[newbi]

I am new at keeping chickens and have some ross/cobbs which I was told would be ready for the table in 12 wks but they are 14 wks now and we have just slaughtered the first one but it seems to be a bit on the thin side, we feed them corn and maize does anyone know what else we could give them but nothing with chemicals in, also the bird was covered in mites not red mite as I was told they dont live on the bird but these were, HELP what do I do to stop this happening.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Not an expert by any means but I suspect that the answer lies in both what you are feeding them and the mites. Mixed grain is not nutritionally balanced and therefore may not be giving them what they need for healthy growth even though I think both mixed grain and layers pellets give about 16% protein. Might be worth trying adding in some grower pellets although they may not be that keen as they have had the corn for so long. Corn is generally given as a treat (like choc for us, nice but not so good to live on) so they may well turn their noses up to begin with.
The other problem is the mite. They are parasites and therefore drain the energy (and occasionally the life) out of their unwilling host. Hard to put on weight and condition when you are eating for thousands! Time to treat them all before you have bigger problems than skinny birds. Can't give you much advice about how (except it is probably going to involve chemicals of some sort) as it is a problem that, touch wood, is rare in ducks. Have a look at the Poutry advice pages as there is a lot of advice there for dealing with external and internal parasites. Which brings me on to the next posibility, worming them might also be an idea.

[GrannieAnnie]

We feed our table birds chick crumb for 4 weeks, then growers until a week before they are culled when they have 7 days of unmedicated finisher pellets.

Mind you, we prefer Hubbards to Ross/cobbs  Our biggest cockerel was 18lbs!!