Cornish X for meat

[honeydoll]

Well I am new to this forum and new to raising chickens. We bought our first batch on Mother's Day this year. We have RI reds for eggs and cornish x for meat. Soooo - I have read all the posts about cornish X and all the difficulties with them and realized I did everything wrong in raising them. I still ended up with nice healthy birds and have chuckled at myself doing this all wrong. We haven't had the serious health issues others have. I butchered my first one yesterday and we ate it today - MMMMM. I let mine free range in the day and it was yummy. I took alot of pride in raising them so I actually found it relieving to kill my own chicken because I knew I did not let him suffer. In doing everything wrong I feel lucky we had a great turn out. I have four more left to process, but I can do it. It took me 45 minutes to finish processing mine yesterday, I was afraid the thing would spoil before I was done. But I did it, if we are all sick tomorrow I know I really messed up something, ha!ha! I was paranoid about getting poo in the body cavity and was soooo nervous to eat it today but it did taste yummy. My oldest boy wouldn't eat it because he said it ate bugs. So funny. So for any of you novice chicken owners that are thinking you got in ever your head, relax and try processing one before you give up. It's not that bad, and if I can get healthy meaties doing it all wrong so can you.

 

[zephyrcreek]

There is a big difference in the different "bloodlines" of cornish crosses. My Hubbard White Mountains were CX, but much slower growing and very active foragers than other lines I've had from the same hatchery.

Good Job! It sounds like you had fun, and very tasty food. That's what matters.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I'm really lazy and there's so much on this site to look through, so could you make it really easy for me and tell me what you did wrong and what you were supposed to do instead?

 

[jaku]

Good post. Most of the negative press Cornish X's get on this site is either from people who've never raised them, or people who raised them expecting them to be just like layers, meaning, almost zero maintenance. Cornish X's are fairly easy to raise, they're usually healthy- I've been doing this a couple of years now, and not a single major health issue, beyond losing an occasional bird.

 

[Buster52]

I'm sure I could raise them, and I imagine they would be wonderful tasting. My role model in chicken raising Joel Salatin loves them, calls them the race car of the chicken world because they are high powered, high octane beasties. I believe a lot of small, sustainable farmers feel like they need to raise them since they have such a hard time competing with the big guys who get all the breaks from the government. If they have to "cheat" just a little by raising these, how can I really blame them? Better that than to go out of business.

But there are a few things that nobody disputes.

One, they don't breed true, so they aren't self-sustaining. Two, they tend to die very young if you try to keep them as breeding stock because they are huge. Three, even if they do live, the only way to breed them is through AI, because they are too big.

For those reasons, and those reasons only, I will never raise them. Otherwise, I would be right there along with ya, messing up all the way through and still eating delicious chicken.

 

[honeydoll]

Eggs4Sale - I will post my mistakes - now everybody will think I'm stupid(just kidding - I hope) - but here goes anyways: well I read you are not supposed to feed them 24/7 - OOPS, I did. Then you are not supposed to let them be in the same coop with other breeds because they will be pecked at - OOPS again. I only had this issue in the brooder and just built another brooder - in the coop no probs though. Didn't process some of them at the right age, used DLM method in coop and on and on and on. I was told if you let cornish X's free range they are very prone to illness and should be sheltered always, (I never really bought into this but that is what I was told) - so OOPS thrice. The DLM method worked quite well for us and we never got maggots or a bad odor. I guess ignorance is best because I thought all chickens were dirty and didn't realize my cornish X were "nasty" (as some say) because I came into this realizing any farm animal I buy probably are not going to be concerned with cleanliness (haha). So yes they poop alot, so does my dog and unlike my dog the cornish x's don't eat their poo!!! So maybe they're cleaner then Fido. All in all, I would do it again. IF you keep fresh mulch in the coop it shouldn't stink, I also use Stall Dry ( hope that's not a mistake too). That's all I can think of to say now I probably made other mistakes but my cornishes are delicious and healthy birds and seem rather happy to be here too, until...

 

[UncleHoot]

Many of us feed them 24/7, so I don't consider that a mistake at all.

I'd be afraid to use stall-dry, just because they might eat some of it. Heck, I don't even weed-n-feed anywhere in my yard anymore, because I'm too afraid that my hens will eat it. LOL

 

[skeeter03]

We did 15 cornish rock giants this year - we had them in the brooder with the leghorns and they all did just dandy together. no pecking keep the coop dark it helps.
feeding was 24/7 for the first few weeks - then it was some at night and some in the morning - we were told ruffly .5lbs of food per bird per day.
we also let them outside once they got their feathers in - we made them walk- water outside food inside so they had to walk and get a little bit of exercise.
We didnt loose any to sickness or disease - we butchered them at 11.5 weeks and they were all around 6.75 lbs each.
They do poop ALOT and are stinky (now that they are all in the freezer we realize just how much lol) but weekly cleaning of the coop helps that problem
they are alot of work compared to just a regular ole leghorn or something but so worth it when you get a nice big bird that has huge breasts on it and they are sooooooo good.
and hey its only 12 weeks haha