What is a CornishX's Life Span??

[ninejw]

I have a 10 mo old meat bird. Since she is 10 months old and her legs have not broken and she gets around fairly well. Do you think that she has gotten over the age hurdle and can live a normal non genetically altered life or is there still a high probability of her timing out or breaking legs that I have read about on many of the meat bird threads? Curious about this because maybe I can put a roo on her and breed more meat birds. Any thoughts or experiences appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I have one that is 10 months old too. I feed her once a day now + scratch grains. She is doing very well, and can even run enough to chase the other hens away from HER food.

 

[ninejw]

That is the most important thing to them after all- guarding the food

lol

 

[kooltex]

I had one that lived a couple of years, she laid the largest eggs.

 

[ninejw]

That's good to hear. Did you put any Roos on her and hatch anything? Mine lays large eggs too but not very often. I have a Spec Sussex that lays XXL eggs and they are double yokers. They are insanely big! I'm ordering more Sussex next spring.

 

[jaku]

Don't know- mine don't make it past 8 weeks, but you won't be able to breed meat birds (at least not ones with predictable results.)

 

[Robin'sBrood]

My SLW roo is in with my Cornish Rock and I see him mating her, but we eat her eggs (she isn't laying right now) so I don't know what would come out of one of them. Would be interesting to find out though. Maybe if I have a broody this spring I'll try to find out.

 

[kooltex]

I didn't have any roos on her, just had some barred pullets, she was the pet though, I can't remember why I didn't butcher her with the rest of the meaties, that was about 10 yrs ago. She did have personality.

 

[Ibicella]

Their life span is going to be a shot in the dark. Good diet and keeping their weight down and exercise will certainly be a big improvement, but you really just aren't going to know till you try. A friend of mine rescued a couple and she took very good care of them, but one's heart gave out after when it reached a year, and I think the other only lived a little longer. But some folk have been successful with older birds, so I wish you luck with yours and have a lot of fun with your tank chicken!

 

[ninejw]

We had 6 Cornish X & we thought we try raising meat birds... I think that it's not for us after all. We lost 1 as a chick and kept the others to long b/c no one wanted to do the "offing" in my family. We butchered very late at 7 month or so. We've got the one hen left that we haven't gotten to and i was just think about making her a permanent fixture and seeing if I could cross her with my SLW or Orp cock. They taste good but God are they are messy!! & They are definitely tanks Ibicella!