looking for any helpful hints to raise cornish hens to bigger weights with better feed conversion.?
own a poultry farm–lately struggling to survive. Usually, poor quality chicks are given to us by the company to raise. we’ve tried everything we can think of—-different lighting pattern, better air quality, controlling temperature, lowering pH of water, adding electrolites to water, etc…..
I’ve never had a problem with raising cornish hens in under five weeks. Usually they are ready for marketing at four weeks and will dress out to about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 lbs each. If you’re trying to raise fryers, they will need about six weeks to reach fryer size when they should dress out to about 3 lbs., frequently more.
Use a 21 percent starter-grower feed throughout the growing period. Keep light on them for about 16 hours a day. Get a bulb which produces light which is a nearly natural as possible. You can leave the light on for twenty-four hours, but I found that they grew better with a few hours of darkness. Maybe it’s because of the rest provided by the darkness. Take food away from them each night. They shouldn’t have it before them for more than 14 hours daily or they will grow too fast and possibly die of coronary stress additional to possibly breaking leg bones due to their rapid growth.
If your having problems only during hot weather, then heat, or lack of cooling, might be the reason. Chickens usually are pretty hardy. If your water is fit for drinking, I wouldn’t be concerned about the ph level. I always put the electrolytes in the food rather than in the water. I don’t think it makes any difference how they get the electrolytes, it was just easier for me adding them to the food. If you’re rasing chickens on contract and the company you are rasing them for is providing you with poor quality chicks, then there is little you can do except fold your tent and quit. I doubt though that poor chicks is the problem, especially if the company has any market penetration.
If you want more information, or just to talk about the problem more, email me.
Good luck.
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