordering anymore meat chickens. We did raise up a hog and we've been very much enjoying the fresh pork chops and sausage- THAT was well worth it!

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Most butcher at 6-8 weeks old. I've got some that are 2 weeks old and they are scheduled to meet the freezer on May 22nd. We can always push it back a week if they aren't big enough yet but since they are already walking softballs I don't think we will have to.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Hmm, we are getting our meat chicks this Wednesday, don't scare me! I'm sorry yours didn't turn out well. What were you feeding them, how often, etc?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

So sorry your experience was not so good. Something must have gone wrong. We have raised cornish X's for the last 15 years for 4-H and ourselves and they have been very good. We butcher our meat birds when they reach 8-10lbs which is around 8-10 weeks. They should gain about a lb per week. My DD never had more than $8 per bird in them. She sold her extras for $10 per bird. Meat birds are totally different than standard chickens. Their care, in my opinion, is also different. They need extra protein and vitamins to support their fast growth. They are prone to heart attacks just being stress. They can't handle being hot. I don't know why you lost so many in the beginning. It is common to loose a couple. I do hope you give it another try and let's us folks here help figure out what went wrong. They are really so much better than those (god knows how long they were frozen), birds.

 

[pigfarmer]

I raised the cornish cross last year....................

These things were like Parana. Food was the only thing on their minds.
Dirty birds!!!
Very expensive to raise. Don't know it cost $20 a bird, but was not cheap.

I butchered them myself (vengeance for the cost).
These birds were awesome tasting, much better than store birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This year, I am raising FREEDOM RANGERS meat birds. They are finally outside in the old coop.
These birds will not be as big as the crosses are, and they don't have the leg issues the crosses have.
What's nice about these birds.....they can free range, reducing costs of feed!!!

The Freedom Rangers can also mate, hence eggs and (of coarse) new birds at no additional expense.
The birds are 4 weeks old.

 

[Backyard Farm]

Pig Farmer,
Would really like to know how it goes with the Free Rangers. time until butchering? ... weight at butchering? .... tough vs tender? ...cost per bird? etc. My daughter is considering something like this. Thank you

 

[wjallen05]

well, my husband is a horrible procrastinator- he is the one that wanted to get meat birds and I KNEW this would happen... him putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off.... that is why I have so much money put in them, because they are 3 1/2 months old now! Lord knows when he'll do the other two. And I sure as heck am not going to do it!!

I fed them starter/grower and recently switched to Layer crumbles (I know- weird) but they are in together (and everyone gets along no problems) with the Gold SLs, and that is what they are eating. I feed them as much as they want... which is... a lot. The 5 SLs (same age) and the 3 (now 2) CornishX eat two full scoops a day (like a big horse-feed scoop, you know) which is more than all my hens eat! I feed grass to my hens (they used to free range but I got tired of stepping in poop all day long) and have tried giving it to the CornishX but the stupid things won't eat it (or veggies, or pancakes, etc etc).

 

[smith2]

Quote:
Just a note. All heavy breed, brown egg layers including sex links will eat a lot from about 8 weeks until point of lay. Brown egg layers eat about 2X more food than white egg layers in the same time period according to the poultry department at MS State. So with your big CornishX and the SL's I would guess they are eating a lot. The SL will eat a lot until they start laying and then mine always slack off after that and don't eat near as much. My husband always wonders where all that food goes from 8 weeks to that first egg.

 

[95yj]

maybe you should try a different breed. i have 17 1 week old freedom rangers and they're already scratching the ground looking for food, they're also alot more active than the cx's.

 

[EweSheep]

I love the size of Cornish X Hens, the smaller version of the big brother. Can this be done? I would have guessed around eight weeks of age would give me the Cornish Hen size. Not sure if I can get smaller orders from JM Hatchery. I do not think ten chickens would be too bad for city living.