cornish cross

[little dave]

my cornish cross are about 13 weeks old and very large. what is a humane way to harvest these chickens? I also have 2 of them with a bare breast from feathers missing, i think they are pulling them out her self but are in with leg horns the same age but half the size,what you think could be going on?

 

[KimBlake]

Well, do you plan to do the butchering yourself? There are many posts on this forum about how to humanely kill them. I prefer slitting the throat to let them bleed out immediately. They seem to just "go to sleep" this way.

My concern is that your birds are so old. They must be enormous. Cornish X are usually done is 8-10 weeks because of their size. They will start having heart failure, broken legs and other deaths if they get too big. I'm sure there are other issues that may keep them from these problems, especially if you are free ranging. They don't grow so fast that way, but I'm curious what your plan is.

Their bare breasts come from lying down, they are just too big to walk around all day like a regular chicken. They lay down even when they are eating and the feathers tend to wear away. No issue there

Good Luck!!

Kim