Cornish Cross eggs

[bouncer]

I was wanting some Cornish cross fertile eggs. Can anyone help?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I can't say that I have ever seen those for sale.

 

[Dogfish]

Want in one hand and..................

They exist, but not on the open market.

 

[brandislee]

Purely out of curiosity, but why not?

 

[kstaven]

If we are discussing commercial cornish cross the industry is highly protective of them. All sorts of hoops and red tape involved getting involved in the broiler industry.

 

[MetalSmitten]

typically, the birds don't reach breeding age, and if they do, they have trouble mating naturally.

 

[kstaven]

Quote:
That is only true for the end product of the pyramid that is sold through hatcheries. Secondly they would never breed totally true to the parents capabilities anyways.

Now the other four lines that go into making up that final product produce just fine.

 

[Dogfish]

Quote:
Select hatcheries have bred the 4 lines to produce a consistent product. The cost of developing the grandparent and parent lines is relatively high, maintaining two separate flocks to lay eggs to make another two flocks that in turn lays the eggs that are hatched to become the target bird.

After all that work and investment, would you go for the minimal payoff when selling eggs, or go for maximum payoff and sell the chicks so that somebody else could circumvent your access to a captive market?

 

[brandislee]

Makes sense, I guess. I always assumed it involved complicated breeding, as the end result wouldn't be able to breed or lay eggs at all/well. But I didn't realize they don't sell eggs- I mean, if people want them and they mark them up a little (like higher than other eggs, but still cheaper than chicks) they could sell them. They would save on the overhead of hatching them, at least. But I was only curious- I'd much rather buy chicks myself than buy eggs.