Cornish X on 18% feed from start to finish - the results

[U_Stormcrow]

I don't have time to do the math right now, but I did take down how much I spent. I think it was much less than that. I often would find sales and buy then. For example, I paid a total of $8 for the 2 14 lb bags of cat food I fed them, because it was on clearance at a pet store. Also, I wasn't really doing this as an experiment for economical reasons anyway. And, I'm not here trying to argue that what I did was better or cheaper. I was just stating what I did last time. It was an experiment, essentially. It went well.

The cat food I gave had a good amino acid profile, as did the beans. They also got meat and fish, which contain amino acids. Maybe it wasn't perfect, but I was conscious of amino acids and tried to keep the levels up. I never did the math or anything, but I never saw any deficiency.

I'm not trying to start anything here or suggest anyone needs to feed like I did. I was just sharing what I did with my last batch of CX. I don't know what the long-term implications of the diet I used would be, but it was more than sufficient for the 10 weeks I kept my meat birds.

I offered only because you had asked "I still need to do the math on how economical is was compared to buying feed, but I think it was comparable and they sure seemed healthy." and I had the math relatively handy.

Cat food near me is usually $1 - $1.30/lb, getting 28# for $8 is QUITE the savings. And yes, dry cat food tends to be both very high protein, relatively speaking, and with a good (though often undisclosed) ratio of Methionine relative to other key AAs.

and of course Cx aren't kept for their longevity, anyways, so the only concerns are short term nutrition

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I offered only because you had asked "I still need to do the math on how economical is was compared to buying feed, but I think it was comparable and they sure seemed healthy." and I had the math relatively handy.

Cat food near me is usually $1 - $1.30/lb, getting 28# for $8 is QUITE the savings. And yes, dry cat food tends to be both very high protein, relatively speaking, and with a good (though often undisclosed) ratio of Methionine relative to other key AAs.

and of course Cx aren't kept for their longevity, anyways, so the only concerns are short term nutrition

Oh, sorry if I came off the wrong way. I do appreciate you giving that info! It's an interesting conversation to have. I don't think it would normally be more economical, but I'm pretty scrappy about getting things for a good price sometimes lol. Sometimes it's luck, and sometimes it's being resourceful and knowing where to seek out the deals.


I don't think I would feed this diet to my laying flock because I wouldn't always be able to find deals consistently (and cooking for chickens becomes quite a chore - I'd need 3 more crock pots!), but I'd consider doing it again for my meaties.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Oh, sorry if I came off the wrong way.

Hehehe, I was apologizing in my roundabout way, thought I might have caused offense unintentionally. All good. I wasn't looking to start a fight either.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

You've erected a strawman (and an erroneous one at that - most feed conversations use Production Red figures as the reference), but sure, I'll play...

To the first, three reasons. One. Many posters here, new to chickens, have Frankenchicken expectations. Its all they've known. Two. Frankenchickens are very well studied. We know their requirements. Their inputs. Their expected rate of weight gain. They provide a unit of common measure as an indirect way of comparing birds of different breed. Three. Frankenchickens have been optimized. We know, with great confidence, that significant alterations to the Frankenchicken method are unlikely to be beneficial, and in fact are likely to be detrimental to their performance.

In short, a Frankenchicken is a unit of common measure. (So is the Production Red for the more frequent conversations re: layers)

As to your second question, many of us do. Kindly define a "natural dual purpose chicken" Those are words with only the vaguest of meaning, like "chair". Do you mean a New Hampshire from the 1920s? Hatchery stock New Hampshires from the Farm store, where Ideal, Murray McMurray, Hoovers, and the rest have focused on egg production over size for generations to prodce more "product" from their parent stock? The New Hampshires one of our posters has been slectively breeding to put mass back on their birds? Or maybe you mean Orpingtons. The Australorp? Brahma? The SLW bred to be better dual purpose birds than the terribly slow growing, poor egg laying "dual purpose" Brahma? A Delware? Maybe you mean [Color] Rangers? My barnyard mutts which will eventually be culled into a recognizeable landrace? Etc etc etc.

How do we compare those birds without a common frame of reference?

Hello Your reply sounds condiscending and argumentative.

As to your second question, many of us do. Kindly define a "natural dual purpose chicken"

Then contradict yourself, you ask for definition to a question you already answered.

Natural- nature, not in a cage

dual purpose chicken- a chicken with a good balance of meat quality and egg producing ie, plymouth rock, sussex, not a cornish x, not a Sebright, not a leghorn

I have never seen someone grab a tv remote when asked to pull up a chair. Chair is not vague to me.

When you use so many examples of questions it seems evasive and overly complex possibly to fend off replies so it seems as if your response was indisputable.

Your response would likely get close to a failing grade because it is dismissive and doesn't encourage incoming discussion.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

Hello May I ask what reason would you want to match it? What is the reason every backyardchicken.com feed conversation I read is compared to commercial frankenstein chickens with commercial frankenstein synthetic amino acid feed?

Why not feed a natural dual purpose chicken a natural diet at a natural feed rate and slaughter it at a natural compromise of weight and cost?

Hello @Shadrach When I wrote this, I thought this was in the other thread about feeding chickens. I didn't realize this thread was exclusivley about feeding cornish x. I'm sorry.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hello Your reply sounds condiscending and argumentative.

[...]

Your response would likely get close to a failing grade because it is dismissive and doesn't encourage incoming discussion.

I'm not the student here.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't have time to do the math right now, but I did take down how much I spent. I think it was much less than that. I often would find sales and buy then. For example, I paid a total of $8 for the 2 14 lb bags of cat food I fed them, because it was on clearance at a pet store. Also, I wasn't really doing this as an experiment for economical reasons anyway. And, I'm not here trying to argue that what I did was better or cheaper. I was just stating what I did last time. It was an experiment, essentially. It went well.

The cat food I gave had a good amino acid profile, as did the beans. They also got meat and fish, which contain amino acids. Maybe it wasn't perfect, but I was conscious of amino acids and tried to keep the levels up. I never did the math or anything, but I never saw any deficiency.

I'm not trying to start anything here or suggest anyone needs to feed like I did. I was just sharing what I did with my last batch of CX. I don't know what the long-term implications of the diet I used would be, but it was more than sufficient for the 10 weeks I kept my meat birds.

I do hope I didn't come accross as critical. As I wrote, I don't feed commercial feed. I just wanted you and others who read here that in my keeping circumstances, variable part time ranging; above average forage diversity given there are organic allotments of sorts, a wild grass orchard, fruit bushes and various compost heaps which should give me a considerable feeding advantage I found it very difficult to match the commercial feed profile for these chickens and very expensive.

Whether one should try to match the commercial feed profile is another matter. I don't think one should. I think there are better options for many keepers.

 

[Kenya Mwangi]

I'm not the student here.

Hello Because you dropped out?
just teasing

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hello Because you dropped out?
just teasing

My member interview is in my Sig, should you be interested.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I do hope I didn't come accross as critical. As I wrote, I don't feed commercial feed. I just wanted you and others who read here that in my keeping circumstances, variable part time ranging; above average forage diversity given there are organic allotments of sorts, a wild grass orchard, fruit bushes and various compost heaps which should give me a considerable feeding advantage I found it very difficult to match the commercial feed profile for these chickens and very expensive.

Whether one should try to match the commercial feed profile is another matter. I don't think one should. I think there are better options for many keepers.

Oh no, not at all. And I apologize if I sounded a bit defensive. I'm used to people on here sometimes jumping on people who even give the slightest idea of feeding anything besides commercial. Or, at least, I often see people acting like it's an impossible thing to feed without commercial.

It may not always be ideal or economical, but it's certainly possible in some cases. It's an interesting topic though. The user @Perris 's article about homemade feed is what got me interested in all of this. I'm interested in human nutrition as well, so I wondered how I could feed my chickens with what I have available. I guess another reason I did it was to experiment with what's possible from a survival standpoint. If I couldn't buy chicken feed for some reason in the future (unlikely, but I guess this is how my brain works), would I still be able to raise meat and survive? These were some of my thoughts during the whole process. Again, I don't think I'll feed this way all the time, but it's nice to know how to.

How do you go about your chickens without commercial feed? Have you been successful?