First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

I know this is way off subject, BUT look at the weird egg I got this morning. It looks like a snake egg long and skinny.

I am going to post on the egg threads to see if anyone has any idea what kind of chicken lays this...

My Barred Rock lays eggs long and skinny like that too.

Oh and Ralph, I imagine your Blue Slate hen and Tom will produce Blue Slates. As far as I can tell only two CX create frogs. But I'm not a genetic scientist or anything.

 

[holm25]

Layer of long skinny eggs.

 

[holm25]

She is going threw molt.

 

[duluthralphie]

She is going threw molt.

Real late to be going through molt. My Hen turkey ( Ethel) is kind of molting, she got set back with her off season broodiness. I am worried for her come winter if she does not finish the molt soon.

 

[CoHomestead]

We got snow yesterday. Down side is I had to put another heat lamp in the coop. Plus side is McMurray rushed my chicks lol. 15 hatched yesterday and arrived today. They are so itty bitty. I don't think my first set was this small lol.

 

[Morrigan]

No snow here. It's actually beautiful out -- 75 degrees and sunny. Hot enough so my meat flock was all huddled under the shade shelter. But, we are supposed to get cold and rain starting Friday night and into Saturday. I think I will move the chickens back into the toolshed for the weekend as I'm not sure they are old enough to take mid-40 degrees temps if they get wet.

I always enjoy how different the eggs look from one another. It's also been fun watching how genetic lines play out. We have a brown ameracuna rooster, and BO and Speckled Sussex hens. Offspring has ranged from almost pure white, to black and white, to reddish brown. The roosters have been so beautiful that I feel bad culling them.

Typical day's egg assortment

 

[Betsy57]

One of my meat birds is going lame I guess. It can walk when trying to get away from me, but otherwise it kind of flops when it moves from the water to the food. The others seem fine. I don't think it is hurting or injured, maybe one of the side affects from rapid growth and weak legs. I think it is about 3.5 lbs so I want to hold off a bit before I butcher it. They are sure getting bigger faster now as I've seen it said here in the past. They just turned 5 weeks yesterday. I haven't weighed them for several days but will try to this weekend. This lame one is about mid-size compared to the others...some way bigger than it and some smaller than it.

 

[duluthralphie]

Betsy leg problems happen with CX's. My first batch I had one that did exactly like you said. I culled it, and we ate it but it was tough meat. I assume something about the injury made the meat tough, maybe adrenaline. I know with wild animals a fast clean kill makes for better meat than one that is chased or wounded before dying. It would seem to be the same way with CX's.


I fed my first batch too much and grew them too fast and had some problems because of it. These guys are doing so good with no injuries or sickness even at their advanced age and weight.


I know I need to process them soon, but I really do not want too and I am out of freezer space.



Doublekindness if I have not talked you out of guinea fowl yet, read this thread where I asked a guinea question. Guinea are new to me this year never had them before ( other than 4 I bought 30 years ago that ran away in the first 4 days).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/934102/brutal-attack-on-one-of-their-own#post_14274725

It will make you cry, it does me...

 

[Betsy57]

Betsy leg problems happen with CX's. My first batch I had one that did exactly like you said. I culled it, and we ate it but it was tough meat. I assume something about the injury made the meat tough, maybe adrenaline. I know with wild animals a fast clean kill makes for better meat than one that is chased or wounded before dying. It would seem to be the same way with CX's.


I fed my first batch too much and grew them too fast and had some problems because of it. These guys are doing so good with no injuries or sickness even at their advanced age and weight.


I know I need to process them soon, but I really do not want too and I am out of freezer space.



Doublekindness if I have not talked you out of guinea fowl yet, read this thread where I asked a guinea question. Guinea are new to me this year never had them before ( other than 4 I bought 30 years ago that ran away in the first 4 days).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/934102/brutal-attack-on-one-of-their-own#post_14274725

It will make you cry, it does me...

She will stand up if she has to. She weighs 3.5 lbs. The others are up to 4 lbs. They're running, bumping chests, etc. This one acts like a rollie pollie ball thing that can't sit up straight at times.
I will think about butchering her this weekend. Won't be much meat but like a Cornish hen I guess.

 

[KCMOLisa]

Sorry I've been MIA, but I've been finishing up the processing on my bunch. Here are the results.

Last week, my brother and I processed my 24 Cornish Cross. They were exactly 7 weeks old. I didn't weigh them before dressing them, but after they were fully cleaned, they averaged 4 1/3 pounds each. For 24 birds, I got a total weight of 103.9 pounds. They were really the perfect size for me!

I left some of them whole and then cut up some. I also made a ton of chicken stock with the backbones and necks and canned some chicken breast for quick soups or tacos. I gave four of them away to my brother for helping me butcher and clean them. I ended up with 10 whole chickens, 3 packages of wings (6 per package), 8 packages of individual breasts, 9 packages of drumsticks (2 each) and 9 packages of thighs (2 each) in the freezer. I canned 12 half-pints of chicken breast and 28 pints of stock. I also have about 2 pounds of shredded, cooked chicken after picking the meat off the bones while making stock. Oh, and I ate one already. It was so good! I couldn't get a good pic of everything, but this is most of it.