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!
