Aren't Cornish X's just that, a cross?

[Charlene]

I've read here and there about hatcheries keeping their breeding cornish X's on strict diets etc. And then I thought, isn't the Cornish X a cross between two "normal" breeds?

I'm actually against AI for birds, and against raising breeds that can't sustain themselves on their own (i.e. freak breeds). However a freak cross doesn't bother me as much. So, now I am curisous, do I have the wrong idea?

Are Cornish crosses you buy from hatcheries a white rock crossed with a cornish or are they breeding them from other Cornish X's???

 

[halo]

I think theoretically they are a cross, but not actually. They were an actual cross decades ago, but the hybrid has been perfected and bred to where, I believe, its actually a hybrid. In other words, you cant take a white rock and a cornish, breed them, and get what the hatcheries have. This might show you what Im having a hard time explaining:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/focus/cobb/7/cobb-vantress-primary-broiler-breeders

 

[bigchicken2]

White Rock x Cornish. But they probably do inseminate anyway because they probably get the semen form the cornish roos and ship it to where they keep the white rocks.

 

[chickensrfood]

I don't believe the word hybrid should be used. Hybrids are typically a cross of two species. Two different breeds of chickens would be a crossbreed not a hybrid. Now a guinea mixed with a chicken would be a hybrid and it has happened.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

you know I keep hearing about what creates a Cornish Rock cross, but that even though they know what breeds, plus what sex what has to be, that a lay person can't pull it off with the same results, but I've yet to view the evidence from someone with firsthand knowledge.
All I think anyone wants to know is how to do it, and what the actual live weight would be as compared to Cornish Rocks from the hatcherie's stock, plus compared to standard cornish @ the same age.
I mean if the slaughter weight is just a single pound more than standard cornish at 6 weeks, I'm in.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
To the best of my knowledge nobody has developed a method of storeing or shipping chicken semen .

Here are some vids about breeding CX :

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

One more time-

Quote:
Rememb that the term "hybrid" was applied to modern meat chickens as an advertising gimmick. In the late 1940's and in the fifties great sucess was had with the first hybrid varielies of corn. The term hybrid was adopted with regard to chickens to coattail onto the great sucess that farmers (chicken producers) had realized with corn. It was an effort to suck the prospective buyers of meat chickens in that is still effective today.

 

[NevadaRon]

Excellent explanation

thank you!