Cornish Cross sexual maturity and can they breed?

[shnookey]

I was curious wether Cornish Crosses were capable of breeding due to their large size. I know I have seen a picture somewhere of a Cornish X hen that hatched and raised chicks. But I don't know if hte male was also Cornish X or not. And I am curious as to what AGE a Cornish is considered sexually mature. Since it's body ages so quickly, does that mean they mature sexually that much faster too? I THINK I have a Rooster. But the visual signs are not there. No sickle or rump points, or anything like that (yet). It is already 4 lbs. and still growing fast. It is only about 5 weeks old!!! Huge. That is why I think it is a male.. because I read that males grow much faster than the females.
So any help on these questions would be great! Thanks!

 

[greyfields]

They will start laying just like any other hybrid around 4.5 months. The trick is finding ones who won't die before then. I have some at my disposal who are around a year old now and are laying fine. The guy doesn't feed them anything. That may be key.

 

[shnookey]

And are the males of these girls Cornish X's too? I was worried hte males might be too heavy to get up and do thier thing. Like the heavy breed turkeys are.
I do know not all make it very long. So far my (what I think is male) is doing well. No physical problems. But as large as he is at this young age, I suppose that could change.
I was going to butcher him soon if there was no chance of him being able to breed.

 

[silkiechicken]

They may or may not be able to breed, or have the energy to breed when they get to adult ages. Either way, if you did get eggs that were fertile, they are crosses so the eggs won't hatch true.

 

[shnookey]

"The eggs won't hatch True". Meaning they will not be crosses themselves or??? I was just hoping to breed them to make more meaty birds for dinner.

 

[Omniskies]

I'd really like to free range a few cornish rock cross and try to raise them to breeding age. I've heard of adult crosses getting to 20lbs. Crossing that with a slow growing Brahma, or some other breed, would be interesting. Hopefully you would get a large bird that grows faster than the Brahma, but slower than the cross to avoid health issues.

We had one cross hen that lived to be nearly a year before she keeled over during the winter. She laid a few smallish eggs - nothing we tried to hatch since we never had a rooster.

Since the females grow more slowly, I want to keep back the smallest, or at least slowest growing, females out of a batch.

The downside is that I don't think I could keep enough cornish rock hens alive to do anything more than have a few chicks hatch out here and there. It'd be annoying to try and keep back a flock of a dozen hens only to have three make it to breeding age each time, lay five eggs and have maybe two hatch. It's on the to-do list for sometime in the distant future.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
Cornish Sire X Rock Hen = Cornish Cross

Cornish Cross X Cornish Cross =/= Cornish Cross

They are hybrids and cannot be re-bred to get the same creature. You have to use 'purebred' parents to create the cross... although there are no purebreed chickens. ;p

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
Not exactly. What you want is to keep the parents who had the highest weight at 8 weeks of age. Some will be larger sooner, some will grow larger later. But, it's the ones who are the heaviest at 8 weeks you are most interested in for your breeding.

 

[scgamecock]

I have a rooster that had his one year birthday last week.I haven't weighed him but I bet he's close to 20lbs.He crows and he will catch a hen every now and then when they get too close but he doesn't follow though.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
"=/=" != "!=" or does it?