Buckeye X Cornish X breeding project. Third generation pics pg. 20

[SteveH]

Quote:
Sorry to hear that Katy , perhaps it would be kinder to let them to go to freezer heaven .

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

lol, well . . . I'm a pretty kind person but these are my breeding stock

so I'm going to see if I can "bring them back" a bit and get one more round of eggs out of them. I took the rooster out for a bit, they apreciated that!

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
It may have very good results ; but even on animals/birds without increased growth rates but with heavier muscling developed than their counterparts , my experience has been they need a slightly higher protein diet to develope the muscle to its full potential .

 

[dancingbear]

Jeff, and Katy, it's probably CHF. (congestive heart failure) These big gals are prone to it. They get a lot of fat around the heart, which tends to be too big anyway, to pump blood through such large bodies. It gets so that when they are at rest on their keels, in a normal resting-on-the-ground position, (resting on a roost may help a little, for a short time, but it may not. The body position's pretty much the same) the heart is somewhat compressed, as are the blood vessels. Circulation is impaired. When it gets bad enough, they wouldn't get enough blood to the brain, therefor not enough oxygen to the brain, and they can just die while sleeping.

Have you/did you notice combs looking dark or purplish when the hens were at rest, and returning to normal color when they get up/got up and move around? If so, that's a pretty definite sign of CHF.

When they die of CHF like that, they don't flip. They just die. Flip is when they die of a heart attack, and there's a spasm that literally flips them over on their backs.

Sorry to hear the bad news.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Well we are down to three. One looks to be on the way next just because she is so big.... the other two are doing awesome I really wish I would have kept these hens from the start on some kind of slower feed. Since I was growing for the best and picked the biggest females out at 5 weeks.... it seemed to hurt them in the long run. But... I have their genetics in their offspring now. So I will be working with them this summer getting them to breeding age to see how they turn out.

The offspring (f1) look to be uniform with VERY tight and compact bodies. It's weird, they don't look like a buckeye or a CX but they are short and stout with a wide stance so it does look like the wide breast and larger breast did pass on to the offspring. I believe having quality Buckeyes from the start really helped my breeding program from the start.

I will get some pics of them up here and show you the different age groups. I had them all out yesterday but didn't get pictures. I have them with my CX's broilers at the moment so they are getting a 22% feed and they are supplemented with heat just to keep them healthy and strong. Most laying chicks don't come off of lights until 8 weeks however these guys are probably ready at about 4-5 weeks as they are fully feathered.... the three of them are anyway.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I just went back through my records and the first three are 37 days old so they are 5 weeks.....

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

thanks for the update, would love to see a pic.
and weight! what do they weigh at 5 weeks???

 

[SteveH]

Yes , please take some pics if you can find time .
You are so fortunate to have some quality Buckeyes to work with , and the chicks sound as if the cross worked great . Sounds like they look like straight Cornish but most likely with fuller , softer feathering . Do they all have pea combs ?

 

[dancingbear]

I'm curious how the chicks will turn out, they sound good, so far.

I'm not sure what your original goal was, I thought you said something about finding out if the Cornish crosses could be sustainable, but I may have mixed that up with what somebody else said.

So it sounds to me like yes, you can breed the hens, but it would be hard to keep a roo going long enough to breed, and the hens won't last very long either, (with a few exceptions, of course, but probably not something you could count on) but you can get some very nice offspring from them before they start to drop dead. Doesn't say much for the sustainability of the Cornish X's, but maybe the chicks....

So this is just phase one, right? Next see if the crossed-w/Buckeye chicks are longer lived, and maybe that cross may be sustainable? I hope they are, they sound really nice! Looking forward to seeing pics.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
If I understand Jeff's original idea , I believe it was to proove that the commercial meatie can be used as a cross to produce a sustainable meat bird with the same outstanding early and large breast developement as the CX ; one that grows at a fast , efficient , but healthy rate and avoiding the management needs of the CX hybrids . If I interpreted his goals incorrectly I apologize in advance .

Actually there is already a small scale hatchery useing commercial CX roos over quality White Rocks to hatch and sell day old meaties with slower growth . I don't know how they turn out as far as carcass traits .