Raising Cornish X chicks with other types?

[Nuggetsowner:)]

We have had CC for meat and some for pets.
We feed them twice a day. Once in the am and once in the late afternoon. This helps for two reasons.
#1 - If there is food in the feeder they will eat it. They don't ever seem to get full so they will eat constantly. This is where the leg problems come from. They eat and gain weight faster than their little legs can keep up.
#2 -reason we do this is to control the cost of feed. They still grow very well and we do have them free ranging so they can still eat grass, bugs etc.
We start them on chick starter for 2-3 weeks then change to grower finisher. We butcher at about 8-10 weeks depending on timing. We actually did not have to separate the CC from our layers except the ones we have as pets. Once they got so big the layers started to peck them. So we separated to protect the big guys!

This is just how we do things and it seems to work out for us.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I'm starting to think that the "X" in Cornish X stands for "T-reX"!! If you've never considered the similarities between chickens & dinosaurs, take a good look at some Cornish X!

They're almost 2 weeks old now & the Xs are so much bigger & heavier than the others. They also have this weird thing going with their ears, there aren't any covering feathers, just these creepy bare holes on the sides of their heads.

They're still getting along nicely with their smaller flockmates, not being pushy or rude. I'm putting them all in the baby tractor on grass during the days, but bringing them up on the screened-in patio at nights, into a wire brooder with a heat light. Tonight I'm separating the Xs into their own little box, with water but no feed. I don't want them to overeat and certainly don't want them to continue turning the brooder floor into a solid cake of poop each night.

I'm still not sure I would want a whole flock of these Xs!

 

[blue90292]

at two weeks, i would leave the feed in there for them to finish out. just don't add any more so they'll have cleaned it in the middle of the night some time and be waiting for some more in the morning.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I don't think they will miss having feed overnight. Their bellies are so plump they're bare skin, no fluff. It feels so nasty to pick them up! Poor ugly lil' babes...

 

[L&Schickens]

I had 10 with other chicks and ended up with my broilers having pecked butts. So I have them separated and on antibiotics and am going to keep the separated. They seemed not to even care they were being eaten alive.

They just stood there and let the other chicks peck them.

Sometimes I hate chickens.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

I never separated mine, just let them all live together until week 9. Then I pulled the fatties (cornish x's) out and butchered them. The cornish x's were so docile (lazy) there were no problems at all. The standard breeds liked the cornish x's because the cornish x's would let all the other birds snuggle up to them like a momma hen. lol.

 

[silkiechicken]

With such a small number of total chicks and just 3 cx's you can keep them together if you have enough room. I've done it a few times and butchered at 8/9 weeks for huge birds. With 3 cx's I would anticipate about 40 lbs of feed to go to them alone in 8 weeks.