Cornish Thread

[CanadianBuckeye]

If you will look at the eggs directly above the one to the left says 51.6(purebred Dark Cornish hen), you can't read the one in the middle, the one to the right says 60.5(Cornish Roaster hen) they all hatched. What I find is the smaller ones hatch early. I think it gets too crowded causing early hatch. They still survive. They are just smaller than my crossbred chicks. They fight at day two.

Nice looking chicks! I've found the Cornish chicks to be very scrappy and active too. They definitely grow up fast. Kind of odd for a slow to mature breed, that the chicks feather out and put weight on quickly. Much faster than my Buckeyes did, for the first few weeks at least and then the Buckeyes caught up and got ahead.

 

[budsbirds]

Thought I would post a picture of my Silver Laced Cornish Bantam project. This cockerel is 4th generation, out of the birds in my avatar. I'm not totally happy with him, still lots of work to do, but definitely coming along. I hope to have some really nice birds in another 4 generations!

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Nice! Silver lace looks very good on a Cornish chicken.

 

[big medicine]

Thought I would post a picture of my Silver Laced Cornish Bantam project. This cockerel is 4th generation, out of the birds in my avatar. I'm not totally happy with him, still lots of work to do, but definitely coming along. I hope to have some really nice birds in another 4 generations!

Curious, did you have a gold based hen in your breeding pen ? The reason I ask is looking at your cockerel's saddles, I can't decipher if I think he might be split gold/silver, or maybe carrying some sort of red enhancer. Compared to the male in your avatar, which looks to be silver/silver with bright saddles, and hackles.

 

[budsbirds]

Thats actually shadows, I don't see the red in real life. But, the two birds in the avatar have single laced dark cornish in them. The variety of colors I have gotten is pretty astounding. Everything from single laced dark to smutty columbian to black to SL

 

[big medicine]

Thats actually shadows, I don't see the red in real life. But, the two birds in the avatar have single laced dark cornish in them. The variety of colors I have gotten is pretty astounding. Everything from single laced dark to smutty columbian to black to SL

Depending on what I thought I was seeing, it usually does not show itself as a red, but more of a straw, or brassy yellow tint to the saddle and or hackle feathers on a otherwise silver looking male, showing up as it develops it's mature plumage.

I went through the same process, (and a bunch of interesting color variations), when developing the silver laced Brahmas, (which also had dark Cornish in the mix).

 

[budsbirds]

I will check him more closely on saturday when I'm actually home in the daylight. I have had several with the brassiness, but I have not seen it on him or on any of the females I've raised.

 

[big medicine]

You generally won't on a female. They are either silver or gold based, unlike a male which can be silver/silver, or gold/gold, or silver/gold split. Now some of the red enhancers are not so cut and dried.

Not a deal breaker if he is split, but if you have birds of equal type it is in your best interest to continue with the cleaner silver birds. But I have chosen to use split birds of superior type in the past. Takes longer to get there, but what you end up with is of better quality, type wise.

 

[JRNash]

whooshing!!! The sound of all this going wayyyyy over my head.lol

 

[JRNash]

All right mentors, it's time y'all recommended some reading material. Remember,baby steps please. Its a lot to absorb