Keeping cornish x to adulthood?

[m0ther_g00se]

They seem to have so much personality but the way that they're bred and kept in commercial arrangements is downright awful. Is there a way I could get a few cornish x or other broiler pullets and raise them so that they're not as uh... misshapen, for lack of a better word? I recall reading a thread one time about someone who raised some free range as an experiment and they seemed healthy. Is there anybody who has raised some and still kept them into adulthood? or would it be cruel to keep them alive that long?

Just a hypothetical scenario for now. I just think they're neat

Oh and feel free to move the thread if it's not in the right place. Just decided on here because it's about broilers.

 

[Molpet]

I kept a CX pullet and hatched some of her eggs. Most of my flock are out of her 3 sons.
Diet and exercise.
She only laid every other day for around a month before she quit for winter. I had a lot of snow that winter so she didn't get much exercise and passed away around a year old the end of March 2017.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think this is a good forum for your question. It's where people have tried to keep Cornish X. I've never tried to keep Cornish X myself but several others on this forum have. Many of them have stories like Molpet's, the Cornish X didn't last that long. Several could not keep them alive long enough to even get eggs. A story about a Cornish X lasting a few years is extremely rare.

Some chickens, the hybrid commercial layers, are bred to lay a lot of nice sized eggs for a couple of laying seasons with a great feed to egg conversion rate, then they are replaced. Longevity is not bred into them. You can sometimes keep them alive and producing fairly well for longer but many tend to develop medical problems, usually associated with laying, after a very few years. The Cornish X are specifically designed to produce a lot of meat with a great feed to meat conversion by the time they are 6 to 8 weeks old. They are not designed to live past that and generally develop medical problems after that, often the heart or the skeleton.

The commercial operations spend a lot of money on studies with both the commercial layers and the meat birds. Some of that is genetics but a whole lot is spent on how to feed and manage them to get the best productivity. A lot is spent on how to manage the parent flocks to get the eggs to hatch. Especially with the Cornish X parent flocks it can be a huge challenge to keep them alive and productive long enough to get hatching eggs. A lot of that is how to feed them enough for them to lay eggs without feeding them so much they fall over and die or get so big they can't breed.

If you are looking for pets I consider the Cornish X a horrible choice. The commercial layers are a better choice but many of them develop problems younger than other breeds. I personally would avoid the specialist meat birds or specialist layers if I wanted long lived pets. You need to manage them differently if you want to extend their lives, especially the Cornish X, so you have to work harder. I'd include the Rangers in that meat bird group. Because of the differences in how you need to feed them they don't fit that well with other chickens, they do better in a separate flock. I think you will be much better off with a dual purpose or decorative chicken.

 

[3KillerBs]

In order to keep a Cornish X alive and in a reasonable degree of health into adulthood they need to be kept semi-starved and to be forced to exercise.

It's an awful lot of work and trouble when a dual purpose flock would live longer, healthier lives under less stringent management conditions.

 

[Heatherlynnlc]

They seem to have so much personality but the way that they're bred and kept in commercial arrangements is downright awful. Is there a way I could get a few cornish x or other broiler pullets and raise them so that they're not as uh... misshapen, for lack of a better word? I recall reading a thread one time about someone who raised some free range as an experiment and they seemed healthy. Is there anybody who has raised some and still kept them into adulthood? or would it be cruel to keep them alive that long?

Just a hypothetical scenario for now. I just think they're neat

Oh and feel free to move the thread if it's not in the right place. Just decided on here because it's about broilers.

We were accidentally given 4 Cornish X from tractor supply once we found out we decided to give them the best life we can our are doing good so far they are about 2 and half months old now.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I feel like it's more humane to let people who will use them as meat birds take them. Especially if you have a mixed flock, it will be hard to keep them from overeating or getting the usual health issues.

There are plenty of other breeds out there that have nice personalities. I'm not telling you what to do here, but just wanted to share my opinion. Maybe look up some of the breeds used to develop the Cornish X and try one of those.