Will Cornish X really start dying off????

[deerman]

Quote:
Just like any giant, dog,people turkey, they have a shorter life.

Think you are getting the wrong idea, no they dont die after 10 weeks. cockerels, if made into capon will be good until months old.
I even try keeping some pullets for layer, but they ate way to much feed, good layers. but so many better.

Can you raise them to be year or older YES, not a good idea, to heavy to roost high. Yes you will lose a few. but most will live if you want to feed them more food, just no reason, each breed has a purpose, and their is the meat, no breed better.

Like the leghorn ,nothing better as layers, but the cockerel are not worth feeding for the meat.

Cockerels of alot of breeds are ok for meat, take more feed per lb of meat, take longer to get butching age.

 

[beak]

So you are feeding them as much as they want 12 hrs a day? We have 28 that are 7 weeks old. We were feeding them 2x a day at 7am and then at 5pm. Since they turned 5 weeks we now feed them at 7am only. They are eating 3 loaf style bread pans of Flock Feeder by Purina. Not sure how many pounds that is. They are ravenous in the morning. You can't even set the pans down because they are jumping all over you.

Should we be feeding them more than once? How much should they get. We were afraid of them eating too much. Sounds like they're not getting enough.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I feed my 7 week olds twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and have been for several weeks now. They all look strong and healthy.

 

[ChickBond 007]

I started with 16 Cornish Xs and Cornish Rocks from McMurray. I feed 12 on/12off, and yesterday I found the first one dead in the run. Feet up to the sky and no other symtoms but still stone cold dead. Tonight, another- same fashion. Mine will be 7 weeks old tomorrow, and I would say are a 4-5 lb bird right now.

I had hoped to keep them going until week 10 but have decided to give up and butcher this weekend. I don't want to throw away 7 weeks worth of feed/watering. Mine are not smart enough to go into the shelter at night unless pushed into it.

This will be my last batch of meaties as I've done the math and I can buy organically grown 'smart' chicken for 1.79/lb. Mine will cost more than that just in hatchery costs/feed.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Awww, the poor meaties, they get such a bad rap.

I grown very fond of my meaties. They're so funny - when they see me coming they all run like little sumo wrestlers to me, begging for... you guessed it... FOOD! And they're sweet! (After they've eaten) they'll come to the fence and stand there like they want to be spoken to and petted. Not dumb either - the first time it rained after putting my chicks outside the meaties were the only ones who were smart enough to go inside their house - I had to go out in a torrential downpour and physically put all of the layers inside their house.