Anyone have a Cornish X Horror Story?

15 years ago

When birds expel their guts it usually means IMPROPER diet. Bird got too fat! I have a 22 week old Cornish X hen named

Hewetta. She is currently 34 pounds, lays an egg every 2 or 3 days (A BIgggg'EN). She gets feed mash 3xday. Just enough to eat in 10 or so mins then removed. She has plenty of "busy food"--whole punkins-apples-tomatoes-squash-cabbage.... These have lots of good things in them but requires effort to eat-therefore-"busy food". She is loose on the greenhouse floor with a couple hundred young Seramas )sweet little birds, 4 quail (they seem to rule the roost) and a dozen 1/2 grown jumbo pheasants.

Back to Hewetta, she followes me around like a jack russel terrier, alway under foot. She moves slow and loves to get up on my lap when I take a rest--has to be lifted. Most hip and heart problems a due to rapid growth and pood nutrients. So important to supplement with water soluable vit/mins. I let them drink it and use it to moisten their feed-they get a double wammie that way. There are mega bits of info on the net that will guide you on caring for the NEW kinds of meat birds. These are not our Grandfathers farm chickens.

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Comments (9)

beegood_gw
15 years ago
34 lbs!!! Is that a typo?
seramas
Original Author
15 years ago
It,s not a typo! She is bigger than some turkey hens I've had. She has had a very controlled diet and has very little body fat. Too much food too fast = poor health. She waddles because of the width of her hips, breast and weight. Going to miss her come Thanksgiving, but will enjoy her on the table with all the trimmings.
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Comments (16)
My husband and I raise birds, we have a wide variety of chickens and a couple of white Pekin Ducks. We raise our birds for the eggs the produce and to keep the bug population to a minimum in our yard. Our birds are given free range access during the day to our 5 acres and put up at night because in the beginning we lost several to predators. We have even caught a fox in our hen house with one of our hens in its mouth. We have used live traps to capture them and working with animal control released those animals back into the wild on the game reserve. So as you can tell we are all about making sure all animals be they ours or wildlife have the highest quality of life possible. We purchased 6 of these birds from our local feed store. Not knowing what they were thinking they were white egg layers. Imagine my surprise when I got home and did a little research to discover that our most recent addition to our flock were Cornish Rock and their health and history. It broke our hearts and of those 6 birds only 2 survived to "adulthood". We named our roo and hen Romeo and Juliet. They became pets and as soon as released with the rest of our chicks for the season began following us around, coming when called (yes you can train chickens to come when called). And I do photography and they would literally climb up in my lap while sitting outside to take photographs of our yard. I love macro photography and would not only take pictures of the native plants but also of the birds doing what birds do best finding bugs and eating things. I became very attached to our little surviving duo. I was overly protective of them partially because I knew they had a very short life span and partially because they found a way to break through my normally gruff exterior and worm their way into my heart. I found Juliet at 15 weeks of age. Lying in our yard. It appeared she had just laid down and died. It wasn't uncommon for them to nap constantly in the yard. They would peck for a while and then lay down. The other birds would often ignore them or not include them in their chicken games of chase and where is the worm. They were a flock unto themselves. As I mentioned earlier we also have Pekin Ducks and poor Romeo began to hang out with them once Juliet was gone. It broke my heart to watch him wandering around the yard searching for his mate but never finding her. Now when visitors come over he will follow them around and beg for attention. He even went so far as to try and get in one visitors car. He is a loving bird who only wants the companionship that was offered by his own kind, but lacking that has learned to get that attention from humans and ducks. I think what they do to these birds is beyond cruel. I have had neighbors who also have purchased these birds not knowing what they were and either found them lying dead in their yard or the poor birds legs literally broke under their own weight when they were kept with growing chicks that are fed constantly. I was outraged when I read about how these birds are treated by Tyson and tasty or not they are a living breathing life force that deserves our respect and care. After learning what I have learned about these types of birds and that the major producer of this breed is Tyson chicken I cannot walk past a freezer unit in our local grocery without wanting to cry. I know I am an old sentimental fool, but when you mess with nature you mess with your own food source. When our other chicks died they were disposed of the same way anything that dies is on our farm. And although my other chicks were often dug up by night predators poor Juliet still lays in peace, because even the wildlife won't eat her. A lesson we might all take notice of. If wildlife won't eat it should we?
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Not a Singulair experience but another allergy medication. My daughter had terrible mood swings when she was about 4 on the relatively safe allergy medication Zyrtec. I started looking on the internet and talking to other moms about it. Luckily I started finding out that yes it could cause mood swings among other things. I knew I couldn't let her go to kindergarten like that. I took her off and of course she got a sinus infection. I took her to her doctor and explained what I did. He then told me that they had kids coming in for ADD evaluations who were on the medication. My daughter was also on singulair but for her it seemed pretty benign. I don't doubt that these allergy meds can have real mood swing side effects. Some time later I had a mom bring her son to one of my free play preschool classes. Her son seem super sensitive and unable to handle transitions in the class. In the course of a conversation I found out her child was on zyrtec. I asked her for allergies or asthma. She said allergies. I told her my story and I told her maybe you should try to have him go without for a week. She came back the next week to thank me. She told me she had her son back. She worked for a pediatricians office and they prescribed the med all the time. She told me she had her husband had started marriage counselling because they were so stressed about their dhild's behavior. Don't assume your child can't behave. It really can be the medication. My daughter got so mad on her allergy medication I thought she was going to knock the bedroom door off it's hinges.
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beegood_gw
15 years ago
Well at least all that weight and growth is going to good use. I'm sure she'll be delicious.Enjoy!
mxbarbie
15 years ago
Ah, pumpkins! what a great idea! Can't wait till Nov 1st to stock up for chickens winter feasting! Haven't had any horror stories yet (((knocks on wood))) Are you breeding Hewetta? THAT would be interesting. Hope you have a BIG oven ; )
seramas
Original Author
15 years ago
There is a 9-1/2 ounce Serama Roster that has been trying. It kinda looks like the Taco Bell dog with a St.Barnard. Been trying to get a picture, but no luck-yet. Not trying to breed her-Hewetta is a cornish X and would not breed true. Currently I'm color breeding Seramas and now have 6 different colors that breed true about 85% of the time. They are the most genetically advanced chickens out there. About 7 weeks ago the first albino showed up. It will be a hen. I'll breed her back to father (who has to be split for albino) and hopefully this will lead the way to an albino roster. Then from this line eventually get a latino (yellow with red eyes) and from a latino x albino possibly a red eyed black chicken. I could go on and on about it-but won't-promise. If you don't have Seramas I strongly suggest getting some. Keep on Chick'en!
organic_flutterby
15 years ago
I hope you can post a picture of Hewetta (before Thanksgiving), I'd truly like to see her. I love that.. "busy food", makes me laugh.

I am reading a lot about chickens, alas I don't have any myself...yet! I have read that the Cornish X are very fast growing, as I'm sure you all know already, but that they are rather nasty birds. Can anybody comment on that?

Come to think of it, why don't you snap a shot of her on the platter too, lol.

Here is a link that might be useful: my new blog
seramas
Original Author
15 years ago
Just threw together some pics on my website: www.virgilwalters.com

Hope you enjoy them.
Keep on Chick'en.
gardengalrn
15 years ago
I enjoyed your pictures. Hewetta looks especially huge next to the smaller birds! If you do a search, you will find a thread on this very topic. I read it last year and that is when I decided against the Cornish X. Some had good results and experiences, though. I opted instead to research some of the dual-purpose breeds for meat this spring. My reasoning is that despite the longer growing time (and thus a lower feed to meat ratio), I would also have a renewable resource if I so chose. Lori
seramas
Original Author
15 years ago
So far this year we've raised 300 Cornish X and only had 3 missing. They disappeared at 7 weeks old. Think a neighbor 'borrowed' them-we have caught them in the act before stealing some of the seramas we had in that very same pen. We now have day/night cameras and locks. Sad for them-if they asked we would have given. Color breeding Seramas produces many extras. Out of each 1000 chicks we'll probably keep 25-30 birds. Last year and so far this year over 3400 birds (8 different species) went home with young 4-H kids (FREE). The more knowledgeable they were about the chickens the better quality (show) of birds went home with them. So many kids just wanted a pet. Some groups come a long way (Chicago-Detroit-Colorado)in buses and would take as many as 250 birds. We never give Serama chicks away until they are 4 weeks old-that way they can stand the stress.

I think the reason for our success with Cornish X is we limit feed (except busy food) to what they will eat when it is first placed in with them. Then as they begin to 'walk' away from the table (20-30 minutes) we take the feeders out and repeat this 3-4 times a day while constantly monitoring their weight. If there is any 'puffy' fat like spots under their wings or on the breast under the crop (possibly water retention) we shorten the feeding time for a day or two. We give plenty of water with vitamins/minerals in them at twice the recommended rate. The first week we also add 1 tablespoon of honey and corn syrup per gallon of water. They are so full of those tiny trace things we hear about. We keep them on wire bottom brooder (home made) until they are about 3 weeks old and have feathered out enough to keep them somewhat warm. Then out in the inside/outside pens they go. We have waters and feeders as far apart as possible so they get plenty of exercise. Got to go-will 'talk' later.

Anyone have a Cornish X Horror Story?

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Anyone have a Cornish X Horror Story?

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