Cornish Crosses

[carolinagirl58]

Yep...leghorns are the laying birds. They are the ones the commercial hatcheries general use. Excellent for eggs, not so goo for meat. It's easy to tell very early on if they are pullets or roosters. The roosters get huge combs quite young.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Rhonda, You got White Leghorns.....here is the description of the "Fry Pan Special" from McMurray's website:

"Some people prefer a smaller, lighter bird for fryers and these will fill that bill. They are white feathered, yellow skinned, light breed cockerel chicks from either our White Leghorns. They are delicious fryers but will take longer to reach butchering size. They will not be as large as Cornish X Rock or Cornish Roasters. Many of our customers buy the Frying Pan Special for butchering and raise them with the pullets they order"

You definitely want to butcher them before they sexually mature if they are little roos. I would guess 12-14 weeks or so.

I was wondering how broilers were hunting down other chickens. IME, broilers are too slow to hunt anyone down. I have far more trouble with heritage cockerels beating up the meaties than the other way around.

Seconding the fact that you'll need to wait until 14 weeks to butcher these. There won't be any meat on them at all at eight weeks, whereas a broiler would dress out at six pounds by then. We keep Leghorn hens, and they're by far the lightest birds we have.

Sounds like you misunderstood what you were ordering. Too bad.

 

[Rhonda0115]

I was wondering how broilers were hunting down other chickens. IME, broilers are too slow to hunt anyone down. I have far more trouble with heritage cockerels beating up the meaties than the other way around.

Seconding the fact that you'll need to wait until 14 weeks to butcher these. There won't be any meat on them at all at eight weeks, whereas a broiler would dress out at six pounds by then. We keep Leghorn hens, and they're by far the lightest birds we have.

Sounds like you misunderstood what you were ordering. Too bad.

Yeah... I have figured out what I'm NOT ordering next year though! LOL! Oh well...live and learn. Not disappointed, just curious about Leghorns now...these guys are just super mean to other birds (in my opinion). Too Jurassic Park for my taste. Any suggestions on meatbirds for next year???

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Yeah... I have figured out what I'm NOT ordering next year though! LOL! Oh well...live and learn. Not disappointed, just curious about Leghorns now...these guys are just super mean to other birds (in my opinion). Too Jurassic Park for my taste. Any suggestions on meatbirds for next year???

Strange, because my white Leghorn hens from Ideal don't give me a bit of trouble. They don't like me to mess with them, which is OK because I'm not inclined to cuddle chickens much any way. But you should hear the squawking when I have to grab them to clip wings or deworm!

If you don't want Cornish broilers, then you might try this assortment from MMM: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/all_heavies.html. I will say that I'm disappointed they'd include Red Stars and Black Stars as possibles for this assortment, because those are pretty light egg-laying breeds.

I also think highly of Plymouth Rocks as meat birds, especially the barred variety. MMM sells a Red Ranger meatie, as well. Marnans seem to be a tasty meat bird, but of course they're a rare breed and there's no way you'd want to pay the per-chick price for them just to eat them. We eat some Marans crosses because we have a big Marans roo as one of our flock roosters.

But if you were to ask my true recommendation, I'd tell you to buy the commercial white Cornish X broiler every time. I don't have the patience to keep meat cockerels around for 14 weeks unless I've hatched them myself and have to do something with the excess cockerels. And they're just. so. darn. tasty.

 

[Elke Beck]

Most hatcheries sell male chicks from the dual purpose breeds like Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, and Plymouth Rocks (all colors) for cheaper than straight run. Sometimes they have sales on the male chicks for even cheaper. I suggest buying these chicks for meat birds. They will take longer to grow out, but you will have heathy, active birds instead of the meatballs that are Cornish X's.

 

[Joanmcm]

I have 52 straight run cornish crosses from Meyers. They are doing great. The only time there was too much aggression was during the week they were starting to go outside during the day. The weather turned bad and they had to stay inside one day and I was delayed feeding them one hour and found the pen was full of blood. Turned out one chick had a gash on her bum after the dust cleared and I washed the chick up (3 weeks old). Put some neosporin on her bum and she is fine now. They have been outside for the last week in a pasture pen 24/7 that is moved daily and are ok. They do boss each other around but no more gashes. They get fed 4 times a day and are kept off feed during the night at the haterchery's recommendation. Absolutely they looked like something out of Jurassic park when younger and I am sure that is where they got the idea for the creatures in the movie. Mine do not seem to stalk in a group but even the littlest chicks will just walk on the backs of the bigger chicks to get to food or wherever they want to go.