Injured Cornish Cross

[OrganicFarmWife]

So I accidentally got Cornish cross pullets around Sept. This particular bird has always been ugly, just never grew feathers like the others. When I introduced these birds to the existing hens this one got beat up the worst. Then to add insult to injury got pooed on. So this morning I washed her off and got a better look at her. I cannot a see any mites, but I could be wrong. Is all of this just injuries? Why did this one never grow feathers like the others? Hubby thinks we should just butcher it, and I am willing to do that but want to be sure it would be safe to eat.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your chicken. Meat birds are meant to be butchered at around 6 weeks old. They do not feather very well from what I have read. After the butchering age, they can suffer heart attacks and broken legs commonly, so I would probably butcher her now. It's so sad when people inadvertently get meat birds when they think they are buying layers at the feed stores. The employees really need to be aware of warning people, because someone with backyard chickens may not want to go through losing one if they don't plan to butcher. Here are a couple of interesting threads about meat birds if you care to read them:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/476028/cornish-cross-meat-birds
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/844768/new-to-meat-birds

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Thank you! So the lack of feathers is the breed. Yeah I got them because I liked the name, but I do not care for this breed at all. they really do stink, and are kind of ugly.

 

[Free Feather]

How old is she? I have had several for pets, and they can live long, healthy lives if taken care of properly. They need to be on a diet or they will eat till they cannot even waddle. I have one now named Foxy, she is eight months old, and I swear she has nine lives. I bought her off of a guy selling live meat birds, and she has survived a dog ripping her whole back open, fly strike under her vent, and two raccoon attacks. She has terrible vision and has to deal with being the favorite of every rooster in a 100 mile radius, and she is not the brightest, but she is not dirty, does not stink, and can fly and run nearly as good as any other chicken. I will never say that Cornish x are the same as a "regular" chicken, but you can improve their quality of life with free ranging and a restricted diet.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

How old is she? I have had several for pets, and they can live long, healthy lives if taken care of properly. They need to be on a diet or they will eat till they cannot even waddle. I have one now named Foxy, she is eight months old, and I swear she has nine lives. I bought her off of a guy selling live meat birds, and she has survived a dog ripping her whole back open, fly strike under her vent, and two raccoon attacks. She has terrible vision and has to deal with being the favorite of every rooster in a 100 mile radius, and she is not the brightest, but she is not dirty, does not stink, and can fly and run nearly as good as any other chicken. I will never say that Cornish x are the same as a "regular" chicken, but you can improve their quality of life with free ranging and a restricted diet.

I actually have 4, this is just the ugly one (It is also the biggest and heaviest, and Saddly friendliest). They are about 10 weeks probably. They are free range, but we just started that a couple of days ago. I wanted to be sure they were big enough to not interest the cats.
I was trying to get them to flock with the other birds, so i enclosed them togeather for a couple if days, thus the severe hen pecking. But I think because they are not mature the rooster is uninterested, so they do not stay together, it was all for not.
I had 10 birds locked in the barn this spring, they did not smell as bad as these four have made that room.
My DH wanted me to try to keep them for layers. But I might go ahead and butcher this one.