Keeping Meat Birds past their date

[kuntrygirl]

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In the nest box? I can't see mine making it up that far, too fat lol

Same here. Their nesting boxes were on the ground. All they had to do was walk in, lay and walk out. No jumping at all.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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In the nest box? I can't see mine making it up that far, too fat lol

Same here. Their nesting boxes were on the ground. All they had to do was walk in, lay and walk out. No jumping at all.

Mine doesn't even walk, I actually have to move him to the feeders because he was starving himself.

 

[jaj121159]

Are we talking Cornish or Cornish Crosses? The Cornish breed is the base of the Cornish Cross or Cornish X, but is kept for eggs or meat and will live much longer than the Cornish X which is designed to grow out in 6 to 12 weeks and be butchered.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

The Cornish X

 

[carress]

I have a cornishx who is 6 months old. She can't do everything the other birds do, but she gets- or waddles around fine, flies up into the coop about 3 feet off the ground. Can' t tell if she lays..too many birds to know which is doing what.

 

[phasianidae]

I have tried to keep Cornish x's past their expiration date and their legs always gave out in a few weeks. I never tried restricting their feed though.

 

[LilyD]

The longest that we have gone was 15 weeks and they were large. No major deaths due to size related issues but we did have one Cornish X with a tumor when we dressed it out. Hope this helps.

 

[SteveH]

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My CX pullets squat on the ground for a male just as my others do. Doesn't appear to be much weight supported on their legs, never had one injured, and not stressed out at all that I can see. Here's an Ameraucana X CX cross at 13 1/2 weeks old:

 

[al6517]

This hen is a Cornish X at 2 yr's old, restricted feed only after the 3rd week, then they were fed a low protein diet for 6mo then layer feed only after that and restricted to boot, they still were very large and waddled about but did very well all things considered, and with no leg or heart problems. I was able to get many egg's from here and had the opportunity to involve them in some good meaty projects.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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Beautiful!