Anyone ever free range Cornish X?

[me&thegals]

It appears he was making the same mistake as everyone else by providing free choice feed all day and expecting the birds to want to forage for food. Why should they if they have feed that is easy and tastey right beside them. Why the hurry to grow out these birds?

I swear, you won't believe it until you see it. They REALLY do not want to forage! As I said above, we had birds that sat on their butts the entire day waiting to be fed when they could have walked out the door and gotten grass and bugs 6 feet away!

I can see why commercial growers would want to have a quick turn around, though I can't imagine it needs to be THAT quick to make a profit.

When you're growing chicken for a market that sells at about 50 cents/lb (what IS the price of chicken these days?), every tiny saving counts, every day less of feed... Big ag has such tiny profit margins that the only way to make the $ is to get even bigger and faster.

Why not treat them like the rest of the chickens? Yes, they seem to be genetically inclined to be hungry, hungry hippos....but its that old nature vs. nurture thingy. He complains that they have to be propped up by medicine to survive, but is it more because the feeding methods are similar to commercial growers? All the feed they want in the shortest amount of time?

Again, see above. They are truly different. What you say makes sense, but it's not the way it worked here. We didn't have many losses (2 out of 100?), but they were fat, waddling, growing-way-too-fast birds, even with feed only available during the day, and sometimes only late afternoon if it was hot or rainy and they didn't go outside.

Good luck! It would be fun to see someone make this work better. Maybe you can get a strain with better foraging genes. I would like to explore that avenue. Despite our efforts to keep them moving and slow down their growth, it was a slap-in-the-face lesson on genetics for me.

 

[Beekissed]

Harvey said he lost many birds but you only lost 2 out of a 100, which is pretty good odds, even for other breeds of birds, if you think about it!

I've read on BYC where a few folks just happen to have a CX in their regular flock and they tend to forage more and act like the others. Nature vs. nurture? I don't know.

It would be interesting and, of course, I wouldn't be dealing with the large numbers you all have, so they would have to sort of go with the flow more around here.

I would probably get no more than 20, if that. Start them out with the rest of the chicks and see how they fare. I will report the progress and see how they do! I can't imagine them getting to gorge when they have to compete with the big gals at the trough each evening.

Be worth the experiment, wouldn't it?

 

[me&thegals]

Yeah--they were surprisingly hardy as far as not dying for no apparent reason. And, in fact, they were VERY active as chicks. As I took each out of the box the very first day to dip their beeks in water before putting them in our kiddie pool, at least 2 dozen flew up out of the box and were exploring the garage. I was so impressed!!!

Unfortunately, the bigger they got, the less they did this. They grew so fast, you'd gag to see their pink skin under all the feathers. They were such pigs that our turkeys, who were raised with them, have only now started really gaining since they now can actually get to some food and don't need to exclusively forage!

Anyway, I'm not meaning to be a wet blanket. I wish you the best! I'm just trying to let you know how much genetics seems to play a role. Our meaties were raised with both turkeys and heritage pullets, but who knows??? I really want to try it again to figure out other ways of doing it. It could be that our very wet and cool spring didn't encourage much foraging...

Regarding Mr. Ussery, he lost his in a heat wave when they wouldn't get to the water. During our 2 weeks of intense heat, ours simply never left the barn and we kept everything right next to them, knowing they would die otherwise. It was sad to see a barn full of panting birds. But, we didn't lose even one during those weeks.

 

[patandchickens]

I would take anything Harvey Ussery says on the subject of CornishX with a load of salt -- he is not exactly an unbiased judge of that sort of things. If he *did* lose a bunch of them (I am not saying he necessarily didn't, but he does enjoy rhetoric...) well, remember this is the person who also reports losing a bunch of chickens to botulism caused by feeding them maggots falling out of rotting meat that he'd hung for the purpose... and he lost his CornishX because he DID NOT GIVE THEM APPROPRIATE WATER in a heatwave... so, er, it may be that others' approaches to chicken management are less ill-suited to pastured CornishX

It would be interesting to see if they're more active when surrounded by lots of 'normal' chickens. I shouldn't be surprised if they were. Somewhat. But their physique is a seriously limiting factor.

And if you put them out with older chickens, I would not be surprised if they got picked on quite a lot (and perhaps disassembled and eaten) - they just will not move out of the way.

I still think AGE is the biggest flavoring agent. Even with CornishX, the ones you process at 8-9 wks are a lot tastier than the ones you process at 5-6 wks...

Commercial broiler farms make a profit of something like 5-10 CENTS (yes, pennies) per bird... so honestly quick turnover really IS a major economic issue for them. As you say, there is no reason for it to matter to US, though. Really, you might like Freedom Rangers (or whatever they're calling them nowadays) or other colored broilers. They do have pretty similar carcass conformation and will forage better. And as I say, the red broilers I did this spring ended up yielding EXACTLY THE SAME cost per lb as the cornishX did, without being quite so pathologically odd. Definitely worth a try to see how you like them, anyhow.

I have heard of people holding some back to breed, too... while you wouldn't get the uniformity of commercially obtained colored broilers, for your own household use what does it matter if some are bigger and others smaller? So you could probably just breed your own thereafter, ifyou really wanted.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[FarmerChick]

They have been genetically bred for fast growth and I honestly think they bred the "smarts" out of these chickens.

Delish and do well WHEN you treat a Cornish they way it should be treated.

You try to free range and all that their little super fast growing bodies can not handle true life on their own. They won't walk 1 ft. to get water if they are dying. I think they are brain warped somehow..LOL

They are little BUT delish monsters..LOL

So treat a Cornish they way they were bred to be treated, or good chance you will have lazy, dead birds on your hands.

But delish dead birds...HA HA

 

[lorihadams]

Has anyone ever used barred rocks for meat chickens? I was thinking about getting some for that purpose, maybe get some straight run and butcher the extra males and keep some of the ladies for laying stock. I just keep hearing all this wishy washy stuff about the cornish x. If I were to use barred rocks how old would they have to be when processed?

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks, Pat! I'll look into the freedom rangers...I did a little reading on them on BYC and they seem a better fit. I was just curious about the CX monsters purely on a "see if I can make it happen" standpoint!

Those birds of my niece's were 10-12 wks because she had put off killing them, so they had plenty of time to develop flavor. Blech! They were a very ugly bird, that's for sure.

I agree about Harvey....I'm seriously NOT a fan..... He's the reason I stopped reading my fave mag, Countryside. Too much political manure by H.U. being given space, couldn't take it.

My flock are not normally abusive to younger birds unless they are in their way at the feeder. Other than that, they have no interest in them at all and they are free to come and go pretty much.

I could get 10 freedom rangers and 10 CX and see how they turn out....not exactly a scientific approach but it would be interesting to observe their behavior in a truly free ranged flock.

 

[FarmerChick]

Thanks, Pat! I'll look into the freedom rangers...I did a little reading on them on BYC and they seem a better fit. I was just curious about the CX monsters purely on a "see if I can make it happen" standpoint!

Those birds of my niece's were 10-12 wks because she had put off killing them, so they had plenty of time to develop flavor. Blech! They were a very ugly bird, that's for sure.

I agree about Harvey....I'm seriously NOT a fan..... He's the reason I stopped reading my fave mag, Countryside. Too much political manure by H.U. being given space, couldn't take it.

My flock are not normally abusive to younger birds unless they are in their way at the feeder. Other than that, they have no interest in them at all and they are free to come and go pretty much.

I could get 10 freedom rangers and 10 CX and see how they turn out....not exactly a scientific approach but it would be interesting to observe their behavior in a truly free ranged flock.

the last part is what you need to do. truly see for yourself how the birds react in your care. 10 cx is not expensive and worth seeing what you can do wtih them

 

[patandchickens]

Has anyone ever used barred rocks for meat chickens? I was thinking about getting some for that purpose, maybe get some straight run and butcher the extra males and keep some of the ladies for laying stock. I just keep hearing all this wishy washy stuff about the cornish x. If I were to use barred rocks how old would they have to be when processed?

Just depends how big you want them, and what texture. Most people would do it around 16 wks or so, as a good compromise between reasonable size and not putting too gratuitously much feed cost into them (also some people feel they get kinda tough after that; depends on how you process and cook them, and what your ideas of 'tough' are, I think)

But there is no reason you couldn't have itty bitty 'poussin'-sized chickens at a younger age and less feed cost into them; or eat them at a year or two (stewed) although they won't have gained *much* more size after 25 wks or so.

I can tell you that the best tasting chicken I've ever had anywhere, in any form, was a 16 wk old chantecler cockerel last summer. I would expect most heritage breeds to be roughly as good, in comparison to CornishX. By all means try one or two BR or whatever you have extras of, and see how it suits your tastes

Pat, theoretically raising sussexes for true dual-purpose use, but not enough chicks hatched this year to actually eat any (unless I decide not to carry a young cockerel over the winter, I dunno)

 

[me&thegals]

I have heard of people holding some back to breed, too... while you wouldn't get the uniformity of commercially obtained colored broilers, for your own household use what does it matter if some are bigger and others smaller? So you could probably just breed your own thereafter, ifyou really wanted.
Pat

Breed? I'm having a hard time picturing my roos being able to get the job done