The Problem I've Found With Cornish Cross.

[Oregon Blues]

The Cornish Cross are so calm and easy going. They are easy to work with. I find it charming that they like to stand on my hand and don't mind being picked up.

But the fat lazy little slugs don't move while I am cleaning their pen. I can scoop them up with the shovel and they will just stand there and ride the shovel up, like they are on some Disneyland ride. Worse, they all wander over to stand around and see what I am doing. I have to push them out of the way for each scoop of the shovel. It turns cleaning their pen into a long project.

Then when the clean bedding goes in, they all wander over to see what I've put into their pen. That makes spreading the bedding out a longer chore, because I have to move chicks, spread, then move chicks and spread a bit more.

Seriously, if I could dress them all in faded blue denim overalls, put a stalk of straw in their mouth to chew on, they would look just like the old men at the feed store, standing around saying "a-yup" while they watch whatever work is going in at the time.
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[RoosterGeek]

That pretty accurately describes my experience thus far. I have made a 3' X 8' brooder so it's pretty easy for me to block off one end while they chill out on the other. I have found that they love to chase the red dot from my IR temp reader over to the other end.

 

[Beekissed]

They are sweet , aren't they? I was planting onions yesterday and had to physically push them out of the way because they were nosing into what I was doing and standing on top of my onions, trying to peck at the bugs that came to the surface, etc.

I was also burning coop bedding to make some biochar in the garden and they were right on top of the burning materials, walking through it, etc. Crazy, nosy, moochy birds!

 

[SIMZ]

Oregon,

That is very funny!! I'll be thinking of them in little overalls from now on! LOL The disney-ride shovel thing is definitely something I've noticed, so I started putting them all outside in their run before I even try cleaning now. Too funny!

Mine are in their last week and it's a little sad. Every time I'm sad to see my "Meatie Marvins" go.....yet look forward to a full freezer and the vacation that follows at the same time.

 

[Buster52]

One of the blessings of using a Salatin style broiler pen... no clean up.

But I have to watch them, because the dumb little things will just sit there and watch that wheel on the dolly roll right at them.

 

[fair weather chicken]

we must be doing something wrong, ours jump up on top of the tractor when opened to feed. yes they are dumb get under the cart when moving. we have gotten ours from a number of hatcheries.

 

[Farmettehopeful]

My did the same sort of thing until I mastered the "I'm the food lady" concept. I had mine in a tractor but they got their free range time every morning (which they mostly used to sun bathe!) I built my tractor wrong so I had to practically climb in to get their food and water out to clean and fill so eventually as soon as I opened it up, they all came fluttering out and followed me to their food bin where they would eat for a few minutes. It was then very easy to, fill the water, move the tractor, add some straw, rake where they used to be, then put their feed back in. Mine were done two days ago...I couldn't take them anymore. If we had more land, I would do them again in a heartbeat but since I had to hide them and keep them on one side of the house it was too much of a pain!