will my cornish giant lay eggs?

[skeeter03]

I was told they would probaly die on me after 12 weeks cause they get so big but then I read that they can lay eggs to? so confused will they? (we have one that I promised the kids we would keep cause it survived a nasty injury from a critter attack) so would she lay eggs in the long haul. (I am totaly new at this chicken thing)
I bought some brown leghorns as layers and the cornish strictly for meat.

 

[Judy]

Yes, they will both breed and lay, if you can keep them alive long enough. They tend to die of heart problems of develop serious leg problems. Do a search on here. Several people are keeping them into adulthood. It requires some special feeding techniques to prevent overeating.

I'm guessing this is the same as Cornish cross, or Cornish X, which is how they are usually referred to here.

 

[promiselandfarm5]

We had a bunch of CornishXs for butchering and we kept one to see how long she would live. She free ranged with the Red Stars and we fed them eveyday only the amount that they would eat in one day. She did great even would run every once in a while. Then we went camping and prefeed all the chickens for the whole weekend so my inlaws would just have to water. Well we came back in only 2 days because of weather and she was having a heart attack from over eating. We were all so upset she ended up dying and hubby put her in the freezer. She weighed over 10 lbs dressed She was 20 wks old and hubby said she was about to start laying. He said she had tons of eggs in her just about to come out.

Good Luck with yours

 

[DebbieLynn]

I got my cornish x's 2/9/09 and one of the hens have been laying a nice brown egg almost every day since May 29th! You do have to be careful with the feed situation but they do breed and they do lay and are very docile birds for the most part. I had to separate the hens from the roos cause he was tearing up there backs due to weight which I thought he would be too heavy to breed! Well that just goes to show you they will do the "impossible" and generally when you least expect it! I love mine and that's why they aren't in the freezer yet.

 

[chickenfamily1]

I have 2 cornish giant roosters and thay are 18 weeks old and thay lay eggs yes im shure thay are roosters I X them with a black jersey giant I have 8 3 week old chicks
thay r black and white with blue legs very nice looking bird and seemes mutch stronger
thay eat till ther full not like the cornish will eat till it blows up I will let every no how thay turn out
ps has any one X these 2 breeds befor

 

[Angelicisi]

Hens lay eggs, not roosters.
Cornish cross breeding works the same as other chickens.
Hens lay eggs, roosters fertilize eggs.

Limit their access to full feeders and free range with layers or offer a varied diet with exercise from a young age and they can live to laying age. It's a lot of work tho when there are so many other options available for layers without the worry of the CX deaths.

Breeding CX to CX doesn't make more CX because they are hybrid. Hit or miss hatching from a pair. Could have some not so good genetics pop up.

Crossing them is ok but still a hybrid and issues will tend to be more frequent and growth isn't the same so it's usually like eating regular layer rooster culls I've noticed. If you find a cross that thrives could be nice to have a prettier meatie ranging.