Will Cornish X really start dying off????

[Kezzie]

I was considering doing the same thing for some of my chicks. Doesn't it make it smelly on the deck though?

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I don't know but we never use that deck because it gets full sun all day long so it's hot up there. Plus, they've only been under the deck for a couple of weeks now, so...

as to how bad it will get, but I don't smell anything so far. When our new run is finished I will move our adults there and then the CRs will have all of the old run until they either die, are given away, or can be integrated with the adults. We'll keep the girls and see how long we can keep them alive, but the boys will have to go.

Since they are still peeping, they're welcomed to stick around, but once they start to crow (if they live that long) then we'll have to part with them.

 

[Buster52]

So if Cornish Xs are so unstable, why raise them? Aren't there other large meat birds that have a good ratio of feed-to-meat that aren't so freaky big they keel over from shear size?

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Mine came from TSC - where they had mixed all the layers in the same bin as the meaties, and it was impossible to tell the two apart at 3 days old.

I didn't buy mine for meat but I'd like to give them a good life while they're with us.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
No they are the best, and if fed proper they make it to butcher age without trouble. It when people try to keep them to long, after 10 weeks is when they get to larger for their body.

 

[cassie]

You start feeding them 12 hours on and 12 hours off at about a week of age and continue that schedule until you butcher them. At least that's what the hatchery says to do and that is what we do. We are butchering ours at 12 weeks and they are dressing out between 10 1/2 to 13 1/2 pounds. The hens are the small ones. When we do it again we will try to butcher the hens as fryers at 6 to 8 weeks (if we can figure out which are the hens) and grow the cockerels as roasters. The females put on an awful lot of fat by 10 - 12 weeks.

 

[fowlgirl]

This is my 2nd year raising meaties.Last year I grew 40,fed 24/7 chickstarter till 10 weeks old.They were out of control fat.We had a heat wave and I bathed them in cold water to keep then from a heart attack.They weighd an average 12 lb dressed. None died. My feedstore doesnt have what you call a finisher feed.I didnt know anybetter,I was just proud I had the biggest chickens in the county.
This year,40 birds,chiskstarter till 5 weeks now basic feed at 19% protein for another 5 weeks,natural light,no lamps.So far healthy birds.I let them outside to clean coop once a weeks so they can forage.Feed morn and night only after 3weeks age.I will up the feed now or find a finisher to put some weight on.No deaths this year. 100lb per week.I also give them veggie scraps and pasta for fun.

 

[ssledoux]

I have both cornish and a ranger type meat bird. I actually am finding that I prefer the cornish. I think they get a bad rap. Mine aren't any less intelligent than any of my other chickens. Yeah, they move a bit slower because they are getting big, but they eat grass fairly well, still try to run around and fly a little.

More than anything, it really just makes me sad that, as a society, we have done something like this to an animal; genetically conformed it to the point that it can't even live a life of any length at all.

I'm not sure how old mine are because I'm thinking they might've been a little older than I thought when I bought them, but I'm just going to try and go by weight to decide when to butcher. I'm feeding during the day only and putting them in a dog kennel (a big, wire one - I only have 6 cornish cross) during the night.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Maybe unstable is a strong word. They're a bit more complicated than regular layers, which require ZERO effort to raise, in my opinion. It's not like if you do a single thing wrong, they'll all die- they're just a bit more work than layers, but the return is well worth it.

 

[Buster52]

Seems to me a bird that won't live past 10 weeks old is unstable. The typical time to butcher is 8 weeks, but it is dead at 10 if you don't? And that bird's system isn't being stressed even at 8 weeks?

I don't know. I know I'm new at this, but there must a meat bird where you get plenty of flesh for the home grower without putting the bird through this sort of life.

Perhaps a subject for a separate thread.