BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[draye]

@hellbender Lol! I just find it freaking hilarious that people are dumping huge wads of $$ on rare gff breeds thinking they are getting some rare awesome tasting birds, the bresse was supposed to be the ultimate!
Most every hatchery has NN, but none with specific colors?? I don't know what color tastes like Lol! Best tasting chicken? We already have them and they are cheap! Lol!

I didn't know color tasted!

I have quite a few red here. I'm truck g to get a Calico coke on mine, I think that color will be the best one ever! LOL.

This is one that I hatched from eggs from @alohachickens and her Aloha Chicken Project. Yes she has a naked neck, I was just trying to show color in this photo.

 

[dfr1973]

Oh, yes indeed they are but there is a lot more to that formula than a CornishXWhite Rock. And the whole process of slaughter at 6 to 10 weeks allows no real flavor to develop into what amounts...almost to avian paraplegic bodies. I just can't eat that stuff but three cheers to those who can.

Those actually are Cornish and White Rock ... but they are very specifically bred, and from my understanding, to get the commercial CR takes careful keeping of FOUR grandparent flocks, which are crossed in one way only for two parent flocks, then the commercial broilers are the terminal cross that ends up in grocery stores. Pullets are slaughtered at five weeks nowadays, and sold as "Cornish Rock Game Hens" even though there is no game in them and they are a long ways from being hens. The cockerels are all slaughtered at eight weeks, IIRC, and those are your fryers and even "roasters" in the grocery, depending on size. In the commercial world, those CR broilers are raised up in long broiler houses, which start with 10,000 birds per house. I have been inside one of those broiler houses back in the early 90s, but the smell is something you never forget. The carcass pile outside it is also unforgettable ... I was told by the broiler-house owner's son they usually have 1.5% mortality (death) rate on average.

As for the specific genetics of the commercial cross ... that would require an ironclad confidentiality agreement signed before you could even begin to hear the first tidbit of a real detail. Each large company that has the commercial flocks has a proprietary line with a name and number, and there is more than one.

ETA: Vantress and Cobb ... those are the names I couldn't recall earlier.

 

[Our Roost]

You have to admit that the cornish x crosses have had quite a ride since the end of WW2. It has been the world grocery chains main meat bird for decades. Its reign is very near to coming to a close. The truth is that they havent found a replacement suitable to make it profitable. In the mean time, we raise our own!

 

[DesertChic]

I wasn't worried about them, it just started out with lots of photos of beloved named chickens, and I didn't want to stumble in and be insensitive if others didn't want to talk about meat there. I also spend time on RabbitTalk, and some folks are VERY sensitive about pets vs meat, so I guess I'm careful.

Yes, now that you mention it, the skin was what was so astoundingly good!!! (Though the meat was awesome too). You can roast one in the oven and it comes out like you deep fried it!

This fall is committed to CXs (short term projects and can house them in a tractor) and I'm on the waitlist with Ideal for 15 NNs next fall. By then I'll have my larger coop set up to house keepers/breeders, and can also get whatever the other part of the cross going next spring (I've started leaning heavily toward New Hampshire Reds, and may get them to fill out my NN order from Ideal). My puzzle will be housing for controlled breeding and keeping multiple roosters. My head is spinning with options... And I still am not sure how I will tell who has mated with whom and who has laid what egg, much less multiple breeding pens to control matings. My head just can't quite wrap itself around what that would look like in my (admittedly large) backyard.

- Ant Farm

I totally empathize! I only started keeping chickens last November, and my four has now turned into 50. I spend nearly all of my free time building pens, roosts, nesting boxes.....it's a never-ending job! I'm hoping to finish building the fifth and final pen in my cabin/barn this weekend so I can now start figuring out how I'll be arranging everyone this fall for the start of my breeding projects. I've got a pretty solid wrap on which chicken lays which egg, but I definitely have to separate cockerels for my focused breeding. And my son is already whining about us having more baby chicks in the house this fall. He thinks I'm obsessed with hatching chicks....which I probably am, but I've yet to find a twelve step program for chicken people.

 

[ronott1]

I totally empathize! I only started keeping chickens last November, and my four has now turned into 50. I spend nearly all of my free time building pens, roosts, nesting boxes.....it's a never-ending job! I'm hoping to finish building the fifth and final pen in my cabin/barn this weekend so I can now start figuring out how I'll be arranging everyone this fall for the start of my breeding projects. I've got a pretty solid wrap on which chicken lays which egg, but I definitely have to separate cockerels for my focused breeding. And my son is already whining about us having more baby chicks in the house this fall. He thinks I'm obsessed with hatching chicks....which I probably am, but I've yet to find a twelve step program for chicken people.

Start a hatching service!

Wisher posted the way she charges for hatching and it sounds very doable.

 

[dfr1973]

which I probably am, but I've yet to find a twelve step program for chicken people.

Those 12 step programs are for people who want to quit. Right now, I am wishing for a disgustingly determined broody, because I have eggs to sneak under one! The Silkies are still too young at only 3.5 months old, and the two Wheaties from Luanne are more interested in (still!) sorting out the pecking order than setting. Bossy is still trying to bully the red Polish cockerel Rock Star, who has finally roostered up enough to cover her although he'll still hit the ground running when he does. Who needs TV sitcoms? I got chickens.

 

[gjensen]

The commercial broiler's parents (and grandparents) are not Rocks or Cornish today. That is how it started and it is how it is easiest for us to understand and describe it. Actually, the first cross was New Hampshires x Cornish. The New Hampshires non white feathers was the problem in the end.

 

[hellbender]

Those actually are Cornish and White Rock ... but they are very specifically bred, and from my understanding, to get the commercial CR takes careful keeping of FOUR grandparent flocks, which are crossed in one way only for two parent flocks, then the commercial broilers are the terminal cross that ends up in grocery stores. Pullets are slaughtered at five weeks nowadays, and sold as "Cornish Rock Game Hens" even though there is no game in them and they are a long ways from being hens. The cockerels are all slaughtered at eight weeks, IIRC, and those are your fryers and even "roasters" in the grocery, depending on size. In the commercial world, those CR broilers are raised up in long broiler houses, which start with 10,000 birds per house. I have been inside one of those broiler houses back in the early 90s, but the smell is something you never forget. The carcass pile outside it is also unforgettable ... I was told by the broiler-house owner's son they usually have 1.5% mortality (death) rate on average.

As for the specific genetics of the commercial cross ... that would require an ironclad confidentiality agreement signed before you could even begin to hear the first tidbit of a real detail. Each large company that has the commercial flocks has a proprietary line with a name and number, and there is more than one.

ETA: Vantress and Cobb ... those are the names I couldn't recall earlier.

My point was, yu don't just cross the two birds and get the cripples.

 

[EGSparrNaturals]

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[Fire Ant Farm]

btw, grocery store chickens are cornish crosses.

Oh, I know that. I'm assuming that the improved taste was due to pasture-raised, ranging them and improved quality feed. Taste ain't just genetics...

- Ant Farm

Edited to add: If you haven't already, check out this thread, in which a lot of folks have had some great results happy healthy running Cxs foraging and acting like chickens, by restricting their feed:

First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited