Cornish - Page 7

These birds look very healthy, in excellent condition.  I love the roos posture and presence, nice set of shoulders on him.  Both are a little lean for the current look.  The birds posted by Poultry Run Farm are of the current Exhibition 'bulldog' type.

The largest fault here is color.  The Roo is very light.  He is missing the ebony wing bar and black on his wings.  The hen appears to be double laced, but is missing the black on her wing bows as well.

I think that if you were willing to give it a couple generations you could do something with them.  I would find a really dark pair of Bulldogs and cross them out and see if you get something you like.

Good luck with them!

Thanks so much.  I wouldn't mind at all seeing what I could do with them.  I just need to find others to cross them with.  This is not a breed that is easy to come by, I think.  The guy that gave these to me says that they are hard to find around here.  Any idea where I could start to find others.  As I said, I am completely new to this breed, but I really like them and would like to play around with them a little. 

Thanks again,
Paula 

RYU :

Bad news these new whites have mites ( hey that rhymes ) scaly leg and body, what is a good treatment, Dip?, Dust?, Both?.

                                                 AL

Those Cornish could be black laced red not dark Cornish. Good show birds are hard to come by even though there are a good amount of breeders with them. I got my Cornish from 3 different bloodlines and paid alot for them but it was worth it. One of my males just won best overall gamebird in juniors, best junior bird, bb, champion aoccl and more. Have done very well with them and the judge was very happy to see such a good bird and loved him. I am working on producing great black Cornish. I am in the 2 generation this spring and have already have some that I will use next year(3rd generation). Will have some Cornish for sale in the fall and eggs right now.

Thanks.  Glad to hear that.  My Daughter is just starting to show them.  Her little hen did pretty well at her only show in the fall, took the breed and class.  She hasn't had them very long at all, and she wasn't in great condition and she was still fairly young. 
We truely have fallen in love with this breed.  Was getting a little bummed about the thought of them not breeding on their own, tho.  That recently changed we have seen the older boy is doing his stuff and we have one fertile egg in the incubator from his group finally...  If the younger boy doesn't get a clue soon the older guy will have a couple more girls for a little while Course her best hen was taken out she has her entered in two shows at the end of the month.
We just can't say enough good things about this breed and we didn't even raise these birds, they are not mean in any way.

We are aware they can also have issues with the heat.  Do you have yours in a cool building, outside or AC?  Being in Maine we don't get alot of problems with it being hot all summer, but we can get days that just pop into the 90-100's that may be a bit much for them if it's only 75-80 the day before, just something we are trying to think ahead on, wouldn't want anything to happen to them for sure.

One more question.  We have also heard because of their type they could have leg or joint problems?  Anyway to help prevent that, extra Vitamins?  Or is it genetic?

If that hen isn't double laced you could have a black laced red.  I have not seen that type.  I have seen blue laced red and white laced red, but not black.  But anything is possible in the chicken world!

If she is double laced then she is most likely a Dark.  The roo looks like Double laced that we have put on a red bird background.  They could have some Buff in them.

You won't know for sure until you cross them out.

We use frontline on ours.  (I am itching as I write...)  Nickel sized dot (applied with a q-tip, we buy the spray bottle type) under each wing, and one on the rear.  If you do it religiously every 4-6 weeks, that works the best.

You can dust them with Sevin or a similar product.  Mineral oil on the legs to drown the buggers out.

I would dust the coop with Sevin, or get one of those dilute and spray mite treatements.  They always seem to hide in the bedding or the roost.

Mites love Cornish.  They are the first birds to get infested.  Poor babies.

I'd put the young guy where he can see how the older roo interacts with the hens.  That really helped my youngest roo.  He really didn't have a clue.

I haven't had any problems with heat.  Here in Iowa, we get a couple really hot 100-100+ weeks, and they didn't seem to suffer any more than the others.  Shade, water, and a breeze--they seem to do ok.  Mine seem more susceptible to cold.

My largest Exhibition roo is looking like he's developing some leg problems.  He injured one jumping down from the roost, but is getting better.  I don't keep bantams, but my feeling is there's going to be less problems with them.  They don't seem to be bred as wide as the standards.

My birds are fairly slow growing, so I haven't seen any developmental issues there.  All the youngsters are out running with the other standards with no problem. 

I have heard that it is very important to keep them active as youngsters.  Mine will be running with the laying flock until later in the summer when I start sorting.  I could lose a few that way, but I want them out and moving around.

Best of luck!

I treated them yesterday, I dippped them in 10% Permetherin swished them around some ( not dunking heads ), rubbed head eyes,combs,wattles with VetRX and put a dab under the wings and around the vent, let dry. then I dusted then w/5% seven dust. With the leftover dip I put it in a tank sprayer and spayed the entire coop, paying attention to the undersides of roost & nest boxes, and knot holes in the wood. Then laid liberal amounts of DE all over and in nest boxes. That should do it don't you think??.

                                          AL

If I were a mite, I'd vacate.