Questions about Cornish Cross chick

[CelticArche]

Hi, everyone.

So, I went to TSC for food, and decided to get some assorted Bantam chicks. TSC had some slightly older Cornish Cross chicks mixed in, and when I went to get their water container so an employee to fill it, on of the Cronish ran up to me and I ended up falling on love with it and bought it as well.

This if my first meat bird. We don't plan on butchering her, and she's been a wonderful older sister to the 5 bantams, letting them cuddle with her.

I don't know how old she is, if she's actually a hen or not, and such. My questions are this:

1. How do I know when she's ready for supervised introduction with my small, established flock? The two youngest members were hatched by hens that are part of the flock. We plan on keeping the new chicks in a small cage or some sort of thing like that so they can see each other, but no one can be pecked.

2. How do I know that she's growing healthy for a bird of her breed? All of ours are backyard breeds so the pure breed is new outside of turkeys or ducks.

3. What sort of behavior should she be displaying at this age? She allows me to pet her, and she likes to sit on my shoulder, I just want to be sure I'm doing the best I can by her.

 

[Molpet]

yep thats a roo... they always are the friendliest

feed 2x a day ...10-20 minutes all he will eat and pick up the food. make him free range to look for food... they are breed to be done living in 6-8 weeks. so you only hope is to restrict food and keep him moving.
I kept a hen back for breeding and she lived for a year.. some people have had them live for a couple of years

 

[Mrs. K]

While not impossible, it is not expected that they live a long life. Do not feel guilty if this bird does not. This is my first batch of meat chickens and they do grow at an incredible rate...what happens is they often out grow their body's ability to keep them. Even if you do not plan to cull the bird, you may have to do to physical break down or let it suffer and die slowly.

 

[CannedMonster]

What's a physical break down?

These birds grow and gain weight so fast that their skeletal structure often cannot cope and they become unable to walk.
Sometimes their legs become injured.
Sometimes their hearts give out.
They often have a lot of physical problems and don’t live long.
If you want to try to keep it as long as possible, I highly recommend molpet’s advice in an earlier post.

 

[Mrs. K]

What's a physical break down?

Poor grammar (and me a teacher!) due to a physical break down, you might have to cull.

 

[CelticArche]

Here's a photo I took of her today. I see wattles, so I guess she might be a roo?

 

[CelticArche]

yep thats a roo... they always are the friendliest

feed 2x a day ...10-20 minutes all he will eat and pick up the food. make him free range to look for food... they are breed to be done living in 6-8 weeks. so you only hope is to restrict food and keep him moving.
I kept a hen back for breeding and she lived for a year.. some people have had them live for a couple of years

When is he old enough to go outside and free range? Can you tell how old he by the picture?

 

[CelticArche]

While not impossible, it is not expected that they live a long life. Do not feel guilty if this bird does not. This is my first batch of meat chickens and they do grow at an incredible rate...what happens is they often out grow their body's ability to keep them. Even if you do not plan to cull the bird, you may have to do to physical break down or let it suffer and die slowly.

What's a physical break down?

 

[Molpet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-x-for-meat-–-the-truth.66015/#comment-502490

 

[red horse ranch]

When is he old enough to go outside and free range? Can you tell how old he by the picture?

He looks like he is between 3 and 4 weeks old. I see a lot of bare skin under his feathers. He probably won't be fully feathered until around 6 weeks old.
I also have my first Cornish X this year . Mine is also a male of 4 weeks old. A little more feathered than yours is. Very friendly and loves to be picked up. Such a shame that they have been bred for short lives. But I suppose people need chicken to eat.