Hens have boney breast. Why?

[kudzuvine]

My hens are fed well - free range often, corn, veggie and fruit scraps, bread, etc., but when I hold them and feel their breast - kind of boney. Glad I'm not culling - wouldn't be much breast meat. Why? Oh yeah, they are RIR/Prod. Red mix.

[Real Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by kudzuvine

My hens are fed well - free range often, corn, veggie and fruit scraps, bread, etc., but when I hold them and feel their breast - kind of boney. Glad I'm not culling - wouldn't be much breast meat. Why? Oh yeah, they are RIR/Prod. Red mix.

They aren't meat specialty hens. As moderns accustomed to big breasts on our roasted chickens, we are often surprised when we notice the lack thereof on a non-meat specialty bird. The fact is that most chickens had little meat on their breasts till the modern "broilers" were developed in the 1950s. Those "broilers" are the freaks, not the standard yard chickens. Broilers are such freaks that they cannot even survive to sexual maturity before they succumb to a heart attack or a broken leg. Before they hit the scene, folks who wanted a big breasted bird would keep turkeys.

[kudzuvine]

that's what I thought but needed opinion. Makes sense and thank you so much for your reply.

[farmerDale]

There are a lot of fallacies out there about modern broiler chickens. Not surviving to maturity due to heart attack is one of them. In my entire life raising them, (30 years), I have NEVER had a broken leg on a cornish cross.

I free range cornish cross. IMO it is the raising style that affects their health, not the fact they are cornish giants. Something to consider.

[KSALguy]

modern laying hens are putting all their feed into the production of eggs, that's why you need to keep a good supply of protein available to them or risk the chance of egg eating, if you have a laying hen that has a nice full breast she is probably not laying,

[fishhead]

I've got some barred rock cockerals that I'm raising for meat. Their breasts are boney too.

This is my second time raising them.

The first time I kept 50 in a 25'x25' pen. At 16 weeks they dressed out at 8 lbs.

This time I started letting them free range about week 15 and gave them whole corn throughout the day. When I processed some at age 18 weeks their breasts were boney too. I think I messed up by feeding them the corn because they stopped eating the feed and started making fat instead of muscle.

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

There are a lot of fallacies out there about modern broiler chickens. Not surviving to maturity due to heart attack is one of them. In my entire life raising them, (30 years), I have NEVER had a broken leg on a cornish cross.

Just curious- how many have you raised and kept as adults?

[MDKatie]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

I free range cornish cross. IMO it is the raising style that affects their health, not the fact they are cornish giants. Something to consider.

I totally agree with you. I've never lost any to heart attacks, leg collapses, or any of the other things people talk about. It's important to give them lots of room to range and not free feed all the time.

I had a CX hen that was too small to butcher when the rest were done, so I kept her until she died at the ripe old age of 3 or so. She even laid eggs and would roost at night, though it was on the lowest branch. She was massive.

[KSALguy]

have kept two roosters past butchering, one I cant really tell you much as it was when I was a kid, but the other lived a full year after the others got butchered and he came to live in my home flock, he was the most RANDY fellow and would try and mate with any hen that didn't fly away, and apparently he was good at it, that year half the chicks that hatched were his, he did drop dead one day apparently from over exertion from running around trying to breed everyone. he was a big meaty muscular monster when he died, but he lived long enough to prove a point and send his genes into the next generation

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by ladycat

Just curious- how many have you raised and kept as adults?

Hundreds I would suppose.

[aart]

Originally Posted by ladycat

Just curious- how many have you raised and kept as adults?

Originally Posted by farmerDale

Hundreds I would suppose.

Why and how old? Just curious as to why you would keep hundreds (I'm sure not all at once but) of Cornish X's alive until adulthood?

[Real Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by MDKatie

I totally agree with you. I've never lost any to heart attacks, leg collapses, or any of the other things people talk about. It's important to give them lots of room to range and not free feed all the time.

I had a CX hen that was too small to butcher when the rest were done, so I kept her until she died at the ripe old age of 3 or so. She even laid eggs and would roost at night, though it was on the lowest branch. She was massive.

The most massive hens I have are Delawares. You can feel their weight when you pick them up as compared to my Rhode Island Reds. Very substantial. It's my understanding that Delawares were kept more for meat than for eggs prior to the development of the meat cross breeds.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by aart

Why and how old? Just curious as to why you would keep hundreds (I'm sure not all at once but) of Cornish X's alive until adulthood?

I have due to circumstances, had to keep cornish cross later than intended three or four times. Because we farm, fall is exceedingly hectic with harvest etc. At times, harvest drags on for a long time. Usually we get our chicks in late may, with a butcher date of say late August. But sometimes they were not available until into June, and then they are not really ready at the beginning of harvest. If the harvest drags on for whatever reason, some things must be put off. Chicken butchering is one of them. I have had cornish crosses kept until they are laying at a pretty good rate of lay. The roosters do their thing, and everyone is healthy and strong, even if they are 10 lbs dressed! lol.

We usually raise 50 or 60 for our own use, and depending on the year, have had up to 500 to sell to others.

Not intentional, but still. My point is, they can mature, and not die of heart attacks or have broken legs. They are not the freaks some say they are. Generally it is an anti "factory" farm thing to say. If folks all wanted scrawny, bony chicken on their plate, the farmers would provide that. And be forced to charge an arm and their firstborn for it.

[arnie]

Originally Posted by aart

Why and how old? Just curious as to why you would keep hundreds (I'm sure not all at once but) of Cornish X's alive until adulthood?

I have some cornich right now (10) just seemed I kept postponing butchering the hens started laying small eggs and one even started setting after laying for a couple weeks a couple roosters look fine and are active but a couple hens have no feathers on there undersides I suppose from laying down so much they are BIG and can't fly up on the roost I got them at tractor supply as an experiment and fed them just like the other chickens and allowed them free range after brooding .. results = they grew big fast and would have worked great if butchered on time but after that they continue eating huge amounts and hardly lay any eggs . if I didn't have my mt cur dogs keeping all the varmits away they would have been the easest of prey for any preator

[secuono]

Mine are freerange and get an oat/whole corn/scratch mix as their only food. Their breasts are filled in, not overstuffed like cornish, but also not thin or sharp. Feeding them enough and making sure worms/disease hasn't gotten to them matters. Mine are adults now, when they were juvies and growing, they were thin in the breast. So that's also a factor, they simply haven't matured yet to fill out fully.

[Mulegirl]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

Not intentional, but still. My point is, they can mature, and not die of heart attacks or have broken legs. They are not the freaks some say they are.

Maybe it depends where you're getting them? We picked some up at Tractor Supply last April (not sure what hatchery supplies our TSC, though) and they were monstrous freaks of nature. We didn't have any broken legs or heart attacks (though we did have heart attacks with the Rainbow Rangers, interestingly), but we did have roosters who would have to plop down to get their breath after running about 1/3 of the way across the electronet enclosure. Where are you getting yours, FarmerDale? Is there a chance that the hatchery is simply producing genetically stronger birds?

[KSALguy]

there are only a couple, maybe three> I think breeders of the Comercial Cornish X that supply ALL the hatcheries that carry them, the genetic mix is a secret well kept, so it has very little to do with what hatchery you get them from, they are all the same, it has more to do with management and how much and what kind of feed you put in front of them, the more you feed them the bigger they grow,

[Sanza]

It also depends on how far you make them walk between their food and water, shade etc. How much you feed them and how often.
I also have experience with having some pullets too small to butcher so they were kept over the winter. They acted just like the layers they were kept with.
Here in Alberta we get our chicks from Rochester Hatchery, the only big hatchery now in this northern area since Miller combined with Rochester. There is also Bergs in Manitoba. The breeders are right here because we can also buy the cornish cross eggs for hatching from them. Maybe our Canadian broilers are a different genetic mix.