How to feed meat birds.

[Chick Li]

Well my meat birds Cornish Cross arrived last Wednesday. I ordered 18 and 5 died and so did two others.

I have been feeding them the chick grower/starter. I know I read somewhere that they should be fed 12 hours on and 12 hours off. I plan on either finishing them with broiler food that I have to order or with non medicated All Flock. Please help, I do not want anymore birds to die because I let them overfeed. It was suggested to me that I could also finish them with Turkey and Game Bird feed. I'm not sure though. It is the only other feed our store has. Than you for all of you help.

 

[DelcoChix]

So sorry to hear of your losses...this is just our third year with the meaties (Cornish X) but have raised them successfully so far, my dd's annual 4-H fair projects. We do not withhold the feed at all, the first bag is medicated turkey starter (Purina) and then we switch over to Purina Show feed for the rest. We only raise 15 at a time, 3 of which go to the fair, the rest in our freezer so by no means are we experts like some of the folks here, but that has sure worked well for us.
The weather has been a challenge, heatlamp on the first 2-3 weeks, then on and off day and night when it got in the 40-60's...then fans on when it got in the 80-90's after they feathered. We are at the 7 week mark and so far so good, but it is a constant adjustment with them I think. And they go through a LOT of water--fresh water refill twice a day.
Best of luck--don't give up or get discouraged, it really is a learning curve but very do-able!

PS: If yours are only a week old make sure they have a draft-free brooder and a heatlamp where they can stay underneath if they need warmth or move away if they are warm enough--at a week they still have their fluff and cannot regulate their temps too well. Not sure where you live but rule of thumb is 85-90 degrees the first week (do you have a thermometer in the brooder?) then decrease by 5 degrees every week until they are fully feathered...

 

[Island Roo]

Quote: Yup - you gotta watch those temperatures.
I think the most common error for newbies is not providing a draft-free brooder at the correct temp (I'm a newbie as well - 3 batches of meaties)

Chick starter is usually fed for the first three weeks - then grower feed.
Our chick start is 22% protein and the grower we use is 18%.

Cornish X chicks under 3 weeks cannot be over-fed. We give 24 hours food for 3 weeks then transition to 12 hours with / 12 hours without. This is common for many of the experienced folks - some never withhold feed.

 

[Beekissed]

Or you could try this way:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds

 

[Chick Li]

Thank you all for the advice.
I have been watching the temps and watching them grow. We, my dh built an outside brooder with two heat lamps, only needed one and dimmer and included digital thermometer. Temps have been easy to regulate. Didn't have room in the garage and raised 7 little chicks in the living room for a 1 1/2 months. Dear me, did they stink when they got a little bigger. We will never do that again. The brooder being outside has been a Godsend.
Fermenting the grain is interesting. I have done the sprouting of the grains in two gallon jars. The chickens liked the legumes better once they sprouted. I didn't know that you could feed the broilers anything but grain. I have been giving them clipped grass and clovers. Buttermilk for the broiler, who knew.

I know the hens like yogurt and cottage cheese with chicken scratch thrown on. I will have to read through the articles. I would rather the broiler keep the nutrition for their meat rather than alleviating themselves of it. Boy do these broilers grow. Do you really notice a significant size difference in the male and female Cornish X at the 8-9 week mark? I bought all females, they were out of males for the straight run.
Well gotta go read those article.

 

[JNB]

Im raising my first batch of Cornish Cross... and I really cant tell you how much I love using the Fermented feed method. It makes a big difference and my chicks took right to it I feed FF twice a day morning and evening and for now I still keep a feeder or crumble available all the time. As they get older (over 4 weeks) I may try restricting the feed more. When little they cant really eat too much.. They grow so fast in the first 4 weeks.. then kinda level out.. but still grow and gain weight alot. Thats what I have been told by most folks.. We shall see

 

[chicken pickin]

I am nearing the end mark on raising our first batch of CX(26 of them) All surrvived the shipping and the past 7 weeks. Between the males and females their is quite a size differance. We got straight run and we were luck to get more males than females, and the males are much larger. We brooded in the garage for the first almost 3 weeks under a heat lamp. We fed broiler crumbles 22% protein 24hrs for those first 3 weeks. They go through a lot of water so check it often. After 3 weeks they went into the tractor on the grass and moved daily and also let out to freerange daily. At 3-6weeks they stayed on broiler crumbles 12hrs on 12 off. I seperate their daily ration into 3 portions and fed it to them throughout the day only because I dont want them to stuff them selves at one time. At 6weeks I switched them to the Fat and Finish Pels 18% protein. Also I am now filling their gallon waterer 5 times through out the day(really check it often). I also have been giving them broiler booster(vitamins)in their water daily since day one. They are all growing out very nicely and they are so active and their legs are huge and sturdy. We process tomorrow and I am expecting good weight results.