Best place to buy Cornish Cross Meat Broilers

Newbie here I am wanting to get some Cornish Cross birds in the fall to butcher. Where does everybody order their chicks from online? Are there some places that have specials on these chickens at certain times? I've been watching Ideal Poultry but they they haven't had any sales for Cornish Crosses yet, but I figured with the weather, they may not at this time. Just wondered what everybody's opinions are. Thanks!

Welcome to BYC!

I've never kept Cornish Crosses, but they are available at nearly every hatchery there is. They are difficult to breed, which is why hobby farmers may not have chicks available. Some awesome birds are also Red Rangers or Pioneers. They are available at a lot of hatcheries now as well.

I hope you can find what you want. Best of luck!

I've seen them as low as $1.15 at some hatcheries, but shipping kills it. I'm going to ask my local feed store if they'll place an order for me since they already order several birds

Thanks for your responses! I've actually gone back and forth. Do I want Cornish hens or do I want to raise a different breed. I get a little nervous when I think about what is injected or put into Cornish hens to make them grow so fast. I'd like it better if I could raise my own, either incubating the eggs or having mother hen do it

They're not "difficult to breed" - they're tightly controlled terminal crosses. If they're not coming (atleast indirectly) from Avigen, Ross, or one of the other big guys, you're not going to have the same sort of growth/size because they're not going to be the right birds. There's a ton of breeding/research/etc that goes into these things.


If you're raising them for meat, and cost is a concern, you're not going to come close to commercial breeds with anything else - the feed conversion and growth rates are just too low (comparatively). Red Rangers, etc, (which are also crosses) are going to cost you significantly more (in feed costs mostly) than cornish cross - and heritage birds are going to cost drastically more than rangers.

The reason for this is that we're 50 years into selectively breeding cornish cross lines - the traditional meat breeds have largely been abandoned, and any sort of "dual purpose" breed you buy is really just a big layer - almost no one has been selecting for growth speed, carcass quality, etc.


Nothing is injected into Cornish Cross to make them grow so fast.

welderswife said:

Thanks for your responses! I've actually gone back and forth. Do I want Cornish hens or do I want to raise a different breed. I get a little nervous when I think about what is injected or put into Cornish hens to make them grow so fast. I'd like it better if I could raise my own, either incubating the eggs or having mother hen do it

Click to expand...

I research domestic animal breeds and hybrids, and in my work I have decided (this is an opinion, please don't take it as an insult to anyone) that Cornish Crosses are an unhealthy way to get food faster. They don't often live past a year and are prone to heart-attacks, leg problems, difficulty breeding, and multiple other diseases. The higher price of heritage breeds is worth it, because you know that they are sustainable and healthy (not to mention just so pretty!). Again, this is my opinion, just thought I'd put it out there.

Cornish Crosses do get injected in some large businesses (from what I've heard), but backyard raisers don't inject them with anything.

GitaBooks said:

. The higher price of heritage breeds is worth it, because you know that they are sustainable and healthy (not to mention just so pretty!).

Click to expand...

Heritage breeds eat atleast 5-6x times as much food to get to a marketable weight - there's absolutely nothing 'sustainable' about growing heritage birds for meat.

I disagree, but I don't want to argue (I've seen some heated arguments on here and wish to avoid that).

Thank you for stating your opinions, I do agree they do take a lot more food.

Sustainability has to do with the owner's ability to breed them to get more chicks. Their stock is sustainable. They don't have to go and buy new batches everytime they want more birds, like you would with Cornish x. They can just let their birds do their own, natural thing and they get more birds. Yes, heritage breeds eat more. They live longer.

Cornish X are more economical, but not more sustainable, since you're completely dependent on other people breeding them and sending them to you.