What do meat birds need differently

[picklestheduck]

Hello everyone. I’m not getting into it much, but basically a family member decided they wanted meat birds in store a few days ago, but I don’t believe they thought about how much work they would be. Now there’s 12 Cornish crosses in a brooder in our basement and the person who bought them checks on them twice a day and unfortunately they need more than that until they get a better setup. I’ve never ever wanted to do meat chickens but I didn’t make the decision. I’ve been caring for them in between and switching bedding etc. but I have some questions. What feed do they need to be the proper weight for when they are culled? (They were just put on regular chick feed…(not by me)). And when is it best to cull them? Is there anything they need differently in a brooder or coop than like egg layers?

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh my, yes. Raising Cornish Cross is different than raising 'normal' chicks in some ways, and other ways it's the same. Some tips:

* Cornish Cross *must* be fed a high-protein feed because their growth rate is so phenomenal. They need the concentrated feed to get enough nutrition; regular chick feed doesn't have it. Many people use a game bird grower/finisher feed because it's 22-24% protein.

* They will absolutely convince you they are starving to death if you don't keep their feeders full. But DON'T DO THAT. These hefty babies are eating and pooping machines. They will literally eat themselves to death due to heart attacks. There are different versions of feeding schedules available, but whichever you use, stick to it religiously and don't let the birds convince you they need more. They DO need to be fed free-choice for the first week or two, but after that - ration it. I found this one that originally came from Welp, I think:

I had another nice chart for you with the conversions to ounces, but lost it. Anyway, you'd just take the "daily intake (lb)" value above and multiply it by 16 (ounces) to get how many ounces of feed, per bird, per day.
So by the end of the first week, daily intake is 0.079 lbs. X 16 ounces = 1.264 ounces to feed (each).

I followed a similar schedule, twice a day, with half of the daily ration at each feeding. I also made sure their second feeding was in late afternoon, so most of their pooping was done before I shoo'ed them into the coop at roosting time. Some people use a 12-on 12-off schedule that works, too. But I'll warn you, if you put all of their daily ration out at one feeding, they'll have it all gone in a few hours and then they'll *SKONK!* LOUDLY at you for the rest of the day begging to be fed.
(With my first batch of chicks, I didn't trust the ration schedule. The poor things acted so hungry! So I fudged. Soon enough, I had chicks with split skin over their backsides, and chicks with splayed legs who couldn't walk. Didn't lose any to heart attacks, though. My neighbors DID.)

* Overall, you'll need about 12-15 pounds of feed per bird to take them from hatchlings to butcher weight. That chart above shows about 20 pounds by 10 weeks of age.

* Keep plenty of water out at all times. They drink a whole lot of water.

* Place feeders and waterers far apart from each other. This forces the birds to get some exercise that they need for growing muscles. You see, CornishX are not foragers. They much prefer you to bring dinner to them, and will sit in that same spot all day long if they can reach the food and water without moving much.

* As I said, they are eating and pooping machines, so stock up on the bedding and newspapers. And because their feed is so high in protein, their poop STINKS worse than you can imagine. You won't want them anywhere inside the house or garage. Don't use hay or straw for bedding; it will mat together and is very hard to clean out. Wood chips are best.

* They'll use a regular coop or shed for 'roosting' at night, but actually they won't roost at all. They prefer to sleep on the floor, so you don't need to bother with roosting bars. Make sure there's plenty of floor space and bedding. I had to shoo my birds into the coop at night, as they were too dumb to go in on their own. I used a large unfolded cardboard box as a barrier and funnel, and 'walked' them into the coop. They can navigate a ramp, but would prefer level ground if possible. Rounding them up is easy-peasy if you show them a feed bucket. They'll follow you anywhere.

* A portable chicken tractor will work wonders for these birds (after they're fully feathered), as you can move them off the poopy area each day and into a new clean grassy area. Makes your clean up job oh so much easier. Just make sure they're protected from weather and predators, because they're too stupid to get out of the rain, and too slow and heavy to escape a predator.

Please DO enjoy raising these birds. They are so adorable, funny and entertaining to spend time with. If their poop is managed well, you won't mind the extra attention they'll need.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh... forgot to mention:
Most people butcher when they are between 8-10 weeks of age. It depends on weight. A 10-lb. live bird will usually yield 5-lbs (+/-) in the freezer. What I do is to butcher most of them at 8 weeks, for fryers, wings, drumsticks, breasts and such; and the rest at 9-10 weeks for roasters.

 

[cmobley]

Oh... forgot to mention:
Most people butcher when they are between 8-10 weeks of age. It depends on weight. A 10-lb. live bird will usually yield 5-lbs (+/-) in the freezer. What I do is to butcher most of them at 8 weeks, for fryers, wings, drumsticks, breasts and such; and the rest at 9-10 weeks for roasters.

This is where I kinda messed up I butchered all at 8 weeks and they were basically 4.5 lbs birds. If I do it again I’ll definitely save a few a couple weeks longer to have bigger roasters.

 

[FunClucks]

Be prepared to butcher at 5 or 6 weeks if needed. These birds get HUGE! I did 5 days free feeding for 24/7 and then 12hrs all they could eat, 12 hours no food, every day. They were ready by 6 weeks, although it took me until 9 weeks to finish processing them. The 9 wk birds were 3x the size of the 5 week birds. I didn't do any roasters past about 7 weeks because I was afraid the breast meat was too thick - by the time the breast was done the legs and wings and back would be overcooked.

I'd feed a minimum of 20% protein. I used 22% meat bird feed throughout, and finished with a week of 20% at the end once they were almost too big to walk.

3x the amount of water, 3x the amount of poop as normal chickens.

 

[cmom]

 

[CedarLane]

We definitely prefer to raise our broilers in our portable tractor over raising them in a chicken coop. They stay cleaner as they are moving to clean grass (almost) daily. (I was afraid they killed our grass in a place or two but I was wrong! Every place the pen sat looks so much better than the rest of the lawn.)
I also think they have less leg problems because they have to move around to get their food and when their pen is being moved. We start them with the "mama heating pad" method so they are used to sleeping at night when it is dark rather than eating all night long. I like to make sure their feeder is full before dark so that they aren't starving if we don't get out to them before it starts getting light on summer mornings.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

How are your birds doing? Looking at the date of your post, our birds should be about the same age. This is only my second time raising Cornish X, but I learned a lot the first time.

Since my birds turned about 2 weeks old yesterday, I began the 12 hours on and 12 hours off feeding schedule. At 3 or 3.5 weeks I hope to have them outside in their chicken tractor. I will continue with the 12 hours on and 12 hours off feed schedule until butcher day. Last time I butchered at exactly 8 weeks and they were all 6.5 lbs to 8.5 lbs., dressed. HUGE

Last time I did higher protein feed for the first ~2 weeks, and then 18% protein from there on out and I still had excellent results with minimal leg or heart issues. This time, I accidentally bought a big bag of 18% chick starter so I decided I'm gonna do an experiment and raise them on 18% protein all the way through, in hopes that I can still get good results and few leg/heart issues. I've kind of been wondering if the high protein makes those issues worse, but it's just a thought.

Good luck!