Best Heritage Breed for to Improve Small Broilers?

[RaresightFarms]

Hi all. We are starting a fibro broiler project and are looking for advice. We intend to use Svart Hona, a slightly stockier (and winter-hardy) fibro breed than the more popular Ayam Cemani; they top out at 5-7lbs, vs the Cemani 3.5-5.5lbs.

However, that's adult weight, not butchering weight. So we'd like to use a heritage meat breed (or two) to bulk them up a bit. A little hybrid vigor never hurts! We need advice on choosing a couple larger meatie breeds. We are ok with slow growth, we just want a bigger carcass.

So, what to use? Delawares? RIR? Turkens? Could using a significantly larger breed, such as Brahmas, be useful? I know the larger breeds have heavier bones, but perhaps the hybrid with the smaller/lighter boned Svart Hona would be a good balance.

Ideas?

 

[BrennaM]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...purpose-heritage-flock.1489689/#post-24839303

This is a good thread about New Hampshires from freedom ranger hatchery. These are on my list, as well as the Delaware boilers line from McMurray.

 

[CNJ]

The best of the best were used across America to unlock the fast growing Cornish X. I think we can reverse engineer the genes if we breed them together or with a similar heritage breed. For instance, I crossed a pure Breese Rooster with a Cornish X hen and got chicks with different color legs. We know the White Plymouth Rock has yellow legs, the standard White Cornish has yellow legs and a pea comb, and the Breese has steel blue legs. We can also point out that a green or white legged offspring is a combination type of gene. Furthermore, my Breese/Cornish X experiment produced one White Pea Comb male which should be from the original standard White Cornish gene they used to create the Cornish X. I also have a lot of white chicken with yellow legs which should be from the original White Plymouth Rock they used.

I am going to keep the White Standard Cornish and breed him to the biggest White Plymouth Rock (His sister) to see what happens .In addition, I plan on breeding my biggest Rooster with white legs from the Breese/Cornish X cross to his daughters with white legs.

I also have a very plump cockerel with Steel Blue legs that I will breed to steel blue leg hens to keep the Breese line active.

I raised Jersey Giants, Buff Orpingtons, Dark Cornish, White Plymouth Rocks, Breese and Cornish X. My Breese/Cornish X line blow the other heritage breeds away. The rooster with white legs in the picture weighed 12lbs at 5 months old and his sisters weighed 8 and 9lbs. This pairing produces birds that weigh 4 to 6lbs dressed at 3 months old which is perfect for frying and roasting. The hens are laying a little more than every other day. I feed these 3 chickens a pint mason jar of 13% layer pellets in the morning and at 4pm in the after noon. If I put more than a pint, there will be some left over and it attracts birds, so I keep it tight. If the hens get too fat, they won't lay as well.

 

[RaresightFarms]

The best of the best were used across America to unlock the fast growing Cornish X. I think we can reverse engineer the genes if we breed them together or with a similar heritage breed. For instance, I crossed a pure Breese Rooster with a Cornish X hen and got chicks with different color legs. We know the White Plymouth Rock has yellow legs, the standard White Cornish has yellow legs and a pea comb, and the Breese has steel blue legs. We can also point out that a green or white legged offspring is a combination type of gene. Furthermore, my Breese/Cornish X experiment produced one White Pea Comb male which should be from the original standard White Cornish gene they used to create the Cornish X. I also have a lot of white chicken with yellow legs which should be from the original White Plymouth Rock they used.

I am going to keep the White Standard Cornish and breed him to the biggest White Plymouth Rock (His sister) to see what happens .In addition, I plan on breeding my biggest Rooster with white legs from the Breese/Cornish X cross to his daughters with white legs.

I also have a very plump cockerel with Steel Blue legs that I will breed to steel blue leg hens to keep the Breese line active.

I raised Jersey Giants, Buff Orpingtons, Dark Cornish, White Plymouth Rocks, Breese and Cornish X. My Breese/Cornish X line blow the other heritage breeds away. The rooster with white legs in the picture weighed 12lbs at 5 months old and his sisters weighed 8 and 9lbs. This pairing produces birds that weigh 4 to 6lbs dressed at 3 months old which is perfect for frying and roasting. The hens are laying a little more than every other day. I feed these 3 chickens a pint mason jar of 13% layer pellets in the morning and at 4pm in the after noon. If I put more than a pint, there will be some left over and it attracts birds, so I keep it tight. If the hens get too fat, they won't lay as well.

View attachment 3260531

Amazing! Are you breeding your Bresse/Cornish X to breed true or do you just do F1 crosses for processing?

 

[Blue Legs]

i've also done a few bresse crosses with jersey giants and orpingtons. All of the resulting offspring have a faster growth rate than normal and reach processing size in about 16-20 weeks. So if you want to add speed, thats another possibility

 

[CNJ]

Amazing! Are you breeding your Bresse/Cornish X to breed true or do you just do F1 crosses for processing?

I want to clone the white legged rooster in the picture. He has 2 daughters with white legs that look like him. They should be laying this month, I just separated them from a yellow leg brother of the white legged rooster. I'll put them with the white legged rooster in about a month. I will do this first before I do anything else. I will select the biggest hens with white legs from this hatch and breed them back to the father again. I will keep doing this until they breed true.

I also want to breed the pea comb standard Cornish cockerel with yellow legs to a couple of yellow leg hens with short combs to see if I can get a pea comb hen to breed back to him.

I understand that when two purified lines are crossed, the off springs will inherit hybrid vigor.