About Cornish Cross ...
If you are feeling lucky, try them again in the cool season.
We’ve been doing this for several years and noticed that some strains have better livability than others. I think hatcheries and breeders have been working on this.
The feed conversion on broilers is terrific. They can get so big that each bird provides several meals for my family — i.e. roasted, then in noodles or stir fry, then have the broth for soup. For that reason I feel like taking a chance on them.
Ours have a schedule like this ... from hatching to two weeks they are baby chicks, growing steady, feathering out, etc.
From two to five weeks they explode. They grow up and out. That’s when they really need high protein feed. We feed them morning and evening, let them rest during the heat of the day, and let them clean up the feed before offering more.
From about six to nine weeks they are growing more slowly, gaining weight and laying on some fat. The feed conversion is not as good at this point. I don’t mind fat chickens because they are juicy and being a little older, muscles are more developed — not gelatinous pink globs like store-bought chix — and have better flavor.
YMMV
Good luck!
Wow! That’s not the same bird my mom raised!
The Cornish Cross she had were ready to be dressed out at 6 weeks and if you didn’t get them processed by week 8, they’d start dying. They got so heavy that their legs would just snap.
She experimented with their feed, but nothing helped.
But she kept raising them year after year. That way she only had to deal with a flock for two months and had the rest of the year off.
And yes, they had a LOT of meat!