Cornish over New Hampshire

[Dr.Dale]

Has anyone tried a Cornish rooster over a New Hampshire hen for a backyard meat bird? I was thinking that I could keep a flock of dual purpose birds mostly for eggs, but with a Cornish rooster for the occasional batch of meat. The NH seems like a good candidate for early maturity with the Cornish for meaty breasts.

 

[Timothy Menezes]

I have considered doing the exact same thing, but haven't gotten around to getting an incubator. If you try it can you let me know how it works out for you?

 

[Chickenheadmate]

Has anyone tried a Cornish rooster over a New Hampshire hen for a backyard meat bird? I was thinking that I could keep a flock of dual purpose birds mostly for eggs, but with a Cornish rooster for the occasional batch of meat. The NH seems like a good candidate for early maturity with the Cornish for meaty breasts.

I was thinking about doing the same thing and then breeding The Offspring to a New Hampshire rooster. I haven't gotten around to doing so because I haven't found any breeders that are shipping New Hampshire eggs or pullets right now.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Would make for a nice cross but you definitely want to start with breeder stock not hatchery.

 

[Dr.Dale]

you definitely want to start with breeder stock not hatchery.

So far I have only bought from hatcheries. How do you find good breeders. I would be reluctant to just buy from some random guy on Craig’s list or something

 

[Maeschak]

So far I have only bought from hatcheries. How do you find good breeders. I would be reluctant to just buy from some random guy on Craig’s list or something

Finding good breeders can be very difficult- just keep searching on the internet generally, Facebook, etc.
If you can't find any- you could always try: https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/ (they have NH hatchery, but at least a hatchery breeding for meat) or 8 Acres Farm https://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/ or Sandhill Preservation https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/chickens

I have never ordered from any of these places but have always wanted too... good luck!

 

[ijon]

So far I have only bought from hatcheries. How do you find good breeders. I would be reluctant to just buy from some random guy on Craig’s list or something

Try to find local breeders.

 

[Mosey2003]

Join FB groups to find breeders. There are breed groups and The American Poultry Association has a group. There should be a national breed club as well you could join, or even just email for information.

I've considered using my Barred Rock breeders in some sort of cross for a meatier carcass, I was thinking some Cornish x broiler pullets kept on a diet.

 

[Dr.Dale]

Join FB groups to find breeders. There are breed groups and The American Poultry Association has a group. There should be a national breed club as well you could join, or even just email for information.

I've considered using my Barred Rock breeders in some sort of cross for a meatier carcass, I was thinking some Cornish x broiler pullets kept on a diet.

Thanks, that is very helpful.

I currently have a flock of hatchery Plymouth Rocks. I have not yet started our breeding program, so basically I was asking this question to find out if anyone had already had phenomenal success with the New Hampshire in this context, because it will be less expensive to switch to NH now rather than later.

So based on the responses here, I will start my breeding program with my existing Rocks, and breed for early maturity and weight. I think that the breed has the good genes in there, I just have to do the selection that the hatchery did not do.

Then at some point I will get a Dark Cornish rooster from a breeder that has spent the time to get good qualities. I will hatch meat birds from him, but not try to breed the hybrids further. It won’t quite be a sustainable meat flock, but a reasonably close approximation.

 

[Mosey2003]

Not to discourage you at all, but you're going to have to do a lot of breeding to get hatchery birds up where you want them. They're bred for early egg production and to resemble what variety they are, so you're going to end up with a lot of culls. You can do it, sure, but if money is a consideration and you really want to get to a better meat flock within a few years, you still would probably be better off putting the money aside to buy something closer to your goal now.