Cornish Cross Hen - Buff Orpington Hybrid Cross

[chigo]

My Cornish Cross are laying FERTILIZED eggs from my Buff Orpington rooster. Today is day 18. They go in the hatching incubator from here. Anyone out there ever crossed this meat bird w/another breed? If anyone out there has any education on crossing this bird w/another, please fill me in. Thanks.

Any pictures?

 

[Beccatrix]

There are a few us in Minnesota that have taken my toad recipe and ran with it. @holm25 and @MNChickMom both havea flock. We are not having a good spring, but I put that down to equipment failure and the cold harsh winter we are still having.

We are now in the process of taking the single combs off their heads with a cross to a buckeye.

The perfect toad is white or mainly white with some red/orange spots. The roosters are huge 20 plus pounds dressing at 15. The hens are 12-15 pounds dressing at 10ish.

We are trying to keep them naturally reproducing. That maybe a problem the boys gets so big. We did try some AI this spring, but we found it is nearly impossible to get semen from a 20+ pound birds.

We are hoping the buckeye will give us a larger frame with a little less girth and increase the natural reproduction.

Hopefully, they can add advice. What I did to start with is carry leg bands with me. I banded the CX that wandered the furthest from the group and used those for reproducing, on the theory the further they walked the better condition they were in.

This is fascinating! Any updates?

 

[Sandsunsurf]

I’d love to see the mix as well if you have pictures.