BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[hellbender]

12/16/2015 weight 7 lbs 15.3oz
First pullet egg today!
"Lavenia" my 8 pound lavender speckled pullet - Pure Dark Cornish over Cornish Rock cross. First egg at 132 days of age or 18.9 weeks of age. Definitely an under sized pullet egg. The Cockerel standing behind her has been mounting her since last week. F2 generation hopefully on its way.

Cockerel "Redmen" with red band:
12/16/2015 weight 9 lbs 13.8oz

I tried to get her to pair with "Bob" near 12 pounds at this point, but she hates him. He pulls her hair. Probably for the best as both Lavenia and Bob have huge breast muscles. Too much of a good thing could cause problems. I might try to AI later. I just want to get her started with someone she likes.
12/16/2015 11lbs 2.7oz

Very nice project!!

 

[DesertChic]

12/16/2015 weight 7 lbs 15.3oz
First pullet egg today!
"Lavenia" my 8 pound lavender speckled pullet - Pure Dark Cornish over Cornish Rock cross. First egg at 132 days of age or 18.9 weeks of age. Definitely an under sized pullet egg. The Cockerel standing behind her has been mounting her since last week. F2 generation hopefully on its way.

Cockerel "Redmen" with red band:
12/16/2015 weight 9 lbs 13.8oz

I tried to get her to pair with "Bob" near 12 pounds at this point, but she hates him. He pulls her hair. Probably for the best as both Lavenia and Bob have huge breast muscles. Too much of a good thing could cause problems. I might try to AI later. I just want to get her started with someone she likes.
12/16/2015 11lbs 2.7oz

Those are some impressively stout looking birds! I hope you'll continue to post photos as your project continues.

 

[Beer can]

@lpatelski Impressive birds!! How did you get them to stand still on a scale?!! Only way I get accurate weights from mine is tareing out a paper bag and then putting them in it, they don't even wiggle then much less run away.

 

[Beer can]

Our warm weather is over, at least for a few days. -4 this morning but it didn't stop them from coming out for a snack of kale, fresh crispy frozen from the garden. Got to cull about a dozen from the big coop so I can separate these, someone started laying last week, just six months old. The giant pullets are now a little bigger than the sussex cockerels, and the giant cockerels about half again bigger. Going to wait until I separate them to get weights.

 

[lpatelski]

I weigh them/handle them often. I start to weigh them as chicks on a smaller gram scale. They may try to get away, but they get repositioned on the scale until they stand still. They give up rather easily. I guess they know if they stand still they get off quicker. There are some I bucket.

The Dark Cornish can be squirrely. You can see the tension in her feet. She bailed moments later.

 

[Beer can]

I've only weighed mine a few times. Plan to keep better records after hatching in the spring. Didn't see much sense in it after I culled down for type to a breeding trio of giants and a quad of sussex. I should have culled one more sussex, way to much dark red but she's big and meaty, nice breast. I'll cull more for color on them after I get some numbers on the ground.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Ipatelski congratulations on your first pullet egg! Actually it looks pretty good and astonishing at just under 19 weeks.
I got a whopping great 38 gram egg

for my Cornish hen's first effort. They quickly went up to just under 50 grams.
Your birds are awesome.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I need some advice. I have a few Buckeyes, and they have just started laying eggs. The size is fine, but the shape is terrible., long and thin. How do I fix this? I have no idea how egg shape is inherited (posted the question on a genetics thread and got no answers, and I don't have access to anything but abstracts from papers in journals).
If I cross a hen that lays a long egg like this with a rooster from a hen that laid a "normal" shaped egg, will the eggs from the F1 pullets be intermediate in shape? Or will one shape or the other be
dominant?
The egg on the left is from a Buckeye pullet. All the hatching eggs were kind of ugly, long like this, so it's clearly set in the line. Other lines of Buckeyes have better egg shape, I'll need to get some of those. Depending on how this trait is inherited will decide whether or not I breed from this line at all. Egg quality is important to me.
The one on the right is from a sex link mutt pullet (unknown cross). This egg has a "perfect" egg index of 74 (width divided by length x100) .
The eggs are a bit distorted by the wide angle cell phone lens. Does anyone have experience with breeding hens laying atypical eggs?

 

[ronott1]

I need some advice. I have a few Buckeyes, and they have just started laying eggs. The size is fine, but the shape is terrible., long and thin. How do I fix this? I have no idea how egg shape is inherited (posted the question on a genetics thread and got no answers, and I don't have access to anything but abstracts from papers in journals).
If I cross a hen that lays a long egg like this with a rooster from a hen that laid a "normal" shaped egg, will the eggs from the F1 pullets be intermediate in shape? Or will one shape or the other be
dominant?
The egg on the left is from a Buckeye pullet. All the hatching eggs were kind of ugly, long like this, so it's clearly set in the line. Other lines of Buckeyes have better egg shape, I'll need to get some of those. Depending on how this trait is inherited will decide whether or not I breed from this line at all. Egg quality is important to me.
The one on the right is from a sex link mutt pullet (unknown cross). This egg has a "perfect" egg index of 74 (width divided by length x100) .
The eggs are a bit distorted by the wide angle cell phone lens. Does anyone have experience with breeding hens laying atypical eggs?

Did you worm them before they started laying? If not you may be seeing damage from worms.

Otherwise, only hatch eggs that look good to you.

 

[stryker]

I need some advice. I have a few Buckeyes, and they have just started laying eggs. The size is fine, but the shape is terrible., long and thin. How do I fix this? I have no idea how egg shape is inherited (posted the question on a genetics thread and got no answers, and I don't have access to anything but abstracts from papers in journals).
If I cross a hen that lays a long egg like this with a rooster from a hen that laid a "normal" shaped egg, will the eggs from the F1 pullets be intermediate in shape? Or will one shape or the other be
dominant?
The egg on the left is from a Buckeye pullet. All the hatching eggs were kind of ugly, long like this, so it's clearly set in the line. Other lines of Buckeyes have better egg shape, I'll need to get some of those. Depending on how this trait is inherited will decide whether or not I breed from this line at all. Egg quality is important to me.
The one on the right is from a sex link mutt pullet (unknown cross). This egg has a "perfect" egg index of 74 (width divided by length x100) .
The eggs are a bit distorted by the wide angle cell phone lens. Does anyone have experience with breeding hens laying atypical eggs?

I had a hen lay a egg like that. I just used them for breakfast and baking...