cornish x

[Bossroo]

I smell a RAT !!!

 

[fowler_chick]

they disembowled each other, they had ample room, food and water, my coops are cleaned out and the run raked out on saturdays. treats were barley touched where as my chicken's go nuts over veggies.
4th of july nearly gave me a heart attack, fire works were just down the street from our farm and because the cornishes are a fast growing bird i was afriad that the fire works would give them heart attacks. it happend to a friend of ours....

 

[cassie]

Are you SURE they disembowelled each other? Mine wouldn't have had that much ambition. Really sounds more like a rat.

For my Cornish the day went like this: Eat. Drink. Poop. Plop. Eat. Drink. Poop. Plop. A friend who works for a broiler producer says they are busy "converting". He meant converting feed to chicken. They do it very well.

 

[Burbs]

Quote:
One thing I can say about my Cornish, I never had pecking issues. I am sure they would react like any other chicken and take advantage of a wound and peck at an injured bird. As cassie said they are way more interested in eating, drinking, pooping and sleeping. If it was phisically possible they would do all of them at once.

 

[fowler_chick]

the way our coop is made there was no way for a rat to get in, in hte last 4 year living in south west kansas i have never seen a rat, i know that we have bull snakes around but there mostly in the back of the farm where the creek is.....my coop is 9 ft in length 2 ft tall and 2 ft wide, it was built 2 ft above ground , i have since moved my chicks in to the coop since the c x are gone and nothing has happend to them, i'll try to post a pic of that the coop looks like at some point of the day.

 

[jaku]

I've never even HEARD of Cornish X's doing that- come to think of it, I've never heard of any chickens actually disemboweling one another- that doesn't seem likely to me as your problem. Heck, I've never even had Cornish X's peck one another. It sounds like your problems had nothing to do with them specifically being meat birds- sounds like general bad luck with this batch.

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

We got 16 Cornish Rocks and harvested the roos at 6 weeks - average 4# and the hens at 8 weeks - average 4.75#. We are looking forward to doing 50 next year. Want to make sausage and have ground chicken instead of hamburger (sometimes). Don't give up on chickens they are great!

 

[ChickenCrazy]

Quote:
My Cornish X's are 5 weeks old on Wednesday. They are dirty, breath heavy and are a bit bare on the belly and bottoms.

My run around like normal chickens, scratch, swarm me when I walk in their room, and talk constantly. They sadly are the sweetest chickens I have had but won't go outside for anything.

I have been giving them the super vitamins that I bought from Welp when I purchased the chicks. Maybe that has something to do with my girls' extra energy.

Good luck!

 

[card5640]

Mine are actually becoming more lively since I started removing the feed several times during the day. They do peck about and chirp more, still no scratching and have no interest in free ranging. Cute little stinky baldies. But not so cute that I wont be able to let them go to Butcher camp.

 

[zephyrcreek]

Please remember that not all bloodlines are the same. My CX were dirty and had bald spots, but even the ones I kept to 12 weeks were still running around full of evergy without heavy breathing or leg issues. I will say that I did start them on pasture at 3 weeks, and they were very into finding bugs and clover. My suggestion is to order from someone else next time, and see if any of the hatcheries promote a slower growing cornish. Plus I think it helps if you add some young layers or colored range birds to the pen to help teach them what to do. Just make sure they are a few weeks older.

Don't give up!