Anybody try Cornish/Dorking cross?

[dancingbear]

I've been looking for a good cross to try for a meat bird, other than the standard hatchery meat birds. I know this cross was once very popular in England, and I'm wondering if any of you may have tried this, and what your results were.

The recommended cross was a Cornish roo/over a Dorking hen. They're supposed to make a pretty good table bird, but still be hardy, vigorous birds.

 

[kstaven]

They do make for a decent table bird. I have done the cross and they are very hardy. But having said that, they will not flesh out as heavily as the hatchery meat birds that have been bred and selected for decades to produce what we see now.

If you ever see the cornish side of the hatchery cross you will see it only resembles the original cornish in name. The same can be said for the other side of the cross.

One thing I did find is that the silver grey Dorking worked much better than the red.

 

[dancingbear]

Thank you! I'm not expecting them to flesh out like the Cornish X. I actually want them to grow slower, for the health of the birds, but not so slow as to make them out of the question, economically.

I was hesitant to get silver greys, thinking they were lighter colored, but I've seen a lot more photos since my original impression, and it looks like the silver greys are actually quite dark, especially the hens.

I avoid white birds because they're the first targets of any predators that happen along, but even my light Brahmas, with just a bit of black, haven't been targeted like all white birds that I've had. So I think I'll get some silver greys, after all.

Can you give me an idea what sort of growth to expect by what age? Just kind of a ball-bark? Would they reach 5-6 lbs by around 12-14 weeks, or are they a bit smaller than that? It's ok if they are, I'm just wanting to know what to expect, more or less.

 

[kstaven]

My experience has been about 4.5 pound average in the 14 week range raising them on grower feed.

I'm moving this to meat birds to get some more opinions on this though.

 

[dancingbear]

I appreciate the help!