Why her??

[Oftwife03]

I got my first chickens in Feb of this year. Our first 10 we bought from Atwoods. They were suppose to all be layers but when they were about 6 months old we found out 2 were Cornish Crosses. We culled one and realized they were to tough at this point to make it worth culling the other. Well a few months ago the rooster we got with them we culled because he was extremely mean. He would attack everyone and anyone. A friend of ours gave us a new rooster. He is sweet as can be to my girls. He treats them better then the other one. Well all expect one. He is mean as all get out to our last surviving Cornish Cross. Its not every day. But he has drawn blood spurring her. He chases her in to the coop and all around their run. I am really surprised that he hasn't caused her to have a heart attack. Is it because she isn't laying anymore? Or because she is such a big girl. Besides removing her is there anything else I can do to help this. She is healthy and I really don't want to cull her unless we have too.

 

[lazy gardener]

He is chasing her most likely b/c he senses that she is not in the best of health. While, outwardly, she appears healthy to you, the CXR birds are bred for super fast growth, to the point that their body systems can not keep up with the fast growth. So, even though they will live past prime processing age, it is not with the best of health, and they eventually succumb to systemic or skeletal issues. This is mere speculation on my part. IMO your best bet is to cull her from your flock. Home raised chickens are not as tender as the baby chicks that you buy at the grocery store. Even if you buy a large roaster chicken, it's still a little peep, most likely processed between 6 and 12 weeks of age. When you process your own birds, you need to let them rest for about 3 days until the rigor passes out of the tissue before you cook or freeze them, then they are best cooked very slowly. I've had 2 birds from the same processing session be very tender, and an other bird from the same batch will be very tough, requiring extra cooking time in the crock pot.

 

[Oftwife03]

Thank you. I have been trying to talk my husband in to culling her but he hasn't yet. I know she doesn't seem unhealthy but I worry about her.