A Cornish Cross (Breeding?) Journey

[ABQ chicken keeper]

A silver laced Wyandotte over a black jersey giant.

Thank you!

 

[DemeterAD9]

He was beautiful roo. Interesting that Jr. did not show more color, I am behind on color genetics. So bare with me, what is SLWxBJG?

Cornish cross are dominant white and from my understanding dominant white will always be white with maybe a little bit of leakage. Wish I had taken a photo of the DOA sibling before I buried it, it had a black spot its head and back. Would have loved to see how that one turned out as I really like my white birds with splashes of black and grey on them. If all goes to plan I should have lots of white and spotted chicks from Jr. come spring time.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Junior is really filling out now, I think he’s going to be the biggest boy in the flock at this rate. His chest is busty to say the least. He's got some dirty feathers so disregard that, he still insists on sleeping on the floor of the coop with his brother which usually means they are under a corner roost bar...

Compared to my main man, the blue copper maran. They are mostly side by side. SLW just behind Junior's head is his grandma.

Junior compared to his bro, quite the size difference now.

And the hen who hatched them, my friendly girl who will hopefully be hatching more eggs come spring. She's got a fresh set of feathers and is back to laying. A mutt of an olive egger that was clearly cream legbar based. I love my mutts even if I wasn't the one who bred them.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

Cornish cross are dominant white and from my understanding dominant white will always be white with maybe a little bit of leakage. Wish I had taken a photo of the DOA sibling before I buried it, it had a black spot its head and back. Would have loved to see how that one turned out as I really like my white birds with splashes of black and grey on them. If all goes to plan I should have lots of white and spotted chicks from Jr. come spring time.

Hi,
Where did you get your original Maren stock? Do the produce good dark egg color?
I would like to start using them in a breeding program.
Thanks,
ABQ

 

[DemeterAD9]

Hi,
Where did you get your original Maren stock? Do the produce good dark egg color?
I would like to start using them in a breeding program.
Thanks,
ABQ

I've only got two marans, the blue copper rooster and a golden cuckoo pullet, both from Meyer hatchery. Egg color is not bad from the golden cuckoo pullet as she lays the darkest brown in the flock. The blue copper rooster must of passed down some relatively dark brown genes to his daughters as all of them lay darker than their mother's eggs. The handful of colored layers I got from him also lay a darker green than their mom.

Golden cuckoo

A few of the olive egger daughters from the blue copper roo.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

I've only got two marans, the blue copper rooster and a golden cuckoo pullet, both from Meyer hatchery. Egg color is not bad from the golden cuckoo pullet as she lays the darkest brown in the flock. The blue copper rooster must of passed down some relatively dark brown genes to his daughters as all of them lay darker than their mother's eggs. The handful of colored layers I got from him also lay a darker green than their mom.

Golden cuckoo
View attachment 4257477
A few of the olive egger daughters from the blue copper roo.
View attachment 4257478

Great thank you!
Have great Thanksgiving tomorrow!

 

[DemeterAD9]

15 weeks plus a couple days. I’ve seen Jr. trying to grab a few girls, luckily they are all older than him and usually chase him around. Seems to be handling the winter wonderland well enough.

You can clearly see the black feather on his head now. Ignore the dirty water, a result of the ducks.

Pretty much certain I’ll be eating his bro, not really impressed with him overall. I may wait till he becomes a problem so he can get some size to him. He’s pretty gangly still.

Working on the dates and who I’d like to pair Jr. to. I have an order of chicks from Meyer due to ship out April 13th, it includes 4 CX and 4 white rocks for the meat project along with some other breeds for the laying flock. I plan to time a hatch for April 11th and brood them altogether as mostly freezer birds. That means I’ll have to separate the girls and Jr into the duck pen sometime in February, I’m aiming for Valentine’s Day as I have that weekend off. I’m going to stick with 6-8 hens. I’ll likely have to clip a few wings as I’m sure they will try to escape.
Hens to put with Jr. (likely to change)
- BBS Wyandotte
- GLW
- SLW
- light brahma
- large fowl mix
- barred rock
- bresse mix
- barred laced (possibly, for color project)