Not really- it is no mystery- and in reality- how it was made isn't important as it cannot be duplicated. There was no genetic modification though.This has been a great thread, still I believe there are a lot of people out there somewhere that know the exact combo to home make a Cornish X meat bird. I know they are not healthy for breeding, still if the exact origin was easy to reproduce, like a double cross it would be nice to know the process. You know that people involved with their creation is around chickens a lot, it seem like one of them would eventually wonder to this website and spill the beans so to speak. I don't know, possibly they all have to sign a non disclosure, and cant legally share the information.
I know these little white meat factory's, LOL are not that healthy, and all the down side, but bottom line is they only need to survive for 8 weeks. They supposedly produce the most meat per pound of feed, and the most meat per pound of feed is the one shining star here. When I think about back yard chickens I think sustainability, and sustainability in possibly a situation where meat birds were not available from a hatchery. I don't think any thing is going to happen to our society, but throughout the history of man lots of bad things have happened, disease, war famine, natural disasters, and all that stuff we will probably never see. If there wasn't much feed available, or if you had to grow your own, it would be nice to know the Cornish X formula so to speak. Heck even in good times it would be good to know. In bad times it could aid survival. Now if genetics have to be tweaked and you need a lab, that blows it, but it is my understanding that that isn't the case. Or possibly if some genetic engineering was done, the DNA should be available in the existing birds. Still I see lots of opinions about the secret of the Cornish X but nothing absolute, does anyone have a credible definite source for the info, or is it a chicken mystery, LOL
Thanks
CX has been evolving for 60 plus years. When you have millions of breeder birds, and keep only the best of the best- it doesn't take long to make drastic changes, especially when one can hatch 100's of offspring from a single pair in one year.
This is nothing different than making a new 'breed' of chicken- which is something that 75% of the people on here are doing, or want to do. It just happens that with the exact cross- comes a shot of hybrid vigor.
For those of us that really understand genetics- these CX birds really aren't that formidable.