I purchased 25 Cornish Cross chicks and 50 laying chickens. I am going to use the Cornish Cross chicks for meat. Of course they are growing good and are far outweighing the layer chicks. Right now I have them in the same run inside the chicken house. My problem is it looks like the Cornish Cross are bullying the smaller layer away from the food and heat. Should I separate them? I have not been watching them as close as I should have, so I don't know if the little chicks are eating and drinking after the bigger ones get their fill. Any suggestions?
P.S. Just love this site. You all are such Eggsperts! LOL.
When to separate Cornish Cross and Layer chicks
We have both as well and have them separated, ever since we got them. You'll feed them both a little differently so you should separate them. We have them in the same room with a divider between them.
Hope this helps.
Kathy :)
I raised all mine together and everyone seemed to do fine, but I used to fill the feed pans as well as scatter feed for them. We pastured them all for the summer. The cornish couldn't fly so they were much easier to keep contained.
I have ordered 20 cornish to be delivered on the 26th of march, can they be placed with turkey chicks?
Chickens and turkeys get along fine, but make sure the turkeys don't sit on top of the chicks when they are small. I gave my chicks a head start, then mixed them together.
The CornishX grow quite a bit faster ... mostly because they eat so much more. If I did this over again I'd either give the other chicks a head start of a week or separate them after 10 days or so. The larger Cornish can literally squash the others at a point 2-3 weeks. We had just 1 Cornish in our original group so it was not an issue.
My first batch of cornish will be coming in on the 26th of march, my turkeys wont be here until April 16th. This should be another lead for the cornish shouldnt it?
That should be fine. You'll be able to tell if there are any problems, just by keeping an eye on them.
Thank you very much, this site is a great help.