We have offically butchered the broilers.They were 8.5 weeks old. We have never raised them before but wanted to to see how they raised out. When we purchased the birds we got 10, we lost one about 2 weeks in so we had to finish the trial run with 9. We fed them Chick starter that was 24% protein through this whole run. We weighed them live then weighed them processed to come up with our numbers. Here is how things went for us.

Price of birds $20.00
Price of feed $42.75 (3 bags of chick starter at $14.25 a bag)
Price per bird $6.97 (after adding bird price and feed price together, then divide by number of birds)
Price per lb $2.09 (take total cost of of feed and birds and divide by the processed weight)


We started with 40.13 pounds live weight and ended with 30.03 pounds processed weight. we lost 10.1 pounds. that is approx 25% loss, we are well within our loss ratio! Here is some information about the Cornish cross.

Cornish Cross

Cornish Cross (Cornish X) chickens are the standard meat chicken for the American market. Sometimes call broilers or Cornish/Rocks.

Although it is NOT a breed of chicken, it is a cross or hybrid of some very secret breed lines for the sole purpose of gaining weight as rapidly as possible.

The first attempts at "Hybrid" meat birds was in the 1930's and was the dominate commercial bird by the 1960's.

Modern broilers are typically a third generation offspring (an F2 hybrid). The broiler's four grandparents come from four different strains, two of which produce the male parent line and two of which provide the female parent line, which are in turn mated to provide the broilers. The double cross protects the developer's unique genetics as strains cannot be reproduced from the broiler offspring.

In 2003, approximately 42 billion broilers were produced, 80% of which were produced by four companies: Aviagen, Cobb-Vantress, Hubbard Farms, and Hybro making them arguably, the most popular chicken to raise.

Chicken Breed Info: Breed Purpose: Meat Bird Comb: Pea Broodiness: Seldom Climate Tolerance: All Climates	General Egg Info: Egg Productivity: Low Egg Size: Medium Egg Color: Brown
Breed Temperament: Calm,Bears confinement well	Breed Colors / Varieties: White

Breed Details:
A Cornish X will weigh about 3 times that of a Buff Orphington (dual purpose breed) at 5 weeks! From hatch to slaughter weight in 6 to 8 weeks, some hatcheries claim 9 1/2 pounds in 10.5 weeks! Processing is much easier with Cornish X's than a dual-purpose bird because they have very little feathering at slaughter age. Probably the only other reason why this bird is used so much by the processing/packing industry. Cornish X's are not self-sufficient. The best results after brooding seem to come from those who raise in a chicken tractor, moved daily (sometimes more), and a ration of high protein feed. Rationing the feed 12 on, 12 off, seems to encourage the Cornish X to forage and get some exercise. If not, they tend to stay right by the feeder making a very concentrated mess. Some problems that may occur if pushed (or even just because of their genetics) are heart attacks, broken legs, and FLIP.