Anyone heard of a breed "designed" to only live 4-5 months?

[sommrluv]

Cornish Cross Broilers are a terminal cross chicken, and yes, if fed at the rate most people feed them for growth, and even if not, they will not breed normally (they are literally not built for it, their breasts are too big, their legs too weak), their hearts cannot stand their growth rate, their legs cannot support their frames. They are engineered to be constantly hungry, and can and would eat themselves to death. The constant hunger causes their feces to be loose, and have a sickly smell. Terminal cross means that they are designed for death, basically. To create them, it is never a cornish cross to cornish cross breeding. It is one breed of chicken to another breed, and it's all proprietary information wrapped up in copyrights. What I THINK the concerned poster is possibly getting them confused with is the Dark Cornish Chicken, sometimes just called Cornish chicken, which is another breed entirely. The Freedom rangers are also a meat chicken, but breed differently, and while they will lay eggs and breed, you generally won't get the growth rates the original specimens did. I would liken it to trying to grow tomatoes from a hybrid.

We have had success with feeding broilers organic feed, plus fermented grain or spent brewers grain. The extra fiber helps their digestive system. We also removed feed at night so they could not continue eating. I believe we butchered at 10 weeks.

Are you sure she was referring to rabbits? I wonder if she was researching both at once and got her wires cross, lol

 

[Shelbers91]

Feather duster budgie a rare mutation in budgerigar that makes their feathers grow constantly so they look like poofball feather dusters. Poor things body puts all nutrition towards feathers and they die of starvation in 5ish months. Every time I hear of a breeder of these I want to cry and do bad things to them..

 

[akane]

Occasionally a hatchery broiler chicken will survive longer but it is very common for their hearts to give out and they tend to over eat easily leading to health problems if kept like a normal chicken that you would free feed. Most will die within normal butchering time. The ones that have survived are flukes or people controlled their feed intake keeping their weight down a lot.

 

[DonnerSurvivor]

Occasionally a hatchery broiler chicken will survive longer but it is very common for their hearts to give out and they tend to over eat easily leading to health problems if kept like a normal chicken that you would free feed. Most will die within normal butchering time. The ones that have survived are flukes or people controlled their feed intake keeping their weight down a lot.

Most will not die within normal butchering time this is simply untrue. I have raised Millions of chickens (literally) Yes we use a terminal cross to produce broilers but these chickens still live healthy lives until the day they die. Leg and heart problems are typically due to feeding to high of protein feed past the starter period or leaving the lights on 24/7. I have kept some of these terminal crosses just for fun for years and they produced eggs and occasionally would hatch chicks. Controlling feed intake is far less important than proper light control.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

She definitely was talking about rabbits, but that doesn't mean she didn't get her info mixed up. And after reading the comments about birds bred deliberately to self-destruct, I realllllly hope no one has developed a similar rabbit breed! To me, humanely and quickly dispatching a healthy happy rabbit, or one which has been injured or has an illness despite good care, is much kinder than deliberately breeding one with health problems which it will succumb to if you wuss out at butchering time!

 

[sommrluv]

Yeah, Broilers of the Cornish Cross variety are NOT happy healthy birds. Though honestly, on the very high fiber diet we tried, we had a lot of normal chicken behaviours return. For instance, I've had friends put the water away from the shelter on a hot day...maybe only twenty feet, but not immediately in the shelter. The chickens died because they wouldn't walk the twenty feet to the water in the heat. Some of that is the intense selection done for certain traits, and I think some of that is just due to the fact that they must feel horrid.<br /><br />__________ Sat Feb 09, 2013 10:31 pm __________<br /><br />Donner, obviously we're talking about two different animals here. if you are using your own parent stock, I can guarantee you do not have the same bird as these Cornish Cross Broiler chickens. The only reason I think it's good for you to know about it, is because you mentioned AR propaganda. And yes, AR's have all sorts of crazy propaganda out there. But knowing what's real and what's not is a good thing to have on your side during an argument, and the fact is, yes, there are chickens out there that generally will will weaken and die after that 10 or 12 week mark. It would be a simple google search of "cornish cross mortality" or "Cornish Cross viability" and read the hundreds upon hundreds of stories of people who have them and didn't butcher them on time, people who tried to 'rescue' them from livestock auctions, etc.

It sounds like you've really got a great breeding program there for your birds. I'm very interested in the breeds you use for your parent crosses and your feeding program. Having a viable meat bird that still gets tender breasts and a nice skin that I could hatch myself would really be worth some cash to a lot of people.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

I can't help it: Broilers of the Cornish Cross sounds like an order of Crusaders, LOL!

:hobbyhors riest: :hobbyhors

 

[Dood]

DonnerSurvivor wrote

Leg and heart problems are typically due to feeding to high of protein feed past the starter period or leaving the lights on 24/7. I have kept some of these terminal crosses just for fun for years and they produced eggs and occasionally would hatch chicks. Controlling feed intake is far less important than proper light control.

I am happy for your success but I have never had a commercial broiler breed live longer than 5 months, regardless of how much light or the amount of protein in their feed.

I get the chicks hatched in classrooms and they are always a commercial broiler breed. I get them at 5 days or younger and raise them with my heritage dual purpose breed (Chantecler)in my back yard garden on a mostly natural diet, natural light, and lots of outdoor exercise. They grow so fast the cartilage in their ankles deteriorates and they be come crippled, they are culled and put into the freezer, their hips are the next to go and they begin to walk splay legged and cannot keep up with the other chicks and suffer emotional stress so into the freezer, the last ones in the clutch just stop moving one day and lay down to die, sometimes we catch this before the end and finish the deed, other times we find them dead and they are fed to the dogs.

Sorry, and as much as I hate to admit it, this time PETA has it right.

 

[akane]

I was talking about your typical hatchery cross which most people use not your own stock that you've crossed.

 

[DonnerSurvivor]

Ok this is coming from my personal experience in dealing with millions of birds. The birds we grow are very healthy from the day they hatch to the day they die. They are bred to grow extremely fast and require a fairly intensive management program which includes different types of feed and a strict light schedule. The birds are not kept in cages but rather a open barn and the only feed control is by controlling the lights. If allowed these birds will live in a "farmyard" type environment though breeding will be rare and the egg to feed conversion ratio will be quite bad when compared to a bird that has been bred for egg production. Breeding secrets typically stay within a company and never or rarely leave the commercial industry so you can understand how frustrating it is to hear our birds compared to a small hatchery or back yard birds.
How would Peta know how long a cornish cross bird would live? When PETA gets a rescue animal they euthanize it and throw it in a dumpster. They spread lies to raise money to try and stop all animal husbandry and pet ownership.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

:hijacked: Enough of the length comparisons guys, I was asking about RABBITS, and a conversation I HAD. My question was answered several posts ago, so please take this poultry chat elsewhere.

 

[Bad Habit]

Feather duster budgie a rare mutation in budgerigar that makes their feathers grow constantly so they look like poofball feather dusters. Poor things body puts all nutrition towards feathers and they die of starvation in 5ish months. Every time I hear of a breeder of these I want to cry and do bad things to them..

I know DLL wanted this back on topic, but I had to say, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!! Poor bird.

 

[sommrluv]

It's a discussion board. I think it's a relevant comparison as to why she had the thought process.

I always get super annoyed when people dislike that DISCUSSION happens on a discussion board...

 

[Bad Habit]

It's a discussion board. I think it's a relevant comparison as to why she had the thought process.

I always get super annoyed when people dislike that DISCUSSION happens on a discussion board...

Really? I get super annoyed when people completely hijack a thread and turn it into a completely irrelevant argument.

 

[dragonladyleanne]

It's a discussion board. I think it's a relevant comparison as to why she had the thought process.

I always get super annoyed when people dislike that DISCUSSION happens on a discussion board...

It ceased being a discussion when a couple of people posted nearly the same post multiple times, in a back and forth "I'm right, you're wrong", "no YOU are wrong" fashion which bore very little resemblance to my original question. Especially as RT has a "view your posts" function which causes me to think "oh, some new input on my topic", only to find 2 or 3 people having what amounts to a testosterone contest with each other.

 

[Miss M]

We do well tolerate plenty of "thread drift" here on RT, as discussion will naturally cause it to happen.

However, this thread did completely leave its intended topic almost immediately. The experience our various members have had with chickens is impressive, but this thread has pretty much devolved into bickering at this point.

Please, y'all cool down, and let DLL know if you've ever heard of a breed that's supposed to live only 4 - 5 months.

I've certainly never heard of such a breed!

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Wretty much devolved into bickering at this point.

Please, y'all cool down, and let DLL know if you've ever heard of a breed that's supposed to live only 4 - 5 months.

I've certainly never heard of such a breed!

And neither have I-- Other than the tongue in cheek answer given to the HT question MANY years ago!!! That is why THAT answer always is right at the front of my memory.

The growth rate of rabbits and poultry cannot be reasonably compared unless one takes into account the natural reasons for their disparity, and the reasons for the genetics behind the commercial breeds and mixes.

I know of NO rabbit breed purposely developed to die of heart/lung issues at a relatively young age. ( as in before reproductive ability is reached) It would be counter productive to raising rabbits.

 

[Jack]

I know a few rabbits that have a 5-6 month BRED lifespan

Called Meat mutts...

 

[Shelbers91]

Feather duster budgie a rare mutation in budgerigar that makes their feathers grow constantly so they look like poofball feather dusters. Poor things body puts all nutrition towards feathers and they die of starvation in 5ish months. Every time I hear of a breeder of these I want to cry and do bad things to them..

I know DLL wanted this back on topic, but I had to say, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen!! Poor bird.

Sorry DLL. I just wanted it to be heard.. Just replying real quick to bad habit: Breeders will try to give as many good things about these and try to fool people that they are cool and interesting. Of course every bird is interesting and each has a personality but that shouldn't be coupled with a bad mutation. They are actually working on food supplements to try and make them live longer.. As if 5 months of living like that isn't good enough.. That's one reason why I got into parrot education. To make people more aware of things

 

[akane]

She then said she had never been able to do it herself in the past, but now she thought she could because she'd bought some "broilers".

Broilers are chickens roasters are rabbits. The thread changed to chickens and rightfully so because the original person either was talking about chickens or mistook chicken info for rabbit info.