Cornish Cross Chickens are not the Answer

Carl Brooke wrote:Thats the point of my studies Andrew. Obesity may be connected to a change in your DNA as a result of what you consume. Not just that you consume.
CX have an amazing conversion ratio of intake to growth. As we consume these birds do we change too? Do we also adapt this ability to better convert our foods to growth (fat).  
According to a few studies on the genetic level we are seeing changes to DNA based of the foods consumed and the growth of traits of the food consumed.
Consider the growth of Humans over the past 1000 years. On average we have grown about 5 inches. Why? Most likely reason was the abundance of foods.  
Now consider the mutations of our foods over the last decade. We have developed these giant Chickens, Turkeys, Pigs and cows all through domestication and selective breeding.
Which is all great. Lots more food for everyone. The problem is out bodies are now also growing just as we have bred our animals to. We are what we eat!

Perhaps, though color me skeptical.

That said, if we take your theory as writ, obesity is still a matter of people overeating.  It just becomes perhaps a little harder to keep caloric intake below burn if we indeed are more efficient at extracting calories from food.

However humans are already incredibly efficient at processing our food.  As a percentage of body weight we eat comparatively little food compared to most animals.  Around 2.5% is typical per day, vs dogs (raw fed) at around 3-4% and broiler chickens at 8-10%.

I haven't read all of the comments, but personally,  I have raised cornish cross like a normal chicken. I fed a ground pig grower from a feed mill. An old timer told me the nutritional value is very close. If you do not over feed the little monsters they won't be a hideous creature with health issues. Mine were free ranged, lazy, but free ranged after a certain age. I started by picking out 4 at a time of the biggest. At least 5 #. I'm very happy with the results. Not cripples birds. A lot of internal fat. I kept some females for breeding to my 1/2 cc rooster. Chicks from them are nice.

We raise chickens for meat to sell. We have had Cornish cross. They are about the dumbest bird I've ever seen. They just lay there, doing nothing except to eat. They were never a working part of the farm. They tasted ok, but we believe something that gets a little exercise once in a while is going to produce healthier meat. We will never have them again. We switched to Rainbow, Rangers and are far more satisfied. Unfortunately, as of today Feb. 1st, many other people agree with us. At Meyer Hatchery they are sold out on Rainbows until the end of July.

I just raised 25 cornish cross birds on a corn free soy free diet. We processed them after 8 weeks and they averaged about 4.5 lbs per bird. They also tasted delicious. This was my first time raising them. And they definitely poop a lot. But moving the tractor twice a day seemed to help a lot. My experience  was overall a good one. I am no expert but not sure why all the hate?

Jake white wrote:I just raised 25 cornish cross birds on a corn free soy free diet. We processed them after 8 weeks and they averaged about 4.5 lbs per bird. They also tasted delicious. This was my first time raising them. And they definitely poop a lot. But moving the tractor twice a day seemed to help a lot. My experience  was overall a good one. I am no expert but not sure why all the hate?

Welcome to permies, Jake. Our feed is also corn and soya free and we also use a tractor system, so I do think that is a big part of having a better experience with the cornish cross. I would watch them eating the grass and bugs, so I knew that in the right conditions, they aren't as bad as some people's experiences.

We have a people sized portable shelter where they spend the night (high predator load, and this shelter has electric fencing on the outside). We have dog exercise pens sections which make an expanded daytime run area. During the day, we leave the feed inside, but we put their water at the far end of the outside run. This noticeably increases the amount of exercise they get, which I think makes the meat denser. The daily fresh grass they eat, I think makes the meat taste better. Their fat often has a slight yellow tinge, which I understand is the healthy influence of the greens they eat.

We are raising them for typical suburban customers. They tell us they taste much better than grocery store birds, but I'm not sure that many of them would be up to eating some of the young roosters I've processed for our consumption that were from layer breeds that went broody. I also suspect that people who are used to eating wild meats like venison, would be more willing to eat chicken that was further from "typical grocery store" meat.