Starting my own meat birds dark cornish and cross with white rock

I have heard so many stories about cornish cross problems and I live in a very hot climate.

I am planning on crossiing a dark cornish standard 8/9 lbs with a white rock 8/9 lbs

(male can be cornish or white rock over the opposite female)

What can I expect? I know that if I buy broilers year after year (most of them are eaten or die before breeding age) the cost is high and we want to produce our own food and not have to both buy/feed and pay for processing.....

Its cheaper to eat what you grow!

Any advise on what if this will give me a good meat bird OR what other breeds can I cross a dark cornish and white rock with??? all advice is appreciated. Thanks

I doubt if you will save any money by growing and processing your own chickens but it is fun anyway. I live in a hot climate. San Joaqin Valley in CA. Lots of over 100 degree days. I do raise Cornish X for our own use but I wouldn't dream of trying it when it is hot. We bought one batch to arrive in Sept after the worst of the heat was past, and we got another batch in Feb so they were in the freezer before the hot weather hit. At least that was the plan. There were some delays so we still had chickens when it got hot. I put fans on them during the day and they made it OK. Developing your own meat chickens is a little like reinventing the wheel, but I am sure you will enjoy doing it anyway.

Have fun and keep us posted.

Thanks but if I end up with a chicken type that is 8/10 lbs and good enough to process at 12/16 weeks then this is what I am hoping for....not a bird that will die of heart failure and needs attention all of the time. (even with a restricted diet!)

I think if I hatch my own eggs and process this will be less expensive than having to buy chicks each year from a breeder.

Does anyone know a good breed to "cross" with a white rock or a dark cornish... I hope there are some experienced breeders out there with some ideas.....thanks

Well, the bad news is that you won't get a Cornish Cross like the chicks you buy from the hatchery. Unfortunately, if it were that simple, we'd all be doing it! The actual "recipe" is a closely guarded secret and long breeding process that has been perfected over decades, but hey- have fun. They all taste like chicken!

It sounds like you already know that you won't get a bird anything like the Cornish X meat birds, and that you're doing this because you don't want a bird like the Cornish X meat birds, is that correct? A reasonable meat bird, that can handle high temps, and not drop dead on you, right?

I'm also aiming for an alternative, that I can breed and raise, rather than buying chicks all the time. The folks who have bred birds using a standard Cornish for one side, say that it works best if you use a Cornish roo, over whatever hen. It sounds like many breeds of hens will work pretty well with this, Rocks being very popular. In England, the preferred meat bird used to be a Cornish/Dorking cross, and in the U.S.A., preferred meat birds, before the development of the X's, were Delawares and Dominiques. People also used to use the Cornish/Rock F1 cross, like you're planning. So those might all be very good choices. I'm inclined to think that any cross with the Cornish male parent, is probably going to produce a better meat bird than either parent breed alone.

You might also look into what breeds are especially good in high temps, (Buckeyes, maybe? for one?) and see which of those have the earliest maturity/best body weight ratio.

If you look under the "Crossing Cornish with others" thread, there's a lot of good info there. Including what I got from Dark Cornish hen (hatchery, not very good quality, hens way undersized) X Brahma roo. They weren't bad, even though my mix was backwards, which I knew, but that's what I had available to work with.

You can also get some good info over in the genetics section of BYC. Good luck, I hope you'll post your results.

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Thanks for your wisdom! this is exactly the plan. I will plan to cross the dark cornish roo over orpingtons/white rock/and even try a jersey gian cross.

I too do not want to keep buying chickens each year. I would like to hatch a batch of 40 eggs and have them all raised and in my freexer in about 12/16 weeks and dress out about 8 lbs. I bet it wont be just like the industry broiler birds... But close enough for me!

The thing is its not just the breed of bird it the feed too well the amount protein in the feed that made them grow. Around 15 years ago I took some cornish rock crosses to fair for 4-H and I think I had them on a 35+% protein starter for around 4 weeks then I whent to a 30% grower and they got big fast...

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You might not be able to get them that big, that fast. That would be more like 20 weeks, or longer. But you can probably get them reasonably big, by 16 weeks, if you feed high enough protein to start.

I know a lot of folks say the feed conversion ratio is bad with non-broilers, but the broilers will eat you out of house an home in 6-8 weeks. I haven't kept track well enough to say for sure, but I wonder if they really eat about the same, and just eat it slower than the broilers.

All my chicks grow a lot faster on 20-22% protein than on anything lower.

Thanks! I will get high protein broiler feed and hear that many flock owners use a straight 20% the whold time to prevent too fast growth..... But I am debating the 23% and reducing to 20% later. Speed is not what I am after.... even 12/14 weeks for a good solid 7/8 lb is better than pushing a broiler to fall over and die at 12 lbs in 8 weeks!

I am getting the Mcmurray "cornish roaster" that is not the jumbo monster cornish cross and it should grow a little slower to begin with anyway.... How did you feed your birds and what did they dress out at?

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You might not be able to get them that big, that fast. That would be more like 20 weeks, or longer. But you can probably get them reasonably big, by 16 weeks, if you feed high enough protein to start.

I know a lot of folks say the feed conversion ratio is bad with non-broilers, but the broilers will eat you out of house an home in 6-8 weeks. I haven't kept track well enough to say for sure, but I wonder if they really eat about the same, and just eat it slower than the broilers.

All my chicks grow a lot faster on 20-22% protein than on anything lower.