Rumors or Real? Cornish Rocks and all the stuff I hear on the Internet

[CoopDeViIIe]

Here are my meaties going nuts for food.

 

[Connie White]

At 4 weeks, I moved them into an outdoor pen (concrete floor) and started feeding them 2 cups of chick starter with 1 cup of layer pellets and 1 cup of some kind of scratch - twice per day (before that only chick starter 3 x per day, and they were in a smaller enclosure. At 5 weeks I moved them into the pen where they now had access to free range. I kept their food at the same rate. Now - maybe an extra cup of the chick starter (this morning for example) but will only give them 2 tonight with one cup of layer pellets. I give the scratch earlier to give them something else to play with. They free range an hour or two in the morning before i feed them (i make them ask for food - if I don't just normally give it to them but wait til they're looking at me chirping! (i check on them throughout the day though). Last night, I was digging up another vege garden - they happily ate the bugs from the dirt. Now, they stay out of the pen, more than in it and sun bath and such during the day.

 

[CoopDeViIIe]

So 8 or so cups of food per day. How many birds do you have in the group?

 

[Connie White]

sorry about leaving that bit out - I have 8. 6 roosters, 2 hens. No more than 7 cups in all right now per day - and they are on maybe .25 acres of land....or less for free ranging.

Nice video - mine started pecking at each other early on - I had them in a pretty large outside cage 6 x 8 and they still did it. as you know, they poop so much and it stunk so bad, I had to put them on the grass! fertilizer - so, now they are in a 20x30 pen and then are let out to free range.

I love your chicken set up though - nice cage.

 

[Christabelle]

I raised some meaties up to laying age. I need to count their calories, but they lay fertile eggs. I read that the cornish x Roos get too big to breed, so I have them in with a red ranger. It should be interesting I think.

They might not look like it in the picture, but they are massive... I weighed the biggest hen at 14 lbs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I raised some meaties up to laying age. I need to count their calories, but they lay fertile eggs. I read that the cornish x Roos get too big to breed, so I have them in with a red ranger. It should be interesting I think.

They might not look like it in the picture, but they are massive... I weighed the biggest hen at 14 lbs.

They do make that rooster look small don’t they, and that’s not a small rooster. It will be interesting to see what you get when you hatch those eggs.

A couple of years ago a lady on this forum raised a couple of meaties to laying age, mostly letting them free range. They still got massive and died pretty young, but she got some eggs out of them.

One of the hens even went broody before it was a full year old. That lady tried putting some eggs under her for her to hatch but she was so massive she crushed the eggs just moving around the nest.

 

[Christabelle]

In person that rooster is BEAUTIFUL! They are all kinda nasty tempered birds though. They cannot free range because they seem to want to fight to the death with my smaller laying hens over any morsel of food they find. I am fairly certain that they could kill my hens too... They are so big they just flop on em and start ripping feathers. They are very friendly to me- the bringer of sweet sweet food, though. I'm not sure that I think it is a worthwhile project, but I did it. I like genetics, and I wanted to see what would happen. It would be cheeper to just buy cornish x chicks though. These guys eat a lot.

 

[RJSchaefer]

Thanks for posting this! I was beginning to think I was underfeeding mine. They're almost 5 weeks old and we weighed out the one who drowned himself last night - 2.5 pounds, post pluckin'. 1.6 pounds after gutting.

I think it all depends on how you raise them. Mine are with my layers, as I wanted to avoid the fat fast heart attack problems. They run and fly and generally don't have any problems. We had to cull one early on because she wouldn't gain and wouldn't feather, but with 35 birds (all told) I think I was bound to have one dud.

 

[CoopDeViIIe]

I finally got a scale and weighed one of mine last night. 7lbs and they are 7 1/2 weeks old.

 

[lizanne]

I raised some meaties up to laying age. I need to count their calories, but they lay fertile eggs. I read that the cornish x Roos get too big to breed, so I have them in with a red ranger. It should be interesting I think.
They might not look like it in the picture, but they are massive... I weighed the biggest hen at 14 lbs.

That is a great idea!! I would love to see how the chicks hatch out! How old were they when the started laying? I have 7 left (we processed the other 15 already). They will be 10 weeks old on Monday. I have 1 rooster and 6 pullets left. When I weighed them night before last, the girls were right around 9 pounds, and the boy was a little over 10!! They free range with my layer girls, and one even roosts with them at night. The others sleep on the floor in the coop/