These chickens are NOT supposed to have this problem

Reading through all the homesteading and chicken raising material, I've always had the impression that cornish cross chickens were easy to raise for meat birds. That might be true, but Ryan and I have had one serious issue while raising our first batch.
#homestead #homesteading #homesteadlife #homesteadliving #farmstead #farmsteading #meatchicken #chicken #chickentractor #farmraised #cornishcross #grassfed #pasturepoultry #pastureraised #livestock #livestockfarming

[@MosaicHomestead]

I fed mine in the morning and in the evening, they free ranged for the rest, in the tropics we feed them coconut and banana leaves to help fatten them up.

[@arewehomesteadingyet]

Thanks for the comment! That's really interesting. I don't have access to banana leaves here, but we might try supplementing something else to help fatten them up next time.

[@Beps128]

This is why most people feed them on a 12 hour timeframe, 12 on, 12 off. Then they eat more during their 12 hours on. They put on weight a lot quicker and can be harvested a lot sooner.

[@arewehomesteadingyet]

Thanks for the feedback! I've heard various opinions about the 12 on, 12 off schedule (imagine that, contradicting info on the internet) so we opted for continuous feeding; however, after this experience we'll definitely re-evaluate that.

[@thedeadgypsy]

My Thoughts. If they are getting continuous feed, is that they are using more energy than they are eating - common reasons can be cold I doubt it in your case since you are in the northern hemisphere, or eating other lower fat and protein food - grass. Moving them daily keeps them clean, but if they are eating grass they may not be eating enough feed to keep up the nutrition for weight gain. Of course, other reasons can be worms or vitamin deficiency from low quality cheap feed .

[@arewehomesteadingyet]

Thanks for the comment! The grass could be a consideration. We're trying to figure out how to changes things up the next time around and we might do them in woods with an electric fence instead of in the tractor. Also, we ruled out feed (bought the good stuff), vitamins (supplemented with Fertrell's Nutribalancer), but there could have been some sort of worm that we never identified.

[@donnamariefinney]

Please don’t eat them 😢