multi strain meat bird breeding mix

[enel 1]

Cornish game hens from a hatchery are commercial broilers, they just market them as " Cornish game hens " when you buy a Cornish game hen at the store its just a meat bird that was processed at a younger age then normal size bird you get. Don't be fooled by hatchery marketing, if your gonna make your own " meat " type bird then you should use the best quality birds you can find. My birds are how ever about 1/3 commercial broiler...Cobb 308 to be exact. Which by the way is the actual name of one of the commercial strains of meat birds.

 

[enel 1]

here is a Cornish game hen!!

 

[Triple Willow]

Cornish game hens from a hatchery are commercial broilers, they just market them as " Cornish game hens " when you buy a Cornish game hen at the store its just a meat bird that was processed at a younger age then normal size bird you get. Don't be fooled by hatchery marketing, if your gonna make your own " meat " type bird then you should use the best quality birds you can find. My birds are how ever about 1/3 commercial broiler...Cobb 308 to be exact. Which by the way is the actual name of one of the commercial strains of meat birds.

Ditto. McMurray explains that they are the same as the big ones, just killed earlier. Do you know what company uses the COBB 308'S?

 

[KrazyChromatics]

i dont want to buy cornish, they cannot survive where i live without special treatment, and im not heating a bunch of chickens through the winter we've had a lot of 20-30 below zero weather i worry about my hardy birds in that let alone pushing cornish through... thats why i need a mix breed its easy enough to buy cornish anywhere... but to keep them through the winter here is just not an option

 

[enel 1]

The hatchery I got them from gets birds from Cobb/ vantress,and Ross, so you'll have to ask the hatchery, I'm sure any of the commercial bird will work equally.
As far as cold winters go, I agree about ,,
not wanting to mess with them over the winter. But, if you get them in spring by august they will be laying a few eggs, and the birds that hatch from the cross I described, will be able to hand the cold, we had a couple weeks of below zero and they were fine.

 

[enel 1]

I have a commercial broiler hen that is over a year old and she did good too. As long as you restrict the food intake they are very " normal chicken " like and she runs so hot anyways I think she enjoyed the cool weather.
I'll take a pic of her tomorrow, for the nonbelievers...hehe

 

[Triple Willow]

I have a commercial broiler hen that is over a year old and she did good too. As long as you restrict the food intake they are very " normal chicken " like and she runs so hot anyways I think she enjoyed the cool weather.
I'll take a pic of her tomorrow, for the nonbelievers...hehe

I believe one of these days I'll try what you have done with some commercial bird crosses. Very nice dressed bird in the pic, good job!

...I'm thinking Delaware roo over commercial hen (for meat and egg laying) then Buckeye roo over the F1's (for more meat). Who knows... maaaybe.

 

[enel 1]

I did a Delaware over my RIRxBroiled hens and most of them came out with a del pattern and much larger then the original birds...I didn't get any cockerels from that hatch.I don't have any pics darn it! I do have one of the del cockerel I used.

 

[Triple Willow]

I did a Delaware over my RIRxBroiled hens and most of them came out with a del pattern and much larger then the original birds...I didn't get any cockerels from that hatch.I don't have any pics darn it! I do have one of the del cockerel I used.

So they were pretty meaty? I haven't studied up on all those color genetics. Might be better to do Buckeye over the commercial hen then Delaware over the F1. Do you have to pen the commercial and the F1 pullets seperate from the other birds to keep them from hogging the feed?

 

[enel 1]

I have three pens with one for each parent line and one with the f1 birds and their offspring, I have removable walls so I can make it one big coop , or two, or three( if that makes sense ),and last week I opened up two of the coops together because I have plenty of f2 and back cross egg in the bator now so I'm just eating eggs. My f1 birds and commercial birds are pretty timid so they wait their turn to eat if there isn't room so I feed everyone at once.