Who said Cornish Xs start dropping dead at 10 weeks old?????

[ruth]

I know I read that over and over so because my husband and I can't bring ourselves to process any of our hens or roosters eventhough we are feeding 100 extra roos that run around our farm, we thought it would be a wise idea to buy Cornish Xs early this Spring because "they start dropping dead at around 10 weeks old" so we thought surely we could process them. Game plan was wait till they started dropping dead and then process them because "they are going to die anyway". Well, I can still hear God laughing.

The upside is that they weigh 20 pounds and their eggs are larger than goose eggs.

I've actually come to like my white "turkeys" that come waddling when they see me. But....I did want to let any other "newbies" in the meat bird world know that they do not just "drop dead" at a young age.

 

[jasonm11]

too funny

 

[ruth]

And every egg is a double yolker to boot. I think these gals are repaying me for not processing them at 8-10 weeks old.

 

[Chick Charm]

Wow! Who knew. I like the look of those HUGE eggs.

20 lbs would make dinner for a week if you could ever bring yourself to it.

 

[mamawolf544]

I kept a roo and 3 hens year before last, the hens made it to about 6 months, the roo we called him Dinner was 18 months when he went. This year I kept the smallest roo and hen, they are 10 months old and she has a little wobble to her walk but they are fine.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I wonder if they would be tough now that they are several months old? But, I don't think so because when you pick one up it almost feels like a jelly sack around its chest. I'm guessing they are really, really fat. Lots of nice, juicy fat. My husband threatened they would be Thanksgiving "turkey", now he says "Christmas". The other day we were grocery shopping together and he put a box of gallon size freezer bags in the cart. I asked what they were for and he said "chickens". I just laughed......

He used to be Mr. Big Game Hunter, now he's Mr. Softy.

We did process two of them when they were just a couple months old (under that assumption they would start dropping dead soon) and they weighed 5 pounds after cleaning and were tender and delicious - we just couldn't bring ourselves to do any more and we just turned them loose to freerange the farm. They'll probably live to see their 10 year birthdays. I'm wondering if they can mate and reproduce and if so, what they will produce. I know the other roosters are always jumping the hens but I don't ever see the CornishX Roo on any hens - I think he's just too fat. But boy let him see me step outside and they can all run/fly/flap/waddle to be the first to the food.

 

[sourland]

I'm glad that I don't have to pay the feed bill for your 100 roosters! Wow! I can only imagine the noise when even half of them are crowing.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Ruth,

You have too many roos!!!! You need to get the DH out processing some.

I bet y'all have got a lot done on the house since I was there about 1 1/2 years ago. Start eating those guys.

Colby

 

[Goldenseal]

I never got the memo that they would drop dead....LOL
anyway, I had one roo that escaped on butcher day, and I kept one hen
because she was so tame and sweet I just couldnt do it.
they are huge, probably in that 15 - 17 range, about 7 mo old.
the hen is not laying but the roo is very happy to breed everything
in site.

one thing funny about the hen, is she has curly feathers, especially on her back
they all curl forward like she has frizzle tendencies.

 

[3goodeggs]

That is funny.
I will be me. I know. We keep changing our mind about meaties...I am not sure I could do the deed either. But such eggs! Who knew!