Can you breed Cornish X?

[Jessica Rabbit]

Ok so I have searched the forums as much as possible and cannot seem to find the answer.

I was trying to discover if I were to buy straight run Cornish X from a hatchery if I could then breed them myself? I keep finding two very different answers, 1) no, because they are too big to mate once they reach maturity and 2) that of course you can, its just another chicken.

Ok I know it is a hybrid so I am open to all opinions!

 

[SteveH]

Check this thread , https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=338501 , and there are several threads in this section about people using CX to crossbreed or getting ready to .
Since they are the hybrid offspring of very specific parent lines used in a prescribed sequence , simply keeping some of the offspring back for breeders will not give you chicks with the same performence abilities . If you want to go to the trouble and expence of raising some for breeding , you should get reasonably good meat birds but not with the same uniform characteristics for shape , feed conversion , and growth as the ones you buy from a hatchery with access to the hybrid hatching eggs .
ETA : Even with exact management employed by the registered growers of the parent lines , these birds burn out at around 60 weeks of age and some of the roosters are replaced before then . So if you're going into this project be forewarned that you can't just keep a flock of CX around to raise several batches over a two or three year period .