Breeding Cornish X Rocks

[JRNash]

Things like that are why I wanted to get away from a strictly CX. I also hate restricting the feed.I free feed my birds. their feeders stay full. I know that this is bad for egg production. But I like watching them eat.lol

 

[Johnboy 89]

I always thought it was really neat biggest rooster I've ever seen in my entire life that sucker weighed 20lbs

 

[JRNash]

That's a Huge rooster

 

[DON956]

I've been interested in crossings for my own meat bird and this is what I was told by an old friend of mine that tried it several years ago and results were nice he said. First he got a good quality WHITE standard Cornish male and crossed him with New Hampshire females (offsprings will carry the fast growth) then he crossed the offsprings with white Plymouth Rocks and their female offsprings will cross again with the Cornish resulting in a great meaty egg layer dual purpose bird and fast growing. He said that if no white Cornish is available we could use the black cornish. I got all birds and just waiting for them to mature to start this project.

 

[kfacres]

Black Cornish do not exist.

Real Cornish are not adding any 'fast' growth. Matter of factly, they're slowing down maturity rates. This breed is by some margin extremely slow to mature.

 

[hellbender]

bbbbbbb

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Black Cornish do not exist.

Real Cornish are not adding any 'fast' growth. Matter of factly, they're slowing down maturity rates. This breed is by some margin extremely slow to mature.

Likely Dark Cornish is what was meant.

The fast growth would come from the New Hampshire. I'd think it would have to be a standard bred New Hampshire and I've looked into but not seen much on record if they still maintain that desired trait. Back in the non CornishX broiler industry days the fast growth of New Hampshire was well documented. 4 lbs dress weight in 12 weeks was maintained. This kind of growth no longer exists but something close would be nice.

What I'd look into is if the current lines of Delaware still carry fast growth. They were the sports of common Barred Rock over New Hampshire for broilers. If current stock of Delaware maintain fast growth then I'd forego New Hampshire and then Rock. It's really about stock and finding real records of actual growth rates. Either New Hampshire or Delaware should be out there with fast maturity still. It's finding the stock. And using the faster growth as female of cross is a long standing tradition. There must be some validity to it. Hundred plus years of breeding tradition can't be overlooked.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Actually just getting the standard bred birds back to the actual standard would make a lot of back yard people happy for real dual purpose. Sadly the quick growth seems to be what they all are lacking as plumage and other factors one visually sees in adults was and is the goal when in fact the very fundamental part of these breeds has been overlooked. Dual purpose! Sad that a Barred Plymouth Rock takes a full year to mature and are lanky at any real butchering age. But I digress.

If inclined to make a bird I'd really look into the two breeds above to find the fastest growing line and use that, whichever breed that is. Is it the German New Hampshire? Reese New Hampshire? Delaware? Kathy's new line of Delaware? Don't know but wouldn't take much emailing to find real growth records to 12 weeks. Get eggs from the best. Take a pure bred Cornish and put him over them. Breed the best F1's together. I know this will give a huge array of offspring but will be fastest route to standardizing a bird. You'd hatch a couple hundred and pick the few best for growth and carcass and breed back to F1. Your well on your way to setting the line. If one can get back to a 4 lbs bird in 12 weeks it would be great, work that to 4.5 lbs and with the double breast carcass afforded from Cornish you've got a real winner.

 

[Hiltonizer]

My hatchery stock (Privett) NH roosters got BIG pretty fast. I can only assume they've been less bastardized over the years than other breeds, given that people generally default to Rhode Islands.

 

[kfacres]

My hatchery stock (Privett) NH roosters got BIG pretty fast. I can only assume they've been less bastardized over the years than other breeds, given that people generally default to Rhode Islands.

big and meaty are 2 completely different things. I've seen plenty of fast growing BIG cochin and brahma cockerels, yet they never did mature out to have any meat on their bones.