We raised about a dozen of these this year and butchered at 12 weeks. I have not read all the things about hatcheries to disagree with anything. It has not been a part of my research, so I don't know exactly what the author of the following links is referring to. But I loved her information and her presentation. I have to say that I can substantiate what she says about their needs. We too, give them a lot of space to scratch and dig for themselves. They get too hot very easy. It would not be responsible to allow these chickens to be raised without a fence for protection. One hen dislocated a hip fairly early, maybe about six weeks old. She could still get food and water but she walked very oddly and couldn't have out run a cat.
It is December 10th and we ate another one for dinner tonight. The meat is significantly healthier and the bones are stronger than the standard store bought chicken. When I say healthier, I mean you can tell the difference the same as you would notice something was strong and muscular versus soft and flabby. Our chickens were safe, they had life full of scratch, crumble, bugs, kitchen scraps, and garden scraps. They were fed extra weeds and were ecstatic digging and laying in their beauty dust treatments.
Our grandson helped with this project and it has been a joy educating him about safe practices and humane treatments. It is a joy to watch him eat. He had a near death experience with ulcerative colitis and as part of his care, we have included him in our farm life. Getting good medical care was imperative but beyond that bringing him back into a body filled with strength and vitality through real life experiences with growing fresh vegetables, flowers for the joy of it, fresh eggs, chickens, and pigs, has been our pleasure. There's more but that is a different story.
This one is about these chickens. They are the best meat chickens I've ever grown. They flight less than any other chickens I've raised. They are sitting ducks for just about anything so we made their growing space unattractive to eagles and hawks, by keeping their area less than 6' across. An eagle needs 6' or more to raise its wings. I also attached those annoying little pinwheels for children all around the pens. A few wiggling ribbons help too. We never lost a single one of these chickens to a predator. We made 4 divisions to the pen area so that they could rotate and have fresh greens and bugs daily.
I will raise these chickens again, but I will keep my eye open, like the author in the following articles, and hope to find a chicken I can integrate into a natural propagation routine.
Did I mention that they all dressed out over six pounds each at twelve weeks old?
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/04/raising-meat-chickens.html
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/11/can-you-keep-cornish-x-chickens-as-laying-hens.html
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