mature cornish cross . . . lol!

[KatyTheChickenLady]

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I thought so at first too. But nope, apparently it is typical for the male to have a very similar body shape to the female in this cross breed. The male is certainly male though, after you get to know him there is no doubt.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

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They are cute, but I am so worried that I am going to kill them by letting them eat to much!

 

[RAREROO]

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I agree they are both definitely hens, I have had a good bit of experience with the cornish cross broiler breeders and the roos are twice as big as the hens, the hens do have large combs like yours, but the roos are even bigger and there is a huge difference in appearance between the hens and roos. If you ever see a roo, you will know it. The roos do have longer leggs than the hens, but the older ones still can't breed very well because of their enormous size.

As far as their diet, they are pigs, so you should limit thier diet, corn is good to help fill them up, but it you intend on keeping them, free range would be better, they don't really scratch like other breeds and if left in comfinement without scratching to till their pen, you will have a stinking mess.

They are also dominant white so you won't get sexlinks if you ever want to breed them with a gold roo, but I did get some a pretty buff/white hen when I crossed them with a Buff Orp roo. Crossing them with a RIR just gives a white bid with black spots.

But trust me, they are no doubt, both hens.

If you get tired of their messiness and pig like appetite, like we did, they are great to process for eating, we make chicken sausage with some of our older hens.

 

[RAREROO]

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I thought so at first too. But nope, apparently it is typical for the male to have a very similar body shape to the female in this cross breed. The male is certainly male though, after you get to know him there is no doubt.

NO, like I said, males and females do NOT look similar in body shape, males are twice as large as the hens. I wish I had pics of the old ones I had to show you the difference.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

lol ! well then I have one hen who lays eggs, and one hen who cocka-doodle-doos and fights with the other roosters! he is definately a boy, but thanks for the feeding advice I do appreciate it.

 

[RAREROO]

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White Rocks and cornish were the original breeds used increating these birds, but incase you don't know, they are not an F1 cross. Selective breeding, hormones, ect.. were used to get them to be so large, the parents that those came from looked very similar to them and for the most part they do breed true when crossed together.

 

[RAREROO]

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Are you serious? It really crows? I just can't believe it, they both look like all the CornishX hens I've ever seen before, and trust me, I've seen hundreds.
Oh well, good luck with them, but the info about the feeding and personalitys I gave you earlier still applies.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

The problem is I can't free range them. For some reason all my other roos want to kill this poor fat boy. They all get along or at least tolerate each other, but they are even trying to get to this guy through the fence! Do you have an idea how much is enough and how much is to much feed? I was thinking corn was a good idea too, but was unsure how much THEY LOVE IT.
Honestly I thought it was a hen too, and told the people who brought them over as much. But then my boys attacked him, and they said only the one laid eggs, and then sure enough this morning he was joining the chorus line.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I have been doing some reading up online and what I find is that they rarely make it to a year and almost never past. Does anyone have any experince with this? I feel like I may be just wasting my time feeding them . . . I don't know what do you think?

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

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White Rocks and cornish were the original breeds used increating these birds, but incase you don't know, they are not an F1 cross. Selective breeding, hormones, ect.. were used to get them to be so large, the parents that those came from looked very similar to them and for the most part they do breed true when crossed together.

they are actually a F2x2 cross they keep 4 grandparent lines and then breed the 2 male lines together and the 2 female lines together (F1) and then breed the resulting 2 sets of the parent F1 lines to get the terminal cross F2s... the original 2 breeds that where used where Cornish and Rocks but after 40+ years of line breeding the parent breeds are not the same at all...

as far as i know there are only 3 companies in the usa that keep the grandparent lines... they sell the F1 parents to all the different hatcheries and broiler companies that sell the Cornish X Rocks that you see for sale...

i tried to buy the parent lines so i could hatch my own out untell i found out that i takes over 10,000 dollers and signing your life away before you get your first bird lol... so that was the end of that lol...

so now im just going to start from the ground up with the SQ white Cornish and Delawares... and maby after 5+ years of line breeding i can have a terminal cross that will do what i want lol...