Hi folks, I wonder if I could get some advice about red cornish hens. We bought a bunch of "redbro" chickens straight-run and sold the males for meat (I like these a lot but that's another thread).

We kept the hens to either process for meat or keep for eggs. It's been about 5 months and they're looking really huge and eating a lot of expensive feed.

I'm wondering specifically how many weeks these take before they start laying and how they lay overall.

Typically any of the better laying breed will start to lay at 5 to 6 months. We start our layers in the late fall to time their maturity along with the onset of spring - which helps to induce the laying. Since yours have hit laying age with the onset of shorter days that might delay their laying. For the feed, mature layers are usually fed a lower protein (and cheaper) feed than the growing birds.
Stanley

Broiler strains are exceedingly poor layers. When you combine this with the large amounts of feed needed to maintain a heavily muscled carcass, they are not practical as layers. Muscling on any animal is inversely proportional to reproductive efficiency. (think about the conformation of a dairy cow vs. a beef breed) Many times, when broilers get past 12 or so weeks old they will have leg problems, etc... You will come out much better to purchase some dual-purpose or egg layer breeds.