10 Cornish X eggs in the incubator!

[LindaB220]

Because Cornish Cross is a not a breed. It's a product that's a result of several generations of planned crosses. Calling these chicks Cornish Cross, when they don't share those traits does nothing but confuse, mislead, and cause problems.

Cornish Cross are the result of a process where they go back atleast 2 generations, breeding Breed A to Breed B, and Breed C to Breed D. They then breed the offspring of these together. These breeds all have specific sex-link traits that they want to show up in the Parent Generation. That Parent Generation is then bred to produce birds that ALL are heterozygous for a whole bunch of traits. If you breed these, you don't get the same birds - you get birds that are homozygous for a lot of the traits.

Separate flocks of A,B,C,D are kept, linebred, and genetically tested to make sure that they keep the specific traits needed. A ton of research and money goes into these things, partly because a lot of the traits that lead to increased size are what are called "Lethal Alleles" - Basically if you get a copy of the gene from one parent, it has some affect, but if you get a copy from both parents, it kills you. One of the lethal alleles common in broiler stock is dwarfism in hens -broiler hens with the dwarf gene don't eat themselves to death, lay more eggs, require less food, etc- so many of the parent and grandparent lines carry it (normal type - fine, 1 gene - dwarf, 2 dead), but it needs to be gone in the generation that gets sold.

Cornish Cross is a term for a specific genetic mix - lets not muddy that term.

We understand Crazy Talk, and if we were willing to pay $2 for each one to be shipped to us, I'd expect the quality of the breeding. BUT we don't care that our birds are smaller, different shape slightly and take a little longer to grow out. Why are you so against our experimenting? Let us play. We want to be able to experiment and try different things. Don't be so negitive. It's just chickens, right?

 

[duluthralphie]

Those are so cool!


And cute!


Mine are going to be so happy tomorrow. I have been making head cheese all day and gave them the remains of the heads to chew on! They will clean those bones in no time!

The best part is they have to work for their food and do not even know it.

 

[CrazyTalk]

We understand Crazy Talk, and if we were willing to pay $2 for each one to be shipped to us, I'd expect the quality of the breeding. BUT we don't care that our birds are smaller, different shape slightly and take a little longer to grow out. Why are you so against our experimenting? Let us play. We want to be able to experiment and try different things. Don't be so negitive. It's just chickens, right?

I'm not against you experimenting - I've said repeatedly this is a good and worthwhile effort.

All I'm against is you calling them Cornish Cross, because they most definitely are not that.

 

[aoxa]

I'm not against you experimenting - I've said repeatedly this is a good and worthwhile effort.

All I'm against is you calling them Cornish Cross, because they most definitely are not that.

How about Cornish cross cross. Is that better?

 

[aoxa]

I wanted to share this picture as well of our Cornish Cross Cross.

Here she is at 5 days old.

 

[duluthralphie]

I wanted to share this picture as well of our Cornish Cross Cross.

Here she is at 5 days old.

What a cutey this baby Cornish X is!

 

[CrazyTalk]

Why not come up with an original creative name for your hard work instead of muddying the waters and confusing people with "cornish cross cross?"

 

[duluthralphie]

Why not just call the Cornish Crosses?

If you have two Cornish cross parents it makes sense to call the baby a Cornish Cross more than calling them a Leghorn?


BTW I think Aoxa said that tongue in cheek, He/she did mention they were a Cornish-Barred rock cross.




To show you how open magnanimous I can be I am willing to concede they should be, in a purist sense, be called 2nd generation Cornish Crosses.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Why not just call the Cornish Crosses?

If you have two Cornish cross parents it makes sense to call the baby a Cornish Cross more than calling them a Leghorn?

Leghorn is a breed that has been stabilized for 150 years. When you breed two of them together, you're going to get a bird with very similar genetics.

Cornish Cross is not a breed, it's a specific cross - it is intentionally unstable, and when you breed two of them together, you're going to get a bird that is different from that specific cross in a lot of ways.


Why are you trying to intentionally mislead and confuse people Ralphie?

 

[aoxa]

Here they are called Meat Kings.

No one here is talking about selling these chicks. We're talking about making our own meat bird. Honestly it wouldn't be worth the effort to raise and sell the chicks.. I couldn't sell them any cheaper than the feed stores ($1.33 here!), so competition is too high. What I personally am hoping to accomplish is something that takes a few weeks longer to grow, and I am able to hatch myself without having to worry about meeting order deadlines and bringing in chicks from an outside source.

edited by staff