what is the best meat breed

[U_Stormcrow]

Not just chicken, but the moistest most tender chicken wing you've ever had.

all yours. I'd rather have the chicken (and the drum, at that). More meat on the bones.

 

[Ladybluearm]

May I ask, what is a Cornish cross?

 

[Brooks_]

May I ask, what is a Cornish cross?

Are you asking what is crossed to make the cornish cross?

 

[NatJ]

May I ask, what is a Cornish cross?

Back around 1950, people started raising hybrid meat chickens that grew faster & bigger than any pure breed available at the time. They crossed a purebred White Cornish rooster with a purebred White Rock hen to get chicks that would grow fast like Rocks and have a big breast like Cornish. So they called it a "Rock Cornish Cross" or just a "Cornish Cross."

Then they started breeding special lines of Cornish and of Rocks to produce even better meat chicks. By now, a "Cornish Cross" is a white chicken that grows much faster than any other kind of chickens, and it is produced by crossing two kinds of white chickens, but those two parent kinds are not really Rocks or Cornish any more. The parent stock has been carefully selected to produce chicks that grow big & fast, and no-one cares what "breed" they really are.

Cornish Cross are great for producing chicken meat, and are usually butchered at about 2 months old, but they do not make good pets or egg layers because they often die before they are even old enough to lay eggs. They just get too big to be healthy, and sometimes even too big to walk. People who want to keep them as pets or for breeding need to strictly limit their food, to deliberately stunt their growth, in order for them to live a longer and more normal life as a chicken. This is more difficult than keeping other breeds of chickens as pets or egg layers, because almost all other chickens can be offered free-choice food and will eat the right amount for their own needs.