Cornish x

[suzieq]

I have a Cornish x that I did not know was a Cornish x. An acquaintance found a white chicken in a local park. ..and asked me to take her and give her a home. She is a female and was still peeping at the time. As she grew I realized that she was not a normal hen like I have. The person who gave her to me is a vegan and has a different mind set than I in terms of farm animals. So now daisy is a tank.. She has a hard time going up and down the ramp like the bantams. She poops like crazy? Is that normal? This acquaintance is looking for a foster home for her to live out her life but meantime I am stuck caring for this chicken. Lesson #1 never volunteer for this type of duty. My questions is in regards to her pooping. It seems excessive? Is that normal for a cornish x since they generally are not meant to live more than 16-20 weeks. .. or could she be ill?

Thank you

Susan

 

[ke_ben]

Sounds completely normal, double the growth, at least double the poop. This is assuming that it "looks" normal in every other way, color and consistency, with white cap and no blood. Sounds like dinner in a few weeks!

 

[the simple life]

All the cornish x do is eat and poop, its excessive but normal for them.
I am raising a couple of batches now and its ridiculous how much they go, as chicks you have to clean their brooder several times a day.
Now, it can be tough to raise one of those for life given their leg and heart problems but people do it by holding back the free feed and getting them exercise.
They really are not meant for that though, they are meant to be raise for meat and slaughtered between 6-8 weeks but some people hold off for a few more weeks to get them bigger if you can do that without them having heart attacks, but not usually 16-20 weeks.
How old is this chicken? Someone may be able to take her and raise her with their other chickens but you would have to restrict her feed or her legs will give out, if she doesn't eat herself to death first.
You were nice to take her in for that person but do not feel responsible for finding her a home, the person that found her and does not want her eaten is responsible for that.
If he/she wants to put restrictions on what can be done with her such as not eating a meat bird then they will probably have a hard time finding a home for her. I personally would not take in any chicken on the condition that I do or not do such and such with her. Once its mine its mine. Is this person willing to foot the cost of feed, shavings and housing related to her care?
If you end up having to keep her then I would not feel bad about doing what you want with her.
If she isn't having any problems and life is good for her then fine but if her legs give or she has any other issues then do what is best for her and don't feel bad about it.
Good luck with it.

 

[Parrotchick]

The first chickens I ever got, last April, were Cornish X, but I did not know anything about them at the time. I haven't eaten fowl in 10 years and wouldn't have contributed to that kind of breeding had I known at the time. They grew super fast and they do have enormous poops. Sometimes I think there's an egg in the straw when actually it's part of a Cornish poop pile. Their feathering is messy-balding chests and bellies and butts that are prone to having poop stuck to them.

My understanding and experience is that they don't live very long because of their enormous size. Their legs and hearts give out. My 2 boys were eithanized this summer after getting maggots when I just couldn't keep their butts clean enough (a misdiagnosis of cocci had me complacently treating with medicated feed and sulmet, thinking that would fix the problem). One pullet named Khaki died of a heart attack at my feet in my living room on Christmas Eve as I was trying to make her last days more comfortable. She weighed 15 pounds. Another pullet Camo was found dead on the coop one morning a few weeks later. Both those girls had difficulty going up the ramp themselves. I made sure I was home every night around sunset to help them in. All the Cornishes sleep in the straw at the bottom of the coop; I figured they're too big to roost even though I gave them wide planks a few inches from the ground. My two remaining pullets seem hale and hearty at the ripe old age of 9 1/2 months, about the end of the Cornish X life expectancy. They are eating machines, but they have also had lots of free range time for exercise and general chicken well being. They lay big yummy eggs a few times a week, even in this brutal winter. All the roosters adore these girls and they have to wear Hensavers. My top rooster, a silkie not even 1/4 their size, tried his best to round up these girls and was absolutely beside himself when the two "disappeared."

I found the Cornishes to be really sweet chickens and very comical, especially when they run. My experience with them has been bittersweet, but I vowed to do the best I could for my chickens, which are pets to me. I know not everyone looks at chicken raising the way I do, and I wish I were close enough to adopt this hen. As far as eating her, I would of course never know, but somebody posted in one of my threads that she was planning on eating ones slaughtered at an older age (5 months + maybe? I can't exactly remember). But she said the inside was so gross with fatty looking blobs everywhere, that she didn't even want to feed them to the dogs.

On a side note, I recently went to adopt a chicken at my local ASPCA. She had been found wandering down a major thoroughfare. But darn if somebody didn't put in the application first and get her. With zillions of chickens out there, it might not seem like such a big deal to save one, but I'm sure it's a big deal to her. Good luck!

 

[jaku]

Yup, all they do is poop!

 

[blueskylen]

I've read a lot of posts about how stinky,messy,lazy,stupid the Cornish X are. I raised 50 last spring, and while they are stinky and poop a lot, I also found them to be cute and friendly. They were a crazy skittish when they were peeps, but as they got older would chirp at me when I stepped in to feed or put new bedding in. If I walked in slowly, they would just move over a little bit, so I could put the bedding underneath them and talked to me while I did it.

i think that I gave them a very good life in the time that they had, and don't feel as badly about processing them at 8 weeks, as I would have an active breed that would normally lived years longer.

 

[kbarrett]

I had a similar situation....I took in a chick last summer that someone had found wandering on a city street. They were looking for a farm home for her and I promised not to eat her. Turned out she was a colored broiler. I kept her in the brooder until she was big enough to go in with my layers. It took her quite a while to get adjusted to the flock. Whithin a couple of months she was twice as big as the other girls! She slept on the coop floor and boy did the coop stink to high heaven

I had to clean her area every other day and couldn't use my hanging waterer because she'd bump into it all the time and constantly spill it. She did eventually enjoy outdoor time in the run and even would come out to free range. She laid her first egg the day after Christmas. I believe it was a heart attack that did her in when she tried to lay a second egg on New Year's Day. While I believe she had a good life, albeit a short one, if I were to have one as a pet I would need a different set up where I could limit the food intake. She single handedly about doubled my feed bill....she seriously almost ate as much as my 12 layers. Maybe she would have lived longer had conditions been right

I estimate she was around 6mo. as she was fully feathered when I got her.