Thoughts on letting one of our meaties just live out its life????

[Naturegirl44]

Here was my experience with raising up a few pullets to be alyers-- wanting the fast growth in a bird that I could use in a meat project pen.

I ad just a few deaths as I raised up my meaties, a little slower than the super fast rate typical of being raised for meat. I kept a few of the pullets, about 3 and then one failed to thrive and was culled. THen the next. ANd left with one for a while that also started to decline. When I processed her, she was gushy on the insides-- very odd. ANd she was about 9-10 months old. I was able to hatch 3 eggs to start my meat bird project.

I cant' say if this is typical of the cornishX , just my limited experience.

Thanks Arielle. We are new at this as well and its all really an experiment. I just hope our experiment doesn't make them suffer but we will be watching as they free range and grow. They will be culled one by one as they reach a decent size. If one or two are doing well we just keep them until we see them decline. We'll see if we get one through the winter but from what I am reading it doesn't seem like that will happen. But we will let a few go as long they can