Monitor Feeding chicks

Meat chickens are growing machines—Cornish Cross hybrids can double their weight and size in just days—so you’ll need enough feeder space so that all the chicks can eat at the same time.

For the first two weeks, allow 2 inches of space per chick—count both sides of a long, straight feeder. Double that amount to 4 inches per bird after two weeks old.

To prevent wastage and soiling, the University of Kentucky Extension recommends filling feeders only halfway full and to keep both feeders and waterers level with the height of the chicks’ backs as they grow.

As incredible as it seems, some meat breeds can put on up to a pound of weight for every two pounds of feed they consume! A pre-mixed commercial chick-starter with a 20- to 24-percent protein gives these birds a good start for the first two weeks. If you’re raising Cornish Crosses, start with 20 percent protein.

How you feed this breed is important, as well, because they will quite literally grow too fast for their organs and bones to accommodate, resulting in heart and growth issues. For their first five days, offer food free-choice, then remove their feeders for 12 hours each day, keeping the feed available the other 12 hours.

Continue this schedule until butchering time. At two weeks old, transition the feed from chick starter to chick grower, which contains 20 percent protein.

You can mix the starter and grower together for a few days to ease the changeover. For Cornish Cross, feed 18-percent protein after five weeks until butchering.

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