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Cornish Cross

Cornish Cross (Cornish X) chickens are the standard meat chicken for the American market. ...
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General Information

Breed Purpose
Meat Bird
Comb
Pea
Broodiness
Seldom
Climate Tolerance
All Climates
Egg Productivity
Low
Egg Size
Medium
Egg Color
Brown
Breed Temperament
Calm, Bears confinement well
Breed Colors/Varieties
White
Breed Size
Large Fowl
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Cornish Cross (Cornish X) chickens are the standard meat chicken for the American market. Sometimes called broilers or Cornish/Rocks.

Although it is NOT a breed of chicken, it is a cross or hybrid of some very secret breed lines for the sole purpose of gaining weight as rapidly as possible.

The first attempts at "Hybrid" meat birds was in the 1930's and was the dominant commercial bird by the 1960's.

Modern broilers are typically a third generation offspring (an F2 hybrid). The broiler's four grandparents come from four different strains, two of which produce the male parent line and two of which provide the female parent line, which are in turn mated to provide the broilers. The double cross protects the developer's unique genetics as strains cannot be reproduced from the broiler offspring.

In 2003, approximately 42 billion broilers were produced, 80% of which were produced by four companies: Aviagen, Cobb-Vantress, Hubbard Farms, and Hybro making them arguably, the most popular chicken to raise.

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Cornish X egg (white)

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Cornish X chicks

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Cornish X Juvenile

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Cornish X hen

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Cornish X rooster

For more information on Cornish X and their owners' experiences with them, see the Meat Birds ETC forum section for discussions.
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Latest reviews

SwampPrincessChick
Pros: Great for meat production, resilient to many diseases such as coccidiosis and fowl pox.
Cons: Nasty, loud, eats too much, annoying, aggressive, stupid, destructive, not scared of predators.
Cornish Cross are one of the worst breeds I have seen in my life, if not the top worst. The only thing they do all day is sit in their poop and continually eat, only occasionally roaming around the yard even though there is plenty of space for them to do so. Not to mention that their poop is literally everywhere you step and it is in huge piles, much larger than a normal chicken's. They are destructive and turn everything to a pile of poop and mud. Cornish Cross are oriented so much to food that they attack you for it. This goes for both genders; the cockerel started attacking me first when he saw me with the feed bucket, and the pullets followed along and attacked me as well. Two of them died before butcher age, one from leg problems and the other one from a heart attack. Cornish Cross are extremely loud and they constantly make this annoying honking noise because they choke on their food since they eat so fast and so much. The only things good about this crossbreed is that they are fast choice for meat production and they can easily fight off diseases such as coccidiosis and fowl pox, but other than that, don't waste your time and your yard space. American Bresse would be much better.
BantyChooks
When raised correctly, CX are far from the apathetic Frankenstein-clones their repute would have you think. I raised them with my layer flock in a free-range setting with limited food, and it paid off. At times I found it difficult to tell them apart from my leghorns without looking at their feet! They were about the size of a regular grocery-store bird when I butchered them at ten or so weeks of age. Overall, I am quite pleased with them and will purchase another batch in the future.
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Image caption: two eight-week-old Cornish Cross in the foreground, with a Pearl guinea fowl and a White Leghorn pullet in the background.
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Kessel23
Pros: Grow fast, very friendly, fun to watch, more hardy than you would expect, and they taste good.
Cons: Leg problems and other growth related issues have been the main problem for me with this breed.
I got 53 of these guys this year, they are very awesome birds and are way more hardy than most people claim. I was expecting to get a weak bird that has a high death rate because of what I read. Out of 53 birds I only had around 5 die, all of them were from leg or other growing issues, 2 of them had to be culled earl because of this. Other than the leg stuff they are great birds. I kept a few of these guys to cross breed with my egyptian fayoumi, golden campines, and leghorns.
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Comments

TiaMaria413
lizanne said:
I got my first batch for Mc Murray hatchery. They all did great. I have one left that is almost 7 months old. She started laying around 20 weeks, and is a great layer with huge eggs. She is super friendly, and will come over to me and sit at (or on) my feet when I go outside. You do need to keep a good eye on them, and I have to wash her every once in a while, because she's too big to get to some areas herself. She's been ok in the heat, but her sister died a couple months ago in the heat (we had a week over 106), it just got to be too much for her. If you want to keep one as a pet, I wouldn't get your heart set on a specific one. Just keep the one that seems to be the healthiest and get along with your other hens. If you want a fat, fluffy chicken as a pet I would get a Standard Cochin, or an Orphington.
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How long did the hen live? I have one who is 4 months.
 
RaisinChicks7
al6517 said:
Your comment isn't really fact based and has no credibility, you more than likely raised them improperly and that has led to your poor rating of the breed. It is not uncommon however to find such poor ratings on this breed when left to first time newby type chicken folks who are more adept at caring for pet's as opposed to a healthier livestock model.
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Our very first chickens were the Cornish Cross. I knew zero about them other then what I read about. I swore I’d never raise them again but now that I’ve raised other broilers and turkeys and a couple of geese, I would raise them again. What I did wrong:

1. Fed them too much
2. Attached to them too much.
3. Didn’t supplement their feed with nutritional yeast/enough vitamins.
4. Kept 2 that hung out together that were awesome birds and I couldn’t bare to cull them. I regret that now.

Otherwise, we did okay. We lost 2 birds that we decided to keep (ref number 4) because they were so cute and sweet and both died of obesity (stroke and heart attack) within 2 months of culling their flock mates and within 2 weeks of each other. I posted about them before (Nora and Dora the Explorer.)
Another one in the flock had splayed leg but she was able to walk and forage so we kept her til 6 weeks like the rest. One died for unknown reasons. She was smaller then the rest and just failed to thrive at 3 weeks. There were also 2 roosters in the flock and both died between 2 and 3 weeks. They were very weak looking birds. No feathers to speak of and very poor weight. Several in the flock had wry neck as well. I managed to work through that with massage therapy and increasing their vitamins. So, out of the 25 we purchased, 19 went in the freezer.
They are the tastiest so far of all the birds we’ve raised however, what I personally went through was heart wrenching for me to say the least.
We let them free range and most of them were excellent foragers. I learned about removing their food from them too late. That is a must. 12 on 12 off may even be too much food. Now, I would give them food in the morning and then late afternoon. I would also try nutritional yeast next time and see if that helps with bone strengthening.
I also had to change my attitude. I had to realize these birds are to eat. Yes, I love them but - they are going in the freezer. Period. I don’t attach to them now but I take good care of them as if I was going to keep them forever. That’s all I can do. It’s the right thing to do as it is the reason we decided to raise them to begin with. We want to know how they are raised and treated. We know if we raise them they will have a good life and not be mistreated.
It’s heart breaking and wonderful all at once when you begin. But each time it gets easier.
So, I would raise them again. You literally cannot beat the short time from birth to freezer with this bird. Not to mention the taste. This time, I’ll know what I need to do to be more successful with this breed. Hope this helps anyone considering the Cornish X. 😊
 
RaisinChicks7
EdenCamp said:
They are franken-chickens, built for a purpose - which is to eat, grow too huge too fast to support the bulk and be butchered young - or have legs or pelvis break or heart attacks. Tastey yes. Pets, eggs layers, reproduce it's a bit like insisting a puppy can fly - umm nope, not gonna happen and won't be pretty if you insist on trying.
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Very true.
 

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