Cornish X's = Nastiest birds EVER

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JenifferHartman

JenifferHartman

Chirping
6 Years
May 22, 2013
90
14
53
Basehor, KS
Soo we have raised 15 EE chickens for eggs. 2 of them are laying so far and my husband thought it would be neat to raise our own meat birds.. We have 5 cornish x chicks that are about 4 weeks and these are just the nastiest birds I have ever dealt with. My dad raised all kinds of birds when I was a kid (a variety of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys) so I have a bit of experience in that department.. however this will be the first time my husband and I have raised and butchered our own poultry. I sure won't be the one culling the birds.

We didn't go into this blind. I know these are rapid growth birds meant for meat. We did our research..
They are filthy.. they eat CONSTANTLY so guess what.. they POOP constantly. Oh just take their food away, right? NO! They make such a mess of it and spill so much it doesn't make any difference. Then you'll be waisting all that feed just to try to prevent them from eating themselves into a coma. They are the worst smelling chickens we have ever had and I clean that brooder, at the very least, twice a week because they are waiding in their own filth. Their undersides are bare. No feathers to speak of because of their weight they spend most of their time laying down (with their face in the feeder).

Absolutely disgusting creatures. . If it is THIS bad with only 5 birds, I can't imagine what those poultry farms are like. Kind of makes you think about what you buy at the store for your dinner plate. Never again! !
 
We just put them out in our temporary coop we use for our younger birds before integrating to our main flock. For their safety, we can't free range because they are exposed to a variety of predetors as we live in a wooded area with a creek running through the back of our property.. they do have access to a covered run now that they have outgrown the brooder.. Commercial birds are just not for us I guess. Lesson learned
 
That is not the experience I have had with CX at all. They can eat a lot and they can poop a lot but it has a lot to do with controlled feeding and housing situations. I loved my birds they are friendly and sweet and free range my yard ALL OVER everyday from morning til night then they slept in a tractor with was moved daily so the ground was kept clean underneath them. They didn't lay in there own poop all day or with their faces in the feeder. Im sorry you are having a bad experience with your birds. Maybe if you decide to try it again you can try different housing methods or something else to help make it more enjoyable.

These are my guys yesterday, 29 of them running the yard right before we processed them







 
Chicken pickin how old are those? Mine were also free range but not as well feathered. I wonder if there are different types of CX because mine had massive legs and feet. What sort of feed conversion do you get?
 
They were 8 weeks old. We processed all 29 of them last night. This year I didn't keep record of how many bags of fed I bought for them because they are also sharing those bags of feed with 8 turkeys. It was roughly 12 cups at 8am and 12 cups at 2pm. I just weighed one and he was just under 7lbs. I bought my CX fro Meyers hatchery. I have been very happy with their birds for the last 2 years. First year no loses, second year 2 day olds died during shipping, none have had any problems during the raising process.
 
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Have you looked into fermented feed as a supplement source? The apple cider vinegar (with the mother in it) in the water also helps with digestion....but the ACV in the feed - now THAT's what changed our minds about CX's.

Without the ACV and fermented feed - it was a stinky mess. With the ACV and fermented feed - they were more active, more interested in chasing bugs, less stinky and definitely less poopy too. I cannot say enough how much these birds need ACV in their digestive tract to help them!

Even if you start now, you will see improvement in their digestions. Please try it before you write off a whole breed of chickens.

Edited to add: We've now raised 3 batches of 15 cx's - one batch per year. We did 1 batch of 25 FR's too, and really like those birds, but that was too many for us to deal with in terms of processing and storage. So, until we can obtain fewer numbers of FR's, we'll do a batch of CX every spring.
 
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JenifferHartman said:
We just put them out in our temporary coop we use for our younger birds before integrating to our main flock. For their safety, we can't free range because they are exposed to a variety of predetors as we live in a wooded area with a creek running through the back of our property.. they do have access to a covered run now that they have outgrown the brooder.. Commercial birds are just not for us I guess. Lesson learned
Click to expand...

If you can not free range, do not get more birds than your area to house them can handle..

It is not the birds, it is your management.
 

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