Cornish x's vs Heavy Breed Cockerels Any suggestions

[claud]

I've never raised Xs. I've raised "dual-purpose" birds several times and I always assumed the "dual-purpose" title was that they could keep the hens and eat the roos(most of them anyway).
The meat is good, especially the breast - not as meaty or tender as a X of course. The rest of the bird is very dark meat - the legs I think are more like turkey.
The problem, I think, is that you spend lots of $$ on feed to get them big enough to process. The last time I raised some(this spring) my DH suggested we just get rid of the chickens and eat the feed - more cost effective. LOL.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:

Ain't that the truth!

 

[Baybrio]

Chinklady,

Others have provided outstanding info on care, I'll only add no matter how fast you think they'll grow, they'll grow faster! Mine didn't really smell, mostly because after reading posts in this forum I was prepared for a lot of poop. I have horses, so I know poop

Emotionally - I really enjoyed the CX's. I wanted to make their short lives as nice as possible. I always had their food (during the day) and water in the shade and due to our high humidity I had a fan blowing on them all day. They had a large grass yard to move around in, they often did that in the early morning and evening. Mine were very quiet and not at all scared of me. I could pick them up at anytime and only a few protested. One would even come and sit on my lap while the others ate in the morning.

That said, I know it is no favor to these guys to try and keep them around. I didn't like bringing them to be processed but I knew in my heart that no matter who had them their lives would deteriorate in the future. This was made all the more apparent when the one hen I missed recently died of I guess a heart attach. She has not been happy since the other x's left. She had the other slow broilers but still I think did not feel well.

These slow broilers are a different story, this is going to be hard. They are fit, active and incredibly friendly. If I sit outside they all hang around me. I have 10 and I'd say there is only one that doesn't try and crowd on my lap to be petted, and this is directly after I put food out for them. So there I sit, one on each shoulder, four on my lap and the others wondering around waiting for their turn. Now my egg chickens, the ones I tried to tame, they are not afraid of me, I can pick them up, but they do not like to be touched and complain heavily if I try and pet them.

 

[chiknlady]

baybrio--I wish you strength to carry out your appointed work when the time comes. Your's is a touching message to all to remember what is at stake...It will be a eyeopening experience either way--lol--either I will be a natural born processor, or it will be my last meat meal...right now I am telling myself--"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

 

[walkswithdog]

What I want to do is try crossing purebred Cornish roo (yes, I know the difference between purebred Cornish and the meat breeds) over various breeds of dual-purpose hens, to see what makes an acceptable table bird for my own tastes. One of the reasons I want to do this is so that I can maintain a sustainable flock of meat producing birds, without being dependent on buying hatchery chicks every time I want meat birds. I can't do that with the C-X's. This would also give me the flexibility of hatching out smaller numbers at any one time, so I could raise and process a dozen at a time (or thereabouts) and not have such heavy processing days when it's time to butcher. Over time, with some luck, perhaps I'll have a bird of cross-breed origins that can breed true and be a sustainable meatish breed, even though they will not be as big as the Cornish X's.

An acceptable table bird, for me, would dress out to around 3 1/2 to 5 lbs by the age of 12-14 weeks, and be tender enough at 10 weeks to fry, (even if it was a little chewier than the X's, that's ok) tender enough at 14 weeks to roast. Healthy enough that if I wanted to keep some of the hens and a roo for further breeding experiments, they wouldn't drop dead from CHF. They'd be fairly active and like to run around and forage in the pasture.

There are a couple of individuals that, for some reason, take great issue with me or others, for choosing to try this, and seem to find the whole idea an affront to them, personally. It isn't. It's just my choice, for myself.

Sustainability is important to me. I want to know that if something weird happened, and we couldn't get the hatchery meat chicks, I'd still be eating chicken, even if it's all crock pot birds. That's not a concern for some, and I understand that. I don't care if others choose to raise X's or any other kind of bird, that's their choice, and none of my business.

For those who like the X's, and have done well with them, great. I'm happy that you have birds you're pleased with. I'm happy to see people raising their own meat, regardless of what breed they choose.

Hey I applaud any further attempts at self sufficiency but you might want to start with a leg up on your project. I found THESE folks after quite a search. It's their cornish crosses I'll be getting here.

http://www.myoregoncoast.com/index.php/YachatsValleyHatchery/OurChickenBreeds

Thought it might help out to start with birds already capable of full maturity, free range and naturally breeding.

Good luck!​

 

[dancingbear]

Walkswithdog, thank you for the link. It's nice to see there are people out there doing similar things. I probably won't order chicks from them, though, I'm working on acquiring the birds I want for my 2nd and 3rd experiments, now. The first one didn't work out very well. I didn't really expect that it would, as I had male/female reversed on the two breeds I was crossing, but that's what I had already, so though what the heck, I'll try it. Maybe it'll turn out ok. This was Brahma roo/dark Cornish hen, what I wanted was the reverse, C roo, B hen, but I didn't have a C roo, yet. I got fine, healthy birds, but nothing suitable for table production. The roos will be sent to freezer camp soon anyway, the hens can be layers. (I don't care if they aren't peak production layers, they'll still lay nice eggs.)

 

[Fredster]

Quote:
Sad that people would. We don't raise Cornish-Xs because I've read far too many stories like yours. I want my chickens to BE chickens --- to run around the yard, scratching and chasing bugs. We have a flock of about 50 chickens that are 6-7 base breeds and a bunch of mutt offspring. We process one or two a week, old ones if we want to make a casserole and young ones if we want to roast it or cut it into pieces. I make sure new chicks are constantly replacing the ones we eat, either with a broody girl or with an incubator.

I couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

Like you, I don't care what others choose to do; it's not my business. We raise our chickens the way we want them raised, and as long as our money isn't going to a factory farm I'm happy.

 

[swampducks]

Quote:
I was looking for a chicken salad recipe in my circa 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook and came across this suggestion for Mock Chicken Salad:

"A delicious and economical substitution for the real thing... when chicken is high and veal not so expensive."

Yup, apparently mock chicken salad using veal instead of chicken when prices for chicken got too high!

 

[mtnhomechick]

I am raising 20 cornish x's right now and they are almost 4 weeks and smaller than I thought they would be. Hope they grow alot in the last few weeks. The poo smell is almost more than I can take and I clean every day. Will take a wait and see on this topic.

Thanks for an abundance of info though.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
I was looking for a chicken salad recipe in my circa 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook and came across this suggestion for Mock Chicken Salad:

"A delicious and economical substitution for the real thing... when chicken is high and veal not so expensive."

Yup, apparently mock chicken salad using veal instead of chicken when prices for chicken got too high!

I believe you, I just can't fanthom veal being more expensive then Chicken!