Breeding your own sustainable meat flock...

[aclee]

So I know that a few members here have been working a breeding program to develop a more stable meat bird than the Cornish X. My X's are 6 1/2 weeks old now, and we started free ranging them in the last week or so several times per day. They are running and jumping and flapping and are actually quite active. That said they are eating machines and the main way I get them out of the coop is to bring the feeder out and all the way across the yard. But once out they do ok. They aren't super bright though and when we let them free range after we had raked their were worms every where and they were running from them as if scared. I haven't seen them forage much with the exception of picking up the cracked corn I put down to encourage them to move around. In with the X's, I have 14 Cornish Roasters from McMurray. These birds are noticable smaller at this point, though larger than the free exotic I got with the order. They never seem to be sporting the engorged crop like the X's almost always have. They forage and run around with bugs and worms, dust bath, and have been doing a fabulous job of ripping all the little leaves off the maple seedlings...of which there are millions (so DH loves them for that!) They are inquisative and come right up to me and check me out. A couple of them were even pecking a tennis ball around and then running from it and running back to it and pecking it...it was pretty funny...

I was planning to bring all the birds to process on May 8th. 2 1/2 weeks from now, but I just do not see any way that these smaller birds will be large enough at that point. I am considering at that point, keeping all the female roasters and a couple of the males...to basically just see what happens. How big they get, how long they reasonably will last, etc.

All that said...when do the roosters get super annoying? I have heard if you put them in a dog kennel at night, they won't crow in the AM because they can't stretch their necks, but that seems kinda mean...DH has said maybe we can sound proof the coop a little, and then make the run he is in short, so he can get outside but less head room so he doesn't crow as much.

When they come out to free range, he can crow his heart out honestly because my whole neighborhood works...

My only other thought is to see if any of the local farms (whom I do have a relationshio with to an extent) would "keep" him most of the time, and I could just bring him in occasionally to get the job done? Too Rooster pimp-ish?

Any other ideas? I would really like to see if these birds might be more sustainable. I guess I could just keep a few of the girls and bring them to visit a nice big roo a few times?

 

[CoopCrazy]

The only problem I would see with just bringing the roo in to do the deed , is that the girls will probably not except him if he is not in with all the time.. Also I know with my girls it takes them a few days at minimum to allow the roo anywhere near them (unless to beat the tar out of him) I think your best bet would be to make a sound proof roo house and only let him out during the day.... But even then just pulling himm out each day may cause problems with him and the girls...

 

[aclee]

Yeah, that's a good point...I think we'll try to keep a roo and see how loud he is and how he does. Do some sound proofing on the coop so his AM crowing is quiet at least.

The Cornish Roaster's are such a joy though. I really recommend them to people who find the Jumbo Cornish X to be a bit "much". They have lots of personality, and mine really love being in the yard flapping around and foraging. I think for our fall order, I might to all Cornish Roasters

 

[averytds]

Our roos get cooped in kennels in the cellar every night to keep the peace. A bit more work for the kids, but it's an easy solution for us.

 

[aclee]

Quote:
Interesting...how much do they crow down there? Do they get along ok with the girls during the day?

 

[averytds]

Our Brahma crows every so often, but he's never been a big crower. He has some problems breeding with the two top RIRs if he doesn't sneak up on them first. They aren't submissive at all to him. They'll snap at him and he'll back off a yard or two and wait. Just about the yard they're all fine. He stands guard and herds them about like normal.

The Silkie roo has always crowed more. In the yard, I've always seen him guarding our Silkie hen and the two of them pretty much separated off together unless we're out and they're just part of the mob. She's broody and confined separately right now and he crows near constantly if we put him out, so he's currently cooped where he can see her. DH has seen him breeding some of the standard hens.

All in all, they're peaceful and get along fine. Squabbles are brief and just your typical peck here or there to establish/maintain pecking order.

We also have two juveniles starting to crow. It's intermittent and usually prompted by the Silkie roo. In general, I can hear them all whenever they crow, but unless the cellar door is open, it's faint. I notice, but it's not annoying. I have been on the phone with someone unfamiliar with chickens while in the cellar or by the open door when one decided to crow and got an "OMG!!! What was that?!?!"

Since we're going to be working on breeding projects with multiple roos being necessary, we are going to do some soundproofing on an old barn building and convert it to coop spaces. Then we'll be letting pens out alternating days to maintain a reasonable level of peace to keep everyone happy.

If you're working with smaller numbers, say 1 or 2 roos and daytime crows aren't an issue, a rooster box or penning separately works just fine. Do a search for rooster night box and you can find lots of ideas used by others. It's a much used solution. I think the European brick stairs ones are ingenious myself.

Edited to add- My cellar is a walk out and as such has windows we leave uncovered, so not lightproof and we don't cover their indoor kennels (extra large dog size). If I found any AM crowing to be disruptive to my sleep, I would next try covering their kennels or putting up light blocking curtains. One neighbor works different hours that I then don't let mine out until 10-11AM. If the weather is bad, they just stay in all day which is why we use the super sized kennels. If I was able to let out at 8AM I would probably do an outside rooster box with an auto door in case we wanted to be out of town overnight.