Raising Healthy Cornish Cross Chronicles

[ChickenLegs13]

I get my Cornish chicks at TSC, which is sposed to be the scumhouse of chicken dealerships and I never have any problems with them. I brood mine in wire bottom cages so they're not wallowing around in their own filth all day & night. When they outgrow the brooder I toss them in with the regular chickens but I have large pens so again, they're not wallowing around in their own filth all day & night. They eat 24% starter so they're huge and waddle like ducks by the time they go in with the regular chickens but I don't keep them long enough to have any weight related health issues. They're clean birds, they take dust baths and preen themselves and are as clean & white as new fallen snow.
They can free range with the other chickens but they won't go far enough from the pen door to get any good forage. That's fine with me because I don't want them excercising and getting tough & chewey.
Raising chickens aint rocket science.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Sorry it's been a while! I got busy!

Day 7

On day 7 the chicks moved to a new brooder in my garage. They have a LOT more space now, and their food is even further away than before.



This brooder is about 5.5' by 2' ish (and nightlights as a rabbit cage in it's spare time). The lamp it at one end, the food and water at the other. I come out and refill the food multiple times a day because I find that they eat more this way than if I just let it sit. The bedding is no longer being refreshed daily. I now am doing a partial change only about twice a week, mostly under the heat lamp where they go to sleep and stay warm. I am continuing to provide greens and worms on occasion. Fresh foods are exciting foods which get the chicks moving and eating, both of which are important.

I have switched to a 1 gallon container for fermenting my chick feed. The quart waterer is still sufficient, but I am still changing it daily.

Day 10
By day 10 they are starting to get big and eat a lot. They're still going strong, though and are starting to show some serious feathering out. Hopefully we are on track to have them outdoors by day 30.

I still have the 15 chicks I had on day 2.

We are on day 11 today! Today I will be doing a bedding cleaning and raising the heat lamp a little. It's a nice warm week and things are holding steady.

 

[greenhavenfarm]

ChocolateMouse, I know this is an old thread, but I've read it with interest and appreciate the information you've provided. We've raised Cornish X a few times and I'd like to try your methods to encourage foraging and improve the health of our birds. I'm wondering if you've changed anything in your process for raising Cornish X or have any other tips to add. How/what quantities do you feed the birds when they are outside in their tractors? Thanks!

 

[Erin80]

Oh wow, I didn't realize this was from 2013........hahaha! It was very interesting to read....I wonder why it was stopped at day 11

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Hi! It's from 2016 actually. Since this thread our big bird "Bertha" has passed away. She was 3 years old.
It stopped at day 11 because I lost track of things. Like most farms I get busy in the summer thru fall and I have to prioritize. I often find that connecting too much with the internet leads to some very unhealthy habits and mental states so it's one of the first things to go.

We did run into one problem with this batch of CX; we lost a few due to heatstroke because my partner did not check on their water jugs during an extremely hot day. We got an unexpected day of 90+*F during a stretch of otherwise 70*F weather and their water jugs emptied without our noticing. I suggested that they be checked on but it was simply forgotten about until it was too late.
Our biggest change to prevent this is using a larger tip-proof waterer and keeping them in deeper shade on very hot days. All the other animals were extremely heat stressed during that week as well and I suspect that any chicken could have died under the circumstances, unfortunately. I must admit, it was accidental negligence. These were our first ever losses of CXs of more than one in a batch, and it was entirely a management error on our part, one that we feel very badly about and have strived to correct by both purchasing better equipment and making better plans. Other than that incident we didn't loose a single bird and we had no leg/organ problems whatsoever.

For feeding after they move outdoors, which happened on day 35 for this batch, we swap to a timed feeding method where we feed twice a day for 20 minutes a day. There are not strict measurements here, but we aim to feed them enough that that have very little left in their bowl after 20 minutes, but not so little that they have it licked clean. This way they are eating constantly for 20 minutes, packing in the calories they need to put on weight for 20 minutes, but they are not constantly over-eating. This is done twice a day (morning and evening), and the rest of the day they get no other feed, only water.

Perhaps in the future I will consider doing a similar thread about a different batch of CX. For now, though, you can consider this thread fairly abandoned. I don't have all the info from this batch of CX any longer.