Anyone ever outcross Cornish X with heritage Birds?

[ButtercupEnthusiast]

Hello, anyone ever crossbreed Cornish X with heritage chickens? What were the results of the offspring? Does it make a difference if the Cornish X was the father or mother? How did the offspring do long-term? Decent meat and egg laying? I'm considering using a Cornish X to improve my flock's meat qualities. I know that Cornish X and they require careful feeding schedules to make it to breeding age and still be somewhat healthy. I'm aware that Cornish X don't breed true and that they're a result of crossing 4 different lines. If you have pictures of Cornish X x Heritage birds I would love to see them. Thank you!

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I would recommend useing a Cornishx hen rather than a rooster. I had a flock of 4 Cornish crosses and my rooster over heated so I never knew if he could actually breed. I would assume he would not of been able to because of his large size
Long term, the offspring dose great! My two girls are 4 years old and doing awesome!
They are decent meat quality. They are very heavy but not to heavy they can’t fly, roost or run around. As for eggs I get about 12-13 eggs a week during the summer.
I’d say yes the F1 generation will improve your meat quality. I did breed my F1 girls to and EE (I know not heritage) and the birds come out big but not as big as their parents. I can get pics of them if you want.. Cornish crosses are dominant white.

Dad

Mom. When we got our Cornish crosses from the school we fed them meat grower so she got huge and was not on a feed schedule. As long as you feed you chicks regular chick starter they don’t need a feeding schedule. She lived for 3 years, died not because of her health but because she was killed by a dog. I think she could of lived another 2-3 years

Here is the offspring of the pair. I only kept the hen and sold the cockerels. My girls lay me beautiful jumbo brown eggs.

This is one of the girls when she was about 4-5 months

The cockerels

 

[ButtercupEnthusiast]

I would recommend useing a Cornishx hen rather than a rooster. I had a flock of 4 Cornish crosses and my rooster over heated so I never knew if he could actually breed. I would assume he would not of been able to because of his large size
Long term, the offspring dose great! My two girls are 4 years old and doing awesome!
They are decent meat quality. They are very heavy but not to heavy they can’t fly, roost or run around. As for eggs I get about 12-13 eggs a week during the summer.
I’d say yes the F1 generation will improve your meat quality. I did breed my F1 girls to and EE (I know not heritage) and the birds come out big but not as big as their parents. I can get pics of them if you want.. Cornish crosses are dominant white.

Dad View attachment 4005587
Mom. When we got our Cornish crosses from the school we fed them meat grower so she got huge and was not on a feed schedule. As long as you feed you chicks regular chick starter they don’t need a feeding schedule. She lived for 3 years, died not because of her health but because she was killed by a dog. I think she could of lived another 2-3 yearsView attachment 4005588

Here is the offspring of the pair. I only kept the hen and sold the cockerels. My girls lay me beautiful jumbo brown eggs.View attachment 4005591
This is one of the girls when she was about 4-5 months
View attachment 4005592

The cockerels View attachment 4005590View attachment 4005589
View attachment 4005598View attachment 4005610View attachment 4005609

Amazing birds! They look like they have great structure for a great carcass. As long as I kept on selecting for birds with good size and build would those traits be fairly easy to keep in my flock? Yes I would love to see the EE crosses! Thank you so much!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have not done that cross but I agree with using the hens. The males can get so big they can have trouble breeding or may injure smaller hens because of their size. Heritage hens would probably be able to take their weight more than smaller breeds. They can die from overeating, so you are more vulnerable to failure if you only have one male versus a few girls.

How to say this one? Different companies have their own proprietary lines so you don't always get the same genetics. Some Ranger lines have dwarfism in the ancestry. If you use a male Ranger and they have that dwarfism you might introduce dwarfism to your flock but not through the hens. I don't know of any Cornish Cross lines that use dwarfism to ease feeding and housing a parent flock but it is possible they have caught on to what some Ranger lines do. I have not done it but it "seems" it would be easier to use a few hens rather than a male for several different reasons.

It can be hard to keep Cornish Crosses alive to get to breeding age. You need to restrict their feed or otherwise they original CX tend to eat themselves to death. I would not use a high protein feed like many people on this forum think is necessary for regular chickens. And instead of free feeding, restrict feeding them to certain volumes a few times a day. There are people on this forum that do that but I don't know the details.

The original CX are crosses of crosses, but all four lines used to breed them have good genetics as far as growth. So when you cross them with heritage chickens you usually get mostly pretty fast growing and large growing chicks. It is pretty close to a straight cross that would produce hybrids. (F-1's) But when you cross crosses those genetics are going to be really scrambled. (F-2's) You can get a pretty wide variety in all of their traits including size and rate of growth. Selective breeding can help you get more uniformity in your flock. So just like improving the meat qualities of a heritage flock, breed the ones you want to eat and eat the ones you don't.

 

[Molpet]

I kept a CX pullet in 2016, 2 cockerel offspring from her used in most of my flock the next 2 years.Her pullet laid double yolks. Original CX pullet died before she was a year old. Restricted feed and exercise to keep slim enough to bred. F1 tended to start dieing around 18 months.

This year's cockerel

2021 Father and this year son.

Some of this year harvest. Usually around 5 lbs dressed at 16 wks .. I think the middle bird is a heritage turkey

This year's was 6lb dressed

 

[Molpet]

I was inspired by this person who called his toads.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/
He no longer has chickens. Nor is he on byc any longer

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@U_Stormcrow

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Crossed various birds over a Cx hen. The dominant white trait hung on for multiple generations. Fast growth and unusually large size did not appear in any subsequent generations as a pair of complimentary traits, and by about 3 gen, apart from a surprise white bird in the 4th gen, there's absolutely no evidence a Cx was ever part of my breeding stock.

The Rooster in that case was "RUG" (Rooster of unkown genetics). The offspring then crossed with Golden Comets (Red Sex Link), "Rainbows" (another RSL, which seemed to have New Hampshire in the mix, rather than RIR), SilverL Wyandottes and Dark Brahma. Those gens then barn yard mixed with some selection on my part (via culling of smaller males, and all white or primarily white birds of both genders - they were predator magnets).

"RUG" is pictured below.

 

[Molpet]

and all white or primarily white birds of both genders - they were predator magnets).

My white were and still are the heaviest.
This year's attacks, maybe fox, 2 white hens , 1 white cockerel , one black and red cockerel 1 rooster, 6 black hens , 1 barred hen.
Most of my flock is white or black.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My white were and still are the heaviest.
This year's attacks, maybe fox, 2 white hens , 1 white cockerel , one black and red cockerel 1 rooster, 6 black hens , 1 barred hen.
Most of my flock is white or black.

Yes, most of mine were Red or patterned.

I also lost Pekin ducks (also all white, for those not familiar) during the same season.

and I've pointed out elsewhere, different predators, different hunting methods - color is almost immaterial to a creature that hunts based on movement, not body shape/silhouette.

So my experience might be completely inapposite to someone with differing predator pressures.