Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Keep in mind that a traditional bird does more foraging and gets a percentage of
its food from the environment if allowed free range. The percentage depends upon
the area in which they are foraging, of course; dry desert regions have less nutrition
than a lush green pasture full of insects and tasty green feed. You may find you use
more food for the traditional bird if you don't monitor amounts placed in the feeder.
Be sure not to give excess food, which can attract rodents and incur waste.
Many raisers have success providing feeds that are sold as “meat maker” or “meat
finisher” varieties created especially for meat-producing chickens. These feeds have the
trace nutrients and the requirements that help these fast-growing birds maintain a health-
ier immune system and give them the ability to reach the dinner table without weight
loss.
Traditional breeds (discussed earlier in this chapter) can actively forage for the trace
elements included in the special Cornish feeds, often even if kept in the confines of your
barn. But sedentary hybrid broiler chickens will not forage; they stay close to their food
and water, with no energy or physical ability to move far away from that area. The older
they get, the less they travel; they are the couch potatoes of the poultry world.
Provide continuous crumble feed until your young Cornish reach two to three weeks
old. Typically, if you feed a fine-grind ground feed to other breeds of chicks, they will
pick through it, pecking up the biggest pieces and scattering the powder on the floor.
Although it's not the best feeding option, it's okay for standard breeds because they will
later turn around, scratch at the floor, and pick up those things that they would have
otherwise missed. The typical Cornish broiler chicken, however, doesn't usually have
enough energy to persist and find the bits and pieces of essential nutrients that they need
in order to maintain health.
DON'T MIX WITH THE CORNISH CROSS
Because of their rapid growth and messy lifestyle, commercial meat birds (Cornish
Crosses and the like) should be raised separately from all other poultry. It can work
for about a week, but then give them a home of their own. Cornish Crosses grow so
fast that other breeds find it a struggle to access the food supply.
Heating
During summer, the feeding area must be shaded, because these hybrid birds are not
active enough to move back and forth between the shade and sun and can easily be-
