BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[holm25]

Its been awhile since I have been on this thread. But I thought I would come back. I got what I was looking for when breeding this spring! I did a little experiment and crossed a Welsummer roo over my biggest Black Australorp hen and got the most beautiful roo and he is huge too!! I dont have any good pics of him but I have a few not so good phone pics. I am going to keep him and butcher all my other roos except for my Cochins. I hope to be able to make this cross again but with big quality non hatchery stock one day but for now I will stick with SQ Cochins. I am goimg to try weigh him. He is only 18-19 weeks so he has some flesh to put on still.

Here is the bad pics.

 

[NanaKat]

Its been awhile since I have been on this thread. But I thought I would come back. I got what I was looking for when breeding this spring! I did a little experiment and crossed a Welsummer roo over my biggest Black Australorp hen and got the most beautiful roo and he is huge too!! I dont have any good pics of him but I have a few not so good phone pics. I am going to keep him and butcher all my other roos except for my Cochins. I hope to be able to make this cross again but with big quality non hatchery stock one day but for now I will stick with SQ Cochins. I am goimg to try weigh him. He is only 18-19 weeks so he has some flesh to put on still.

Here is the bad pics.

I like these two photos...you can see his bulk in the first view and the silhouette and structure in this shot. For almost 5 months of age...what a nice cockerel.

 

[hellbender]

I know many of you have seen where I have posted that I have had more than 50 years experience with chickens and that is absolutely true. However, most of those years I dealt with essentially two breeds; Black Australorps and NN/Turkens. These years didn't give me the experience I'm now gaining with two new breeds to our menagerie, the White Chanticlers, whose gender is enormously obvious and I use the word enormous again, to describe these less-than 4.5 month old birds, two of which stand nearly 25 inches from ground to top of head...let's minus 2 inches for bedding....still, by virtue of a wooden measuring stick, these two big boys really baffle me, essentially because of their youth. I started to kill the two larges cockerels (out of stupidity) but I maintained enough common sense to speak to an 'expert' on the breed who told me to let the birds grow out 'til they are 8 to 9 months before even thinking of culling/eating them. I will get better pics this coming week...my batteries are through and won't recharge for some reason???

Another little surprise...I thought I had 11 pretty nice Dark Cornish pullets but I have only (perhaps) 10 because at least one is a very nice cockerel...evidenced by his growing sickle tail feathers and of course watching him try to crow this morning sorta' flipped me a solid clue.

Early on I thought I had two black cockerels and this bird is one of them. He did seem to look very dark but has since developed very beautiful natural coloring. There still may yet be another but I have not been able to put my finger on him?

As a point of interest, I buy and use only Duracell batteries in my cam and just about every other device I use. Just can't figure how these miserable Energizer things got into my camera but I have two choices to consider. Ol' dad won't miss 'em because he almost never takes pics. (Which is true)....but I really want to show what I taking about here so will invest in new rechargeable batteries tomorrow and will take the pics when the weather co-operates... some rain in the forecast.

 

[cyborg]

I know many of you have seen where I have posted that I have had more than 50 years of experience with chickens and that is absolutely true.  However, most of those years I dealt with essentially two breeds;  Black Australorps and NN/Turkins.  This experience didn't give me the experience I now gaining with two new breeds to our menagerie, the White Chanticlers  whose gender is enormously obvious and I use the word enormous again to describe these less-than 45 month old birds, two of which stand nearly 25 inches from ground to top of head...lets minus 2 inches for bedding....still, by virtue of a wooden measuring stick, these two big boys really baffle me, essentially because of their youth.  I started to kill the two larges cockerels (out of stupidity) but I maintained enough common sense to speak to an 'expert' on the breed who told me to let the birds grow out 'til they are 8 to 9 months before even thinking of culling/eating these birds.  I will get better pics this coming week...my batteries are through and won't recharge for some reason.

Another little surprise...I thought I had 11 pretty nice Dark Cornish pullets but I have only (perhaps) 10 because at least one is a very nice cockerel...evidenced by his growing cycle tail feathers and of course watching him try to crow this morning sorta' flipped me a solid clue.

Early on I thought I had two black cockerels and this bird is one of them.  He did seem to look very dark but has since developed very beautiful natural coloring.  There still may yet be another but I have not been able to put my finger on [COLOR=0000CD]him? [/COLOR]

As a point of interest, I buy and use only Duracell batteries in my cam and just about every other device I use.  Just can't figure how these miserable Energizer things got into my camera but I have two choices to consider.  Ol' dad won't miss 'em because he almost never takes pics. (Which is true)....but I really want to show what I taking about here so will invest in new rechargeable batteries tomorrow and will take the pics when the weather co-operates...  some rain in the forecast.

Patiently awaiting pics!

I have a similar experience with some show quality BBS Ameraucanas I recently aquired. Only one cock in the bunch, he is massive and beautiful, but he has no beard or muffs!

 

[JRNash]

Hellbender,in my opinion the white chaneclers are some of the most beutiful birds. If I wasn't allready committed to the breeding experiment I'm attempting with my Dark Cornish,they would be my next choice of breeds to raise.

 

[JRNash]

I started with 2 males and 8 females ( have to have even numbers ) after the predator attack I was short one male and three females.By blind chance this was the better looking bird.

 

[JRNash]

 

[JRNash]

One white giant male and two females also survived. These will be crossed in an F2 trial

 

[holm25]

More pics of my big roo.

 

[hellbender]

More pics of my big roo.

Interesting looking fella.