Egg laying meat birds?????

[momto2]

After processing all but 3 of our meat birds, I am just wondering if anyone else has jumbo cornish X rock hens. They will be 20 weeks next month and I am just curious if anyone else has kept their meat birds for egg layers.

 

[momto2]

Anyone????

 

[bheila]

So, I have also kept 2 of my meat hens and am wondering the same thing. No eggs yet though. I did have someone tell me that they will lay giant eggs. Anyone?

 

[momto2]

some giant eggs would be cool!!

 

[kstaven]

There is the odd person around here that has managed to keep them going long enough to lay eggs. They aren't bred for egg production so don't expect to many eggs. From what I have seen their eggs are a large chicken egg and not what I would really call huge.

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
I believe that their hen was somewhere around 20 lbs, also. You'd have to keep your nest box on the ground, or very close to it.

 

[momto2]

The three hens we kept where our smallest ones. They probably weight between 13 to 15 pounds. I would not have kept them if they would have been as big as all the others. They seem to get around pretty easily. They will even run around every so often. I do agree with the boxes being on the ground cause these girls can't get too high off the ground. Ha Ha!!!

 

[bumblebeehillschickenfarm]

I keeped 2 hens out of my bunch and they layed eggs about 2 a week. One got alot bigger than the other and wattle and comb started getting purple heart started getting weak. I now have one and is doing great but she is alot smaller. So i am going to breed her to my Silver Marans since he is the boss and see how fast the chicks will grow .

 

[bheila]

I can't wait until mine start to lay eggs, if they ever do. I too wanted to do some experimenting with breeding and hatching. Now I just need to get a heavier breed rooster. I only have some BLRW roosters right now.

 

[minifarmer]

I had processed all my cx males at around 12 weeks-14 weeks and they were HUGE. In the 14 # range. I left the girls to grow for a few more weeks, more for my benefit, as I need to 'prepare' myself to 'do the deed'. Well, the day I finally decided to process the girls, I look out and see ....an egg. They were 16 weeks old at this time. My thought was to find out who the layer was and give her a stay of execution. By week 17 I was getting 3 eggs out of 6 meaties...As good A record as my egg layers. Soooo, I thought maybe a few more days, I'll find the layers, cull the non layers. Yeah, right.
Now I regularly get 6 eggs from my 6 cornish cross hens. Hens, mind you, that weigh every bit of 15# or more. They're feed consumption is on par with my layers, and I switched they're feed so everyone gets the same stuff. I get the occasional soft shell, and they still poop like meaties, but they run around too! They're eggs are indistinguishable from the layers, and I have one cx that consistently lays a HUGE 3 yolker but I also have one Americana that does the same thing. So keep a few girls, let em' grow and see what happens. I was going to try a small breeding experiment with them , but should have 100 (yikes) chicks and 15 ducklings arriving Friday from JM hatchery, so it may have to wait. Hope this helps! Karla