Breeding meat birds

[Molpet]

So I've just seen it in dozens of threads nobody knows how to make a CX. I think the question has become generalized from years of hearing the same question over and over which you guys have lots of patience for and we appreciate that.

The question is really 2 questions
1. How do you make CX ( nobody knows the answer ).
2. Is it a sustainable breed.
Lots of people ask are they a sustainable breed but everyone says no. I just think that's wrong.
Tyson imported a single type of bird and it is still the same bird today. They have been using the cobb 500. When this bird was bred in England yes they likely used several breeds for generations but today the cx is the same bird. Tyson didn't import 7 different flocks. They imported 1800 eggs of 1 bird and today we have the great great great grand babies. They must be using CX as breeding pairs. Not to mention hatcheries. Now the bird certainly has some mortality issues and if u check any of the links in my posts they approach in a purely scientific manner. They measure feed by Gram per kilo body weight..... not "about this much" like most of us weigh our feed. And feed, lighting, genetics, temperature is completely controlled from hatching. Most of us are hobbyists.
Hard to breed yes. 1 male and 9 female gold comets would make 2200 chickens a year (ish). Even I could get those results.
Would need at least triple the CX for same results. And that doesn't include culling imperfections.
Some one got a CX to live a year and was laying eggs. Though compared to me they are god level at chickening.

Somewhere someone said they bred CX to CX and got a wide variety of sizes. The best didn't live as long as they would have liked and didn't pursue it further. The male CX get too big to breed quickly.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Somewhere someone said they bred CX to CX and got a wide variety of sizes. The best didn't live as long as they would have liked and didn't pursue it further. The male CX get too big to breed quickly.

We may not get the official answer until someone commits to this. The cobb video said they even cull a chicken for a crooked toe.
I'd say at least 5 males with 8-10 females each for 3 generations. I for one am interested but its way beyond the capabilities of my yard and time.
I am glad for the discussion. I appreciate everyone's input and time.

 

[RiverOtter]

Somewhere someone said they bred CX to CX and got a wide variety of sizes. The best didn't live as long as they would have liked and didn't pursue it further. The male CX get too big to breed quickly.

Several people have bred CX to CX. Heck, my DD and some of her 4H friends wanted to try, so we did it, about 10 years ago.

The babies are all over the place, exactly like when you breed 2 sex-links (which we've also done) or any other mutt chickens. Because they're mutts.

I don't know how every company does it, but I can tell you Tyson's birds are a 3 line cross. One of the lines is fairly scrawny, but very fast maturing. I know this because I use to know a contract grower for them (oh, and DON'T take a contract working for them. They're as bad to work for as Disney) The other parent lines are decent meat birds, just not as good as CX. The CX are grown specifically for whole roaster chickens. The others end up as legs, wings, nuggets, patties and canned - none of which require quite the same perfection and quite as rapid growth as whole roasters.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Several people have bred CX to CX. Heck, my DD and some of her 4H friends wanted to try, so we did it, about 10 years ago.

The babies are all over the place, exactly like when you breed 2 sex-links (which we've also done) or any other mutt chickens. Because they're mutts.

I don't know exactly why, but the idea of using the "Dwarf" gene to help breed meat birds is weird enough to be interesting to me. When you say all over the place, are you talking about size? Dwarfism would explain a lot of what you said on your post. If it was dwarfism, about half the pullets should have been dwarf, half large. All the boys should have been large.

I've bred crosses to crosses before too. With the grandparents having different colors and patterns like your sexlinks had I appreciate what you are saying about the offspring being all over the place.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

(oh, and DON'T take a contract working for them. They're as bad to work for as Disney)

I'm sure we can all agree with this. Part of why we are all here..... to create healthy food with respect and love to the animals that we raise. We have all seen the disgusting videos that are a product of these corporations.
I wish I had room for cows, I'd have to fill backyard cows .com with questions then.

 

[Circle cypress farm]

Ok, I gotta ask ... Why is it that everyone concerned about sustainability gets all heated over not buying chicks once a year? Why aren't you guys upset about that weekly (or more) bag of lay pellets? I would think that it's a heck of a lot more sustainable to once a year, buy some chicks *and be able to feed them*, then keep a breeding flock that you have to BUY feed for year round?
Easier to start with a corn patch than with a steer, pig, OR chickens.

Although frankly if you were to tell me that I had a month to get ready, and then I could never buy any meat ever again for the rest of my life, I could only raise it and it's food chicken would become a rare treat and I'd eat rabbit. Like pretty much everyone before the 40s.

I personally don’t get heated at all, quite the opposite. I just butchered 25 bought CX yesterday and they look absolutely amazing. So pleased with them! And if breeding my own meat birds doesn’t work, I will have no problem going back to purchasing them. Heck, I may continue to purchase them through the whole breeding process just to insure I’ve got enough in my freezer. Hands down it’s gotta be cheaper to buy them once a year but we personally aren’t as concerned with the money as we are to be able to breed, hatch and grow our birds all at our home. But like I said kinda a dream of ours but if it doesn’t work out that’s ok to. We already know we can go but to the ole CX at anytime

 

[RiverOtter]

I don't know exactly why, but the idea of using the "Dwarf" gene to help breed meat birds is weird enough to be interesting to me. When you say all over the place, are you talking about size? Dwarfism would explain a lot of what you said on your post. If it was dwarfism, about half the pullets should have been dwarf, half large. All the boys should have been large.

Yes, mostly size. I had a black bird, but I chalked that up to a possible different father. Some were big, some small, some grew fast, some slowly, none of them were particularly robust and healthy, the original CX were hardier, overall.
Dwarfism could definitely explain it.

I'm sure we can all agree with this. Part of why we are all here..... to create healthy food with respect and love to the animals that we raise. We have all seen the disgusting videos that are a product of these corporations.
I wish I had room for cows, I'd have to fill backyard cows .com with questions then.

Woah, ease up. Don't believe PETA videos. They actually plant people to abuse the animals.
Think about it; have you ever bought a roaster chicken with dark bruises around a broken bone? Of course not.
You could be the love child of Hitler and Satan, and it still doesn't make sense to abuse your own livestock, if for no other reason than you don't get paid for any animal that has even a tiny bruise.

It's actually that you have to buy the chicks you raise, at their price. And buy their feed, at their price. And then sell birds only to them ....at -wait for it- their price.
They'll help you mortgage buildings built to their standards, which change every few years, at roughly the exact same time you manage to pay back the loan. It quickly becomes an inescapable kind of wage slavery.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

I personally don’t get heated at all, quite the opposite. I just butchered 25 bought CX yesterday and they look absolutely amazing. So pleased with them! And if breeding my own meat birds doesn’t work, I will have no problem going back to purchasing them. Heck, I may continue to purchase them through the whole breeding process just to insure I’ve got enough in my freezer. Hands down it’s gotta be cheaper to buy them once a year but we personally aren’t as concerned with the money as we are to be able to breed, hatch and grow our birds all at our home. But like I said kinda a dream of ours but if it doesn’t work out that’s ok to. We already know we can go but to the ole CX at anytime

What was weights? How much feed did u use? My cx arrive in a few weeks

 

[Circle cypress farm]

What was weights? How much feed did u use? My cx arrive in a few weeks

We had ours in a chicken tractor that I lifted up once they started getting bigger and had a electric portable fence around them. They had lots of room to move and we moved them to fresh grass everyday. We butchered them at 9 weeks and they were between 5-6 pounds. We feed them Purina starter and then Purina flock raiser. I threw some scratch to them once or twice a week also.

I saw a YouTube video from Stoney Ridge Farmer about fermenting feed for 3 days and it seemed really interesting to me. Will probably try it next time around. I will try to attached a link below but if not you can find him on YouTube.

Also, if you don’t have a plucker I would HIGHLY recommend getting one! Wow! Totally paid for it self within the first 5 birds!

 

[RinaRoo]

I want to do this myself. My husband on the other hand, not so much.