Cornish X Rock fertility?

[Blisschick]

I'm down to my last 5 to butchered, and I have at least two hens and one really nice roo. My question is: Can these birds mate naturally, or do they have issues in the breeding department? I would like to keep these last three in hopes of hatching out more meat chicks, but if it's not worth the trouble, then I'll go ahead and slaughter them.

Stacey

 

[Redneckchick]

Everything I googled online said for them to mate you have to make them "DIET". Roos have problems "mounting hens" and their weight and laziness don't make them seem to be the best of breed stock...just my opinion here , but I think getting meat pullets from hatchery is far easier than making something else diet here

the cornish act like their starving..ROFL

 

[4H kids and mom]

blisschick...I had been wondering the same thing because my kids have fallen "attached" to one little Cornish we have (thinking its a pullet, not sure yet, too young) and they want to grant it a "repreave" from ending up as our dinner.

Technically, it WAS an extra the hatchery threw in, so....

I was wondering how easy/hard it was to breed them as well. Thought I'd keep one of each to hatch out my own chicks each year, but I keep hearing how hard it is to do. I guess I'll keep checking this thread to see what the other experts have to say too!

 

[Critter Crazy]

So much easier just buy new chicks. as stated earlier, unless they are placed ion a diet, they are too fat and slow to be able to mate properly!

 

[Llysse]

If you have the facilities to keep them, I'll go against the prevailing opinion here and say it won't hurt to try. Did you keep these birds because they were the best of the lot? I mean... who knows? You may end up being able to come up with better stock yourself by being able to select against leg problems and so forth.

I have to admit, though, that I'm just a little curious to know if it can be done, so that may be motivating my advice a little, too. If you have an incubator, once your rooster is mature, you could try incubating an egg or two to see if they're fertile before you wasted time and energy on a whole big lot of them. I mean, if you were able to hatch your own, just think: they'd be able to start eating and pooping and growing THREE DAYS before shipped birds, LOL.

 

[Blisschick]

I mean, if you were able to hatch your own, just think: they'd be able to start eating and pooping and growing THREE DAYS before shipped birds, LOL.

WHOO HOO!! I'm all excited now!!

I love the pooping part!

(Is it just me, or do these birds stink worse than other chickens?)

We have these last few left because we've been slow to get around to doing the deed. We don't have a lot of money to spare, so I thought instead of shelling out the big bucks for 25 all at once, I could go 10 or 15 at a time as I needed them.

These few that are left are already 6 mos. old and are just starting to mature, but don't appear to be ready to procreate just yet. Of the four we've already butchered, one was a hen (dumb move), and her ovaries were developing, but not anywhere close to mature. I think if I did put them on a diet, maybe that would help. I am feeding them a high protein feed at the moment, so if I put them on layer pellets, that would probably slim them down and give them the right diet to mature sexually.

A thought on the roosters...There is one that has been kind of puny and hasn't muscled out like the others. He gets around really well because he isn't pulling the extra weight. I'd consider using him if I didn't think he'd actually be taking away from the gene pool. It would probably be a lot easier for him to mate, but I have reservations about his lack of muscle.

Stacey​

 

[Llysse]

Yes... there's nothing like MORE POOP!

But you're right that it will be hard to balance choosing which ones to try breeding. You DO want them to grow fast, still. You just don't want them to collapse under their own weight, the poor things.