Home bred meat crosses?

I know the Cornish X is not as simple as throwing a Cornish rooster and white rock hen together and hatching the results. My question is would such a simple cross be any better of a meat bird than a general dual purpose breed? Does anyone have experience with any particular 1st generation crosses that produce a meat bird of better quality than most dual purpose breeds?

I am not trying to recreate the Cornish X but am just curious if any of the dual purpose breeds I keep could be purposefully crossed to any benefit. All information is appreciated.

If you want chickens that lay well, hatch eggs from chickens that lay well. If you want good meat birds, eat the ones you don’t want to eat and breed the ones you do want to eat.

Breed is really irrelevant. Back before the mid 1900’s certain strains of some breeds were bred as meat birds, but since then the Cornish Cross have totally taken over that market. The meat strains of those breeds were totally lost. Now they are basically dual purpose chickens, no real difference from any of the other dual purpose chickens.

There are a few people, very few, that are breeding certain breeds, mainly Delaware or New Hampshire, to try to get back to the traits that made them decent meat birds; good conversion of feed to meat, fairly rapid growth, and decent size with a certain mix of white to dark meat. If you can find someone who is doing that with any chickens, heritage meat or just a barnyard mix, you will be much better off than any hatchery birds regardless of breed. I’m not talking about someone breeding just for show, I’m talking about people that know what they are doing breeding for the meat qualities.

Many of us take the route of getting hatchery birds and selectively breeding for the traits we want. As long as you know what traits you want, keep it fairly simple, and are pretty ruthless in selecting your breeders you can make some good progress in just a few generations. The more traits you select for, the more complicated and slower it is to get where you want to go.

The meat birds are generally light colored, either white or buff. That’s because when you pluck you always leave pin feathers. With the darker birds those really show up. With the lighter colored birds they are still there but the carcass is much prettier.

You cannot beat the Cornish Cross for producing meat, they are specialists. But unless you go to a whole lot of work to restrict their feed, they are not sustainable in the long term. You really need to always buy chicks.

Good luck with it.

Thanks for your input. I have been thinking about getting some Delawares, both for eggs and meat, and I think they would give some nice variety to my flock. I will keep getting some Cornish Cross occasionally, as you said they can't be beat at their specialty. Does anyone know of a hatchery or individual breeder working with meatier strains of Delawares or any other similar breeds?

If I were wanting to raise my own crosses for meat birds, I'd start with the Pioneer, also called the Dixie Rainbow. They reach table wt in approx 12 weeks, don't have all of the health issues of the CXR, and the Pioneer pullet makes a nice layer. Of course these are hybrid meat birds, and won't breed true. But, my guess is that you'd get some nice sized meat birds from your second generation cross.

I heard the Malines also growing pretty fast, but nothing beat cornish x.

Coop Cop
Did you have any luck with your cross test?
I have considered Cornish Indian Game mixed with the following.

• Jersey Giant
• Delaware
• Plymouth Rock (White or Barred)
• Faverolles

I want to know how big of a foraging bird I can get in 20 weeks.

PressOn said:

I have considered Cornish Indian Game mixed with the following.

• Jersey Giant
• Delaware
• Plymouth Rock (White or Barred)
• Faverolles

I want to know how big of a foraging bird I can get in 20 weeks.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you have an Indian Game male and the rest are girls. My suggestion is to hatch eggs from each. 20 weeks later you'll have the best answer you can get under your conditions and with your birds. The ones that don't measure up will still taste great and you will know which worked best for you.

There are a lot of variables involved, both in the quality of your breeding stock and in your management methods. We will all get different results because our conditions are different. What you need is the best answer for your conditions, not my conditions.

Agree with @Ridgerunner above.

"I want to know how big of a foraging bird I can get in 20 weeks."

^ That is a Variable no one can accurately forecast, even if the rest was reliably predictable (it isn't, except broadly in appearance).

You seem to have a known male you can put over all those hens - that eliminates a variable, and a large plot of land for them to free-range - that eliminates a second. Coming into Spring if you are northern hemisphere, your pasture will be at its height productively.

Now's the time to hatch a bunch of chicks and let them graze till its time to weigh and table. Then you will know what works best for you.

and if, in my ignorance, i had to bet? Barred Rock. But I'm just rolling dice here and talking out my @$$.

Best of luck in your efforts!