Cornish cross are eating twice as much as the other chickens, on average. "feed consumed" is feed that has been put into the feeder. Some of it remains uneaten at the end of the day, some is wasted. It'll average out in the end.
Heritage bird are getting 7lbs of food a week, cornish are getting 14lbs. Cornish also consuming more bedding material due to increased manure output -- makes sense. More food = more poo.
In terms of efficiency, no surprise that the cornish cross are the hands-down winner at 2lbs of feed per pound of chicken, but surprisingly the light brahmas are doing better than the other breeds, for second place.
Sussex
Day 14: batch of 10 birds weighed 36.75 ounces (2.29 lbs)
Day 21: batch of 10 birds weighed 62.5 ounces (3.9 lbs), gain of 1.7 lbs
Feed consumed 7lbs, 4.1 lbs feed per pound of chicken.
Individual weights (ounces) 5.75, 6.25, 7.25, 5.5, 6, 7.75, 6.75, 6.25, 5.5, 5.5
barred rock
Day 14, batch of 10 birds weighed 31 ounces (1.93 lbs)
Day 21, batch of 10 birds weighed 53.25 ounces (3.32 lbs), gain of 1.39lbs
Feed consumed 7lbs, 5.03lbs feed per pound of chicken
Individual weights (ounces) 6.5, 6, 7, 5.75, 6, 6.5, 4.5, 5.5, 5.75, 5.75
light brahma
Day 14, batch of 10 birds weighed 42 ounces (2.62 lbs)
Day 21, batch of 10 birds weighed 73.25 ounces (4.57 lbs), gain of 1.95lbs
Feed consumed 7lbs, 3.58 lbs feed per pound of chicken
Individual weights (ounces) 7.25, 7.75, 6.25, 8, 7, 8.5, 7.5, 6.5, 7.75, 6.75
red
day 14, batch of 10 birds weighed 45.25 ounces (2.82lbs)
Day 21, batch of 10 birds weighed 73 ounces (4.56 lbs) gain of 1.74lbs
Feed consumed 7lbs, 4.02 lbs of feed per pound of chicken
Individual weights (ounces) 7.25, 7, 8.75, 6.75, 6.5, 8, 8, 7, 7, 6.75
cornish and red
Day 14, batch of 10 birds weighed 105.25 ounces (6.5 lbs)
Day 21, batch of 10 birds weighed 199.77 ounces (12.48 lbs) gain of 5.98lbs
Feed consumed: 14lbs, 2.34lbs of feed per pound of chicken
Individual weights (pounds, ounces) 1 6.5, 1 3.5, 1 4.5, 1 .25, 1 2, 1 3.5, 1 3.75, 1 5, 1 5.5, 1 5.5
So if they are eating twice as much as some types and are twice as efficient, does that mean that the cornish crosses are 4x bigger than the others?
ReplyDeleteTwice the gain per pound of feed.
ReplyDeleteNothing eats like a cornish X. If you're going to grow extra fast you have to eat extra lots.
ReplyDeleteBruce,
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing a controlled study on this subject... You are putting exact numbers to what we already knew...
I still hate raising the Cornish X birds.