I've searched high and low looking for Large fowl White cornish chickens. Checking e-bay sellers and trolling thru Craigslist ads weekly yielded few results. I'm rather picky and want traceable genetics that they are purebred with no crossbreeding in them. I belong to many facebook groups as well but most all cornish offered are from show winning breeders and to tell the truth,their prices are higher than breeding aged peacocks goes for at 2 years of age. I'm not going to show them,yet even the prices wanted for breeding stock imho is salty, Over $10 a pound is exceptional to me.And Hatchery stock is NOT or ever was considered an option.
Countless phone calls and hours on the internet does have it's rewards tho. I have located a breeder that started his cornish flock from one man back in the 1970's. This breeder used to show his birds and won first place at almost everyplace his birds were entered. The man who bought him out has not introduced any new cornish into his flock. So this has been a closed prize winning flock with no new blood introduced for about 40 years. He has 3 colors available.
Next I find another breeder from a Craigslist ad who may have Large fowl white cornish for sale this spring.He also has 3 colors but not the same 3 colors available in the closed flock. I have also put my name on this list and this sellers birds came from a very reputable source and can be proven they are pure..
I do not have the SOP for Cornish Large fowl. I wonder if the standard for this breed was the same back in the 1970's as it is today? Does anyone know? I'm wondering once I get birds from both groups and begin keeping records if there will be any significant diffrences in feed conversion and daily weight gain between both groups? Keep in mind,both groups are from proven show winning stock, just one group has remained basically untouched for a very long time.
My first thoughts will be the diffrences possibly in size and body design. Seems birds now are more compact and the main breeding emphasis is on weight gain. I've heard natural breeding of the cornish now days is difficult and sometimes they cannot breed by themselves,or the fertility rate is very poor.Whereas the breeder with the closed flock says he runs one rooster with 20 hens and has over a 95% verifiable fertility rate.
I'm excited about locating the closed flock,as well as finding someone with whites thats willing to sell them at a reasonable cost of the newer genetics. I do not plan to mix these two distinct groups in the beginning. But as recordkeeping starts to show the better birds of each flock I may then choose a few outstanding birds from each group and breed them together and see what happens then. This would give me 3 distinct lines and the possibility to then have 5 distinct lines of Whites.
Anyone know if the standard of perfection has changed for this breed in the past 40 years?
Countless phone calls and hours on the internet does have it's rewards tho. I have located a breeder that started his cornish flock from one man back in the 1970's. This breeder used to show his birds and won first place at almost everyplace his birds were entered. The man who bought him out has not introduced any new cornish into his flock. So this has been a closed prize winning flock with no new blood introduced for about 40 years. He has 3 colors available.
Next I find another breeder from a Craigslist ad who may have Large fowl white cornish for sale this spring.He also has 3 colors but not the same 3 colors available in the closed flock. I have also put my name on this list and this sellers birds came from a very reputable source and can be proven they are pure..
I do not have the SOP for Cornish Large fowl. I wonder if the standard for this breed was the same back in the 1970's as it is today? Does anyone know? I'm wondering once I get birds from both groups and begin keeping records if there will be any significant diffrences in feed conversion and daily weight gain between both groups? Keep in mind,both groups are from proven show winning stock, just one group has remained basically untouched for a very long time.
My first thoughts will be the diffrences possibly in size and body design. Seems birds now are more compact and the main breeding emphasis is on weight gain. I've heard natural breeding of the cornish now days is difficult and sometimes they cannot breed by themselves,or the fertility rate is very poor.Whereas the breeder with the closed flock says he runs one rooster with 20 hens and has over a 95% verifiable fertility rate.
I'm excited about locating the closed flock,as well as finding someone with whites thats willing to sell them at a reasonable cost of the newer genetics. I do not plan to mix these two distinct groups in the beginning. But as recordkeeping starts to show the better birds of each flock I may then choose a few outstanding birds from each group and breed them together and see what happens then. This would give me 3 distinct lines and the possibility to then have 5 distinct lines of Whites.
Anyone know if the standard of perfection has changed for this breed in the past 40 years?
