Meat chickens?

[JonW]

About how much feed does it take to raise a cornishx for 12 weeks?

I haven’t raised any to 12 weeks, but I can tell you in 8 weeks they’ll eat 11-13lbs depending on size. Feed conversion efficiency drops quickly beyond 8 weeks, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it doubled over the next four weeks. That wouldn’t include offsetting feed lost on increased mortality. Cornish X will likely lose a few to heart attacks by then.

I would think you could restrict feed and have them more likely to make 12 weeks-maybe even more efficiently.

I haven’t grown any recently, but I really like the freedom ranger types grown out to 12 weeks. I suspect the Sasso naked-necks might be even better, but I have yet to grow a batch.


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[Balcones_Walker]

Thanks, great info!

[JonW]

Meat chickens?

Thanks, I suspect we have a lot in common regarding what and how we grow things

Ha ha, that would be awesome! Brown, Salatin, elgato (in no particular order)




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[hully1029]

Cornish are right at a month old. Been feeding organic 24% and they are growing fast.

Disregard the Chrismas sweater my boy put on.. geezz

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[tkuehn5410]

Dont do organic...chickens eat everything. Give every scrap/leftover to them

[hully1029]

Dont do organic...chickens eat everything. Give every scrap/leftover to them

Been doing that too.. as well as bags of frozen carrots and peas.

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[JonW]

Cornish are right at a month old. Been feeding organic 24% and they are growing fast.

Disregard the Chrismas sweater my boy put on.. geezz

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Great looking birds! Which organic feed are you feeding them?


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[hully1029]

Just the dumor 24% starter

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[hully1029]

Lost our 1st chicken today. It was twice the size of the others, so I assume heart attack.

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[JonW]

Losing your first bird at this point is impressive, sounds like you’ve got it down! If you feed 24% all the way through I would expect a little loss close to the end. I fed 21% starter all the way through on my last batch and lost a couple in the 8th week. They turned cyanotic and died shortly after.

My current batch of 200 seems to be growing slower (expected as this batch is soy-free) so I’m hoping to minimize loss and have more marketable sized birds (they dressed up to 7.5lbs on last batch). I will also butcher at 50 days since heat will be a factor.


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[hully1029]

We got up early to get these chickens cut, but was ran out early by the rain. Was able to get three done and into the cooler, then I pulled em inside and finished out.

What I'm definitely learning.. water temp has to be just right and its easy to keep in water too long. We kept the 2nd one in the water a little long and all the skin started coming off while hitting it with the plucker.. it's not as difficult as expected, but more meticulous than expected.

We will ABSOLUTELY be buying a chicken plucker.. mama wants one. Since we were only able to get 3 done, shes considering picking one up for tomorrow when we finish.. haha..

We decided we were only going to keep 3 of the smaller ones whole and quarter/breast the rest. Here's from one of our bigger ones.. there also a learning curve to cutting up as well..

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[elgato]

Seeing this thread up reminded me I did a video on our process. Posted it on my other site but here, for those that may not have seen it.

https://youtu.be/cU9p3g2fdlQ

[Sleepy]

Seeing this thread up reminded me I did a video on our process. Posted it on my other site but here, for those that may not have seen it.
https://youtu.be/cU9p3g2fdlQ

I was just about to post your video. Love watching your stuff!

[calfroper_06]

I have a entire evisceration processing department behind my shop.

You guys that kill/eviscerate your own bird, I have hundreds of stainless shackles I would sell that will make it a lot easier to hang/ bleed and pick the bird.

[JonW]

We got up early to get these chickens cut, but was ran out early by the rain. Was able to get three done and into the cooler, then I pulled em inside and finished out.

What I'm definitely learning.. water temp has to be just right and its easy to keep in water too long. We kept the 2nd one in the water a little long and all the skin started coming off while hitting it with the plucker.. it's not as difficult as expected, but more meticulous than expected.

We will ABSOLUTELY be buying a chicken plucker.. mama wants one. Since we were only able to get 3 done, shes considering picking one up for tomorrow when we finish.. haha..

We decided we were only going to keep 3 of the smaller ones whole and quarter/breast the rest. Here's from one of our bigger ones.. there also a learning curve to cutting up as well..

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Great job! Did you weigh them?


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