How old is a cornish hen

You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Sort by date Sort by reaction score. Jan 27, 2, 15 Mt Airy, NC. Typically in stores, they weigh about 22 oz, finished. Has anyone butchered for that size? What age and live weight did you target? Jun 8, 0 Sodus, Michigan. I would like to do this as well, but I hadn't even researched the "store weight" as you have. In addition to the answer to your question, I would like to know whether the regular Cornish is still used for those cornish hens as opposed to simply culling the Cornish X early while still small Judy Crowing Premium Feather Member.

Feb 5, 34, South Georgia. These 2 hatchery sties pretty well tell the story. You butcher at 2 to 2. Cornish hens in the grocery are female cornish X butchered young. Jun 23, 1 Vernon. Jul 6, 63 0 I think I was at 7. Mostly I thought I was making room in the coop, but it turned into a plan for next year.

UncleHoot Songster 12 Years. May 22, 8 St. Johns, Michigan. Definitely not 6 weeks or more. At 6 weeks, you have a fryer. At weeks, you have a roaster. At 10 weeks, you have a turkey. Jan 13, 2, 7 Howard City, Michigan. As the bird grows, however, these combs often lose their uniform appearance.

Therefore, they often look like they have a blob located on top of their head. Cornish chickens also have a slightly rounded beak and deep, wide-set eyes. The feathers on a Cornish bird are extremely short and tightly grouped.

They are, however, much thinner than on most chickens. The color of the feathers varies depending on the variety of Cornish chicken, but the most common is the dark Cornish. These birds have a blue-green tint when you look at them. Cornish roosters tend to want to fight and argue more than many domestic chicken breeds. Hens, however, are quiet and docile.

Both roosters and hens need more room to exercise than an ordinary domestic chicken, or they will develop stiff legs and become even crankier. Generally, Cornish chickens are docile towards their handlers, but they do require more room than the average chicken, or they will become aggressive.

Cornish mothers tend to be excellent mothers, but they can get aggressive when they think their young are being attacked. They tend to be more broody than some breeds. They may sit on a nest without eggs in it or on a rock or other area of their cage. Their lack of tail feathers, however, means that they can cover very few eggs. Cornish chicks tend to be more cannibalistic than other breeds.

This behavior often starts as feather pulling or pecking when the chicks are only a few days old. Then, it may escalate to aggressive pecking if an injury occurs. Since this tends to be a learned behavior, eliminating stressors before and after hatching can help reduce cannibalism. Any injured chicks should be removed from the flock and receive separate veterinary care. Cornish chickens are not prolific egg layers.

Generally, they lay fewer than eggs per year. These eggs are small and brown. Physically, their heart-shaped body reduces the amount of room available for carrying eggs. For others experimenting with these lovely big chickens, reducing their weight may change the outcome of their egg yokes and thereby the success of their chicks. Losing weight and keeping them smaller less fat, fewer yokes seems to be the most important lesson.

Add to that keeping them as cool as possible given your climate. I hope my experience helps someone. So, wish me luck and them a long healthy, happy life with this first time chicken mommy. Thanks for reading my story. Hi Deborah, Thanks for sharing your experience with these gentle chickens. I will probably not keep them as laying hens again because the cost of feeding is higher than many breeds, but I did enjoy trying the experiment.

Enjoy your chickens! This has been my experience, the solf eggs triple eggs to get better. I have and am raising chicks from my 12 hens and three rosters. My first was chick to chick just over six months. I have pictures and documentation. As for the heat I put a fan on mine as well as a water pan for them to walk in cooling them off.

One of them started laying literally on the day she turned 16wks 3 days ago. I have 10 for ish x bullets at 8 weeks. These girls are huge, but they forage with my laying pullets same age. I recently picked up some unsexed chicks, cornish x from the same hatchery. Some of the new lot have black spots which are coming in as black feathers. This second group is too young to sex. Do you think the color is just barred rock ancestry, or is it sex-linked?

Hi Silkienne, It sounds like the ones with black spots are showing a genetic throwback to their parents. I have not seen this in Cornish x but it is certainly possible.

Best wishes with your chickens! I saw videos of how they are raised in chicken houses and I was sad for them. I would hold the bag of feed at ground level and then run and make them chase me.

At one point the biggest of the Cornish was stung by a scorpion at least three times in the face he got pretty sick had a difficult time walking so I brought him inside my house and gave him a fan and a wet towel to lay on kept him with me for three daysi pulled him in a wagon while I would work outside until he could walk well enough again.

Hi Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing your experience with the Cornish x chickens. I do believe that they can be kept healthy and happy with the proper attention and feed schedule.

I have two Cornish Rocks. One male, one female. Once our Leghorn hen chased them out of the run so she could lay an egg and they were scared and lost. I helped them get back into the run. All they wanna do is sit, eat and sleep. The rest of my chickens are free range, but these two have no desire to leave their coop. I bought some chicks from rural king, I was told they were Cochin chicks. But they all have smooth legs.

Are they doomed to die early? Hi Kim, Not necessarily. Anyways I bought 8 chicks awhile ago with 2 being Cornish x because I wanted to try to raise some before buying a whole bunch. The chicks have been in the coop now for awhile and the two have never been on different feed than chick starter like the rest of the herd. I know this is an old post, but I came across it and wanted to comment.

Someone recently sold us an 8-month-old cornish cross who has just started laying. Most of her eggs are soft-shell or even shell-less, but we have gotten a couple hard-shelled ones and we put them in the incubator. The one we put in a few days ago is definitely showing signs of life and we hope to see a baby around the 26th of the month. We are so excited. We also found that our roosters are all interested in her and actually fight over her. Very cool to hear this, Tiffany…thanks so much for sharing.

Looking forward to hearing how the hatch goes! Just hatched out the first baby! Her eyes had a hard time opening and needed some help before she could see enough to walk, but she seems to be doing well now. We are anxiously awaiting 3 more from our hen that seem to be growing great. Hi, a friend just gave me three, what she calls Cornish X hens. They are big and red and look like Rhode Island Reds. They are prolific eggs layers — at least one a day from each bird and the eggs are large dark brown eggs.

Not sure if these are what she says or not. These are my first chickens, oh, and she said they are 2 yrs. Any ideas what they might be if they need a special diet?

I will not be eating them. Hi Donna, Cornish X are white. I just got 2 Cornish hens and my other chickens pick on them. I had to separate them. Will they ever stop picking on them? I will never kill one. I wonder if they will live long enough to lay eggs? Hi Laura, Introducing new chickens to a flock can be difficult at first. If possible, put the newbies in a pen where they can all see each other for a few days and then put them in with the flock at night.

Give them places where they can hide if they are frightened. Since the last time I posted, my 1yo pet Cornish X Iso has gone broody rather ironic seeing as though my BOs are three and have never done so!

We are very excited to see if her clutch hatches and what kind of a mother she may be! Oh my goodness! Stop by and share the results if you have time! I have 15 cornish x in my coop right now.

Although they are mostly meant for meat, I can see that there is at least one pullet that is more active and not an eating machine.

I am planning to keep her and try this experiment again. Your comment has inspired me! I was down to only one hen left and I got 6 new babies this spring and had a raccoon attack last night and lost 2 and one is injured.

Thanks so much for the advice! Happy to help out, Tonya! I hope you have good luck with your chickens. Be sure they get extra protein in their feed to help them grow strong enough to support their weight.

She has a best friend, white Brahma. I have a full plate, a new project with a blind rooster, healing from accidental fight. Feed her a higher protein feed if you can…or supplement with some protein. Extra calcium, free choice, is best too. The hen I kept laid very well, but for a fairly short period of time. Her eggs were a normal, medium size when she was full grown. I also had more hens for the one rooster than I should have…so it may not have been her fault. Thanks for stopping by!

I found your comment in my spam folder, so I apologize for taking so long to respond. Let us know how your hen is doing! We have one Cornish cross that feel off a truck and has lived in our garden for several months :.

Is it the other way around? Our girl gets a lot of exercise and fresh produce, lol. Yes, a lower protein feed is better for keeping your Cornish x chicken from getting too huge. Enjoy your free ranging hen and her eggs. He is no longer here. I have a cornishx hen. Her name is noodle she was the little chicken. She lays eggs…she is freerange but she is very big. I had 4 but others died probably heart. They only live for about a year.. The one I had was such a comical creature.

Noodle sounds like the perfect name! We have a Cornish X hen named Iso that we accidentally adopted and have kept as a layer. Our RIR rooster breeds with her the same as he does the others. One of her eggs hatched a few weeks ago. Hi, I have a 1yr old CornishX, and she lays a nice big egg a day, usually in the bedding straw in the corner of the hen house. The roosters have no problem mating with her. I call her Bertha Butt. We just finished our last one from the freezer.

So maybe I will keep a couple of the pullets and try this again. Is there any chance you could give us update pictures? I have three Cornish X hens and two Polish hens. They are all about 5 months old. I hope they start laying eggs soon. This is my first time raising chickens so I did not want to buy all fancy chickens in case our neighbors dog ate them or something like that happened. To my surprise they are all doing very well. I am concerned about my Cornish X hens though as they are getting very large despite the larger pen I moved them into and feed restrictions.

They can no longer walk up the ramp to the chicken coop so I have to physically pick them up each night and put them in the coop. They do not have any visible injuries or signs of heart conditions but I am worried that I am doing them more harm than good by keeping them alive. Hi Kristina, I can understand your quandry. The Cornish X chickens are not bred to live beyond a couple of months of age and they are basically eating machines. She did lay a few eggs but not many and not for very long.

Perhaps they will be happy and will die in their sleep. Let your heart guide you in your decision. Best wishes. Mine are so fat I can hardly pick them up and I cried today when my boyfriend wanted to give one to neighbor to eat. You should stop feeding any bag or industrialized food to your chickens. They will survive in optimal health if you let them eat from nature only. I will let you know what happens hopefully they stay a normal weight but you should definitely stop bag feeding.

Chickens in the wild eat worms, bugs, specks of microorganisms, leaves, fruits and vegetables. Just allowing them to scratch the ground and peck all day is all they require.

Bag food also contaminates the eggs.. They taste so much better. If you fully pasture raise animals make sure you supplement with some sort of fly or bug trap or compost pile for bugs, that will help with protein.

At the end of the 6 months they were acting like crack beads and I realized that surprisingly an acre is not enough for a dozen chickens without supplemental systems for added protein and calcium especially.

My Cornish cross is laying 2 eggs a day and my rooster is very fond of her. I am going to put her eggs in an incubator. She has no interest in sitting on a nest unfortunately. Hi Lucas, This sounds like a great experiment! Stop by and let me know how it goes. Thanks for sharing…Lisa Lynn.

I, too, have a Cornish cross hen laying an egg a day. She free ranges with the neighbor chickens, and got herself a pretty handsome Roo. I have just hatched 3 Cornish cross chicks in an incubator, layer by 6 month old hens….

I have two hens still surviving. I have just been blessed with 24 grown hens and two Roos and they are laying. I plan on hatching the eggs as a large bird person what sort of chicken can I expect.

As thes chickens are bread to size will this trait follow on the new chicks. Hi Joseph, You are likely to get white chickens of varying sizes. Most likely you will not get many that grow as big for early butchering as you would if you ordered Cornish X chicks. How did the chicks turn out Joseph? Fingers crossed. I have raised 8 of these birds to egg laying age and have had my first egg today. I purchased 10 this spring and have only lost 2. I have 2 NH red Roos I am going to breed them with and see If I can get a crossbreed that will produce eggs and meat chickens with out them dying too soon of fast growth complications.

My NH red Roos are a few weeks younger than the X hens and have not even started to crow. But when they do I will be adding them to the girls and see what turns out, nature finds a way. Will keep everyone posted. I think that I can create a sustainable flock this way.

Best wishes with your experiment, Davy! I am looking forward to hearing how everything goes. Hi Barry, I butchered that hen at about 1. How did you get on with breeding your Cornish? I have just started a very similar setup, breeding some lovely big Cornish with my heritage roo. The other are black with a little more yellow than a Barred chick.

Hi Dallas, I know that crossbreeding can produce some interesting colors and I have quite a few cross breeds in my flock. I know there are people who do experiment and share their results on some of the forums. Unfortunately, I did not get any fertile eggs from my Cornish X hen, and I ended up butchering her at around 1 year of age as she had stopped laying.

She was very tasty! There are a couple of people who left comments here and on my post about raising meat chickens I think who had better luck with hatching eggs from their Cornish X hens.

It seems that they grow faster than the heritage birds, but not as fast or as big as the Cornish X chicks. I still think it would be a good way to supply meat for the table, but after more than one generation, the fast growth and large size will probably decline. We started our own little flock as a project for our daughter. We have 2 cornish x that are about 18lbs at 5 months.