White Cornish: Building a Quality, Sustainable Flock for Meat and More.....

[JRNash]

How did you get BLUE SKY?? Seriously, the pen looks great. The birds are beautiful. I have wanted a start of these birds for over 10 yrs now. Life always gets in the way. Its a dream. Lol One of these days.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Thanks Tab, I have always used straight start and grow. It's 20% protein. I have had feather picking once and a while. But it's always when I stack them in too tight. Sometimes I hatch myself out of brooder space... I have the hatches spread out a bit better this year thou... I just had 7 out of 8 hatch today and plan on setting one more batch... There are a couple OEB in there too...

 

[Fat Daddy]

Thanks JR, that pen with the blue sky in the pic is 10' long and 30" wide and has a swing up divider in the center..... it's great for separating different ages or sexes or what ever. But I use them more for grow out pens these days.... . I have 3, 8'x 30" pens like it too... just over sized rabbit pens. Originally built them for chukar and quail...

 

[JRNash]

They look good. Hopefully I can finish my dirt work tomorrow and get back on track!! I agree with the correlation between overcrowding and feather picking. I've also had a problem with Rhode island reds or any hybrid using the RIR's them birds are just flat out onery !

 

[JRNash]

My hatching and brooding got messed up when the chicks in the outside brooder refused to leave it. I tried locking them out. They would not set foot out of the coop. After 4 days they started dropping from dehydration and I caved and let them back in. Tore one end out so if they ever work up the nerve they have access to the pen

 

[JRNash]

It will all come together when I finish the dirt work. I'm raising the elevation on average of 3ft. above where water has risen in the WORST floods in 20yrs.

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Hey Bill, I have a question for you about genes, coloring, etc. As you know, I have 3 white Cornish, 2 weeks old. (They're still quite small compared to the dark Cornish crosses I have in the brooder next to them, hatched the day before them.) 2 are from one bloodline, 1 is from another. Then I have 2 dark Cornish, almost a year old, likely from 2 different bloodlines. If I breed the 5 chicks together strategically, can I eventually breed out the dark and bring them back to all white? And if so, how long could it take (how many generations, roughly)?

 

[Fat Daddy]

Ok Matt, Lets see if I understand where you're head'n here. You want to breed a pure white from my line. To a pure dark you have now.... The following is all assuming the dark cornish you have are indeed pure... Add anything else and it blows this up, but here goes.... If you breed one of my cockerels to one of your dark pullets, the chicks will all hatch showing only dark cornish markings. Even thou they all look like dark cornish, 50% will be splits. You wont be able to tell the splits by looking at them. If you breed a split pullet back to the white rooster the second year. 50% of the chicks they produce should be white and 50% will be splits... Anything that hatches white, bred to another white the third season, sibling, parent, aunt,ect, would throw 100% cornish that are white in color....That part I have high confidence in.... Now here is where it gets a little muddy. Is any cornish that is white, a true white cornish? Whites came from dark cornish crossed with White malay. What you'll likely end up with at the end of the third year is a Cornish that is white in color. Possibly good body type too. They may have a dark feather or "ticking" In some of the birds that will improve as they go thru their final molt...The adult birds will be white. For all intent and purposes, its a cornish that is white. But is it a "White Cornish" or a cornish that is white? This is the $hit late night debates over cigars and a bottle are made of..... Bill

 

[Fat Daddy]

Matt if you're familiar, the Punnett square of your second year hatch would look like the one below.... I worked with lavender Orps years ago but the squares hold true... it was dead on BTW....

 

[Fat Daddy]

If you bred a split back to a split, you would still end up with 25% white chicks at the end of the 2nd year..... here's the Punnett square on that pairing....