1st & last time raising Cornish X

I bought 30 cornish x at the end of February and another 10 at the end of March. Lost 10 from the first batch due to an owl getting in the pen and butchered the rest of the 20 at the end of April. Still have 9 to butcher from the second batch (one died) I will do in the next week or two. All I can honestly say is I will buy chicken from the grocery store before I raise them nasty things ever again. These things stink, stank and stunk all the way around. I am in the process of trying to locate some heritage dual purpose breeds to be able to eat later on. Those cornish x stunk worse than my pigs. To all of you who can handle the smell, my hats off to ya...

I went to the feed store today for supplies- they tried giving me as many Cornish x as I wanted because I was buying feed ( weekend special ) Thought about it for a sec & then NOPE NOPE NOPE..... I will stick to my egg layers for now. I have heard they are stinky & messy from a few others. I have never raised meat birds before and don't think I want to start now

See, we just finished raising 25 (already cleaned 11) and we didnt notice that they were that bad? They were kept outside in a HUGE enclosure, fed grain twice daily and vegetables at least once a day (juicer clippings) there were days when they were a little stinky but nothing like what youre referring to. I wonder why yours were so bad (and ive heard a lot of them are AWFUL here on the group) Keeping their ground dry was our biggest issue (south florida has a lot of rain and the ground doesnt soak it up well) but as long as we kept putting down fresh bedding (even if just dry palm fraunds to get the chickens up off the ground) they werent bad.

I just finished processing the last 4 of my first group. I thought they were awful for the first few weeks until I switched them to fermented feed. They got fed 2x day and like daviechik said I just try to keep them dry. We haven't had any issues from the smell.

They are nasty if raised on "regular" feed. But if you raise them on fermented feed, they are the same as any other chickens.

One of the misnomers about CX is brought about because they are usually kept in tight quarters. I dare say, if you kept the same # of eggers in that same space you would have a similar smell. Now remember they eat more, so they poop more.

Mine haven't been too bad so far. When I first brought them home they were in a 75 gal feed tub and I had just hay in the bottom. Nasty stinky mess over night. I was dumping it in the compost pile every morning. (We weren't completely prepared). I got a bag of shavings after 5 days and that helped so much. I added fresh shavings every morning. Hubby made me a 4'x4'x3' brooder. The birds were cleaner, the fresh shavings every morning kept things drier. I didn't take out the old, just added a thin layer. I should mention I had 14 creepy meats, and 8 various pullets. As soon as I was able I took them out in the mornings to a 10'x10' chicken run the big girls sleep in. In the evenings I let them free range. I'm sure the free ranging and the having them outside during the day as soon as I could helped keep them from being a huge mess. I now have 20 Red Rangers, 4 EE, and a banty pullet in the garage in the big brooder again.

BrendaJ said:

I went to the feed store today for supplies- they tried giving me as many Cornish x as I wanted because I was buying feed ( weekend special ) Thought about it for a sec & then NOPE NOPE NOPE..... I will stick to my egg layers for now. I have heard they are stinky & messy from a few others. I have never raised meat birds before and don't think I want to start now

Click to expand...

I raised 20 this winter/spring. I wasn't able to free range them, so we had them in a 12' x 12' stall/pen. The seemed to have plenty of room, and there really wasn't that much mess considering how much they ate. This is what I have to show for it:




My summer meaties are Red Rangers, and an assortment of white dual-purpose males(orpingtons, rocks, and giants) to caponize. They should free range well this summer.

BCMaraniac said:

I raised 20 this winter/spring. I wasn't able to free range them, so we had them in a 12' x 12' stall/pen. The seemed to have plenty of room, and there really wasn't that much mess considering how much they ate. This is what I have to show for it:




My summer meaties are Red Rangers, and an assortment of white dual-purpose males(orpingtons, rocks, and giants) to caponize. They should free range well this summer.

Click to expand...

Looks like it payed out for you - a few nice dinners there I have heard such mixed opinions on them - mainly messy/smelly. I might venture to that avenue one day but just not ready yet.

ZooSD said:

I just finished processing the last 4 of my first group. I thought they were awful for the first few weeks until I switched them to fermented feed. They got fed 2x day and like daviechik said I just try to keep them dry. We haven't had any issues from the smell.

Click to expand...

This is what we plan on doing FF and giving them enough room in the pen - open air coup and fresh pine shavings.