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

[Brunty_Farms]

Not yet Steve. I'm still trying to get things wrapped up on the processing end of things. I have about 150 more broilers and around 100 or so layers to do. That's all I have been doing is processing and marketing birds in the dead of winter... I hate it. Next year I'm doing a strict season of May-October.... I need my break and my sanity.

I'm going to invest into a walk in freezer / blast freezer so I can store a couple thousand broilers for the 6 months in the winter. However, those aren't the cheapest things to buy... didn't have the cash this year.


The breeders are laying eggs, but I have other birds in with them. I've been putting them off for a while now, hopefully this weekend I can get all of my processing done because I have a market on the 22nd... no more excuses!

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
Hi Jeff,
Check the used restaurant equipment market, used freezers are pennies on the dollar.
Joe

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Oh man ! I processed just one bird this winter and swore never again ; but then that was outdoors and I assume you have indoor processing facilities .

Somewhere on my internet travels I saw a homemade walk-in cooler somebody built using an airconditioning unit with a different thermostat wired in . I've also seen a freezer trailer , used to transport frozen meat , that ran off a very small diesel powered compressor . I seem to remember you have access to natural gas for tree ; and I know gas engines can be modified to run off natural gas and run cleaner [ thus last longer ] than conventional gas engines .........................................

 

[ourflockof4]

Yeah a blast freezer could be an issue. They are usually kind of expensive and require quite a bit more power. If you could just get by with a regular freezer you would have a lot more options, including homehade. As Steve mentioned there are some very cost effective options for homemade. You would be suprised at how many commercial building I've been in or designed that have cooler and freezer potions that are nothing more then an insulated box with a lot of cooling dumpted in. But going with a blast you would almost need to go with something manufactured. Your r-value vs cooling capacity needs to be much more exact in order to work properly but not use too much energy. I would think that maybe a slightly larger freezer with proper shelving and a circulation fan may be more cost effective, or at least worth looking into.

There is actually an old home built cooler (or freezer I don't know which) out in the barn at the new house that you may be able to modify into what you want. Let me know if your interested. It's probably 8'x12'x8' or so.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Alright... finally! I have some good and exciting news on the Buckeye x Cornish X project. I have three chicks that have hatched and one of which is a pure buckeye... the other two are the crosses (f1) bred back to the buckeye male.

What's exciting is out of the two chicks they look completely different. One looks just like a cornish x rock chick, the single comb came back through. The other however is colored like a buckeye chick but has FEATHERING on the legs!! That is so cool to me as I believe the cochin was used in the making of this breed (buckeye). There is a lot of controversy that cornish were used in the making and not the cochin. Really awesome to see that recessive trait come through almost a century later. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen with the buckeye crossbreed.

I doubt a feather legged breed was used to the make the commercial cornish x rock so I'm assuming the feathering on the feet came from the buckeyes.

I have 50 or so eggs in the incubator as we speak and will be hatching them weekly so I'm curious to see how the chicks grow out. Super pumped, I guess all we do now is wait. This thing has been in the making for over a year now and we are officially starting the third generation.

Hope all is well with everyone else.. been super busy here this year.

I will get some pics when I pull them out of the incubator.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

wow! there are a lot of different directions my thoughts would have gone with this . . . recessive traits from a century ago would not have been one of them.
I don't mean that to sound negative, and I know how much more than me you know about birds, but my first question would still be who did you get your Buckeyes from and do they have any feather legged breeds; second question would be who did THEY get their buckeyes from and did they have any feather legged breeds.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Well that's a good point, I just assumed they were pure breeds. I'm no expert in genetics, I'm like a little kid in science class with this stuff. I got the birds from the ALBC so I'm assuming that it doesn't get any more legit than that but it's hard to say. I just thought it was really neat to see the feathering in the legs because I know that I don't have any of those breeds here. I would like to do a little more research on it to see what happens and why it happens.

Had a couple more pure buckeyes hatch out last night and that looks to be it. The incubator spiked a couple of times to 106 so I'm guessing that probably killed a few. I'm wanting to make the investment in the sportsman incubator but can't justify the cost quite yet. They a pretty pricey but you get what you pay for.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
I somehow missed the latest news on this thread.
Jeff, it has always amazed me how long recessive traits [or even so-called incomplete dominate traits] stay hidden; they seem most likely to resurface as intensive linebreeding or inbreeding is used on a line. Thanks for the update, and best wishes for better hatches in the future.
I didn't know Buckeyes were rumored to have Cochin in their history. Coincidently, the eggs I recently set [not from my stock] originated from an accidental cross of Cochin/white Cornish. As time went on and two other breeds were added for another person's project, those of the clean legged offspring that resembed their Cornish ancestors were eventually crossed back to pure white Cornish; resulting in a huge Cornish-type bird.

 

[RoosterGeek]

Quote:
Used restaurant walk-in freezers can be found quite cheap online and also another idea might be to obtain an insulated shipping container and find a good used freezer unit. Some people build walk-in freezers from small insulated monolithic domes, which are extraordinarily well insulated and permanent.

 

[itsy]

I read through all of these posts this morning and it's quite interesting to follow!

I kind of got lost towards the end with all of the letters and numbers.... so to recap where everything stands right now to us layman....

You had the original birds: Buckeye Rooster and CornishX Hens. They successfully reached adult breeding size together and successfully mated. You then had fertile eggs from the cross. Those fertile eggs hatched. How many crosses did you end up with that survived to current size? What are the current ages right now of the new birds? I did see the photos of the cross birds.

Are you at the point now where the new birds are being bred? What are they being bred to?