Cornish Rock Meat Bird Breeding Project

[trescloudy]

You can still find old timer Cornish Rock. I saw an ads from Craigslist recently, someone claim the stock isn't from the hatchery. I am working on the Ixworth X White Bresse project. The chicks are 1 week old and seem very active and healthy. Good luck with your project.

How is your Ixworth X White Bresse project going? Im actually hatching white bresse eggs right now. They lay like crazy for a table bird.

 

[CNJ]

I bred Breese/Cornish X and now the chicks are old enough to reproduce. I got an 8 and 11 lbs rooster and about 9 hens from this cross. I bred 4 of the hens back to their father, but kind of screwed up with this first incubation. I had a White Plymouth Rock/Dark Cornish hen living in the same coop and I think two of the chicks with pea comb are from her and 2 with straight combs are from the Breese/Cornish X hen. I will try again, I have 8 eggs waiting on an incubator. My Breese rooster is very fertile, these eggs will have a high fertile rate and should be from the Breese/Cornish x hens.

I also had the 12lbs rooster with 5 of his sisters, but his fertility rate is very low. I just hatched 2 from him and I have another 2 fertile eggs with different hatch date coming along. One of them will go on lock down this week end and the other one has 8 more days to hatch. I thought I was going to get a bunch of them, but only 1 out of 8 eggs were fertile.

The 8lbs rooster is more aggressive with the hens. I put 4 of his sisters with their father back in with him, and will start collecting their eggs after 3 weeks. The offspring from this hatch will be paired with the 12 lbs rooster's chicks and I want to breed these 2 groups to the chicks from their Breese father. I basically have 3 lines.

I have limited space, so I am doing very small batches.

 

[trescloudy]

I bred Breese/Cornish X and now the chicks are old enough to reproduce. I got an 8 and 11 lbs rooster and about 9 hens from this cross. I bred 4 of the hens back to their father, but kind of screwed up with this first incubation. I had a White Plymouth Rock/Dark Cornish hen living in the same coop and I think two of the chicks with pea comb are from her and 2 with straight combs are from the Breese/Cornish X hen. I will try again, I have 8 eggs waiting on an incubator. My Breese rooster is very fertile, these eggs will have a high fertile rate and should be from the Breese/Cornish x hens.

I also had the 12lbs rooster with 5 of his sisters, but his fertility rate is very low. I just hatched 2 from him and I have another 2 fertile eggs with different hatch date coming along. One of them will go on lock down this week end and the other one has 8 more days to hatch. I thought I was going to get a bunch of them, but only 1 out of 8 eggs were fertile.

The 8lbs rooster is more aggressive with the hens. I put 4 of his sisters with their father back in with him, and will start collecting their eggs after 3 weeks. The offspring from this hatch will be paired with the 12 lbs rooster's chicks and I want to breed these 2 groups to the chicks from their Breese father. I basically have 3 lines.

I have limited space, so I am doing very small batches.

I really enjoy reading your posts because i really dig what you are doing bro.

I plan on putting my CX hens in with my American Bresse rooster soon. I also have a CX rooster but ill try CX on CX last because my CX rooster is so aggressive. Ill probably only let him be with the hens for short periods of time so the mean sob dont kill my 2 year old CX girls.

Did your CX x AB birds grow faster than pure American Bresse? Have any pics?

I reccomend getting a toe punch and hatching net bags to keep your birds sorted in the incubator to prevent mixing them up. Unless you are getting them mixed up prior to hatching of course. You mentioned that you have little space.

I just hatched a New Hampshire x CX chick. Its solid yellow and twice the size of my straight NH chicks.

How do your CXxAB hens lay? Are they a lot bigger than pure AB?

Sorry about the questions but im really interested in what you have going on bro. Please keep on keeping on CNJ! You are rockin this research.

 

[CNJ]

How do your CXxAB hens lay? Are they a lot bigger than pure AB?

I did two separate incubations with my original Breese/Cornish x cross. They were about a month apart, in the first hatch I got 4 hens with different color legs (Green, blue, yellow, white) and an 8lbs rooster with yellow legs. This rooster look like he got more genes from a parental White Plymouth Rock. In the second batch I got a bigger 12lbs rooster with pearl white legs and 5 hens with different color legs. The 12lbs rooster is the only one who doesn't roost and he look like he inherited more Cornish X dinosaur genes. The hens from both batches are heavier than pure Breese.

The eggs from the first batch has stabilized, but I still get an occasional double yolker. I'd say they lay eggs every other day. The eggs from the second batch is inconsistent with occasional double yolkers and soft eggs. Once I see only hard eggs, I consider them stabilized.

This is a picture of the brother sister group from the first hatch. Its raining, so the eggs are dirty. I use disinfecting wipes to clean them and let them dry wet for the bacteria protection coat.

One of the hens is laying in the peddle feeder, its troubling, so I put two fake eggs in the planter instead of one, seem to have worked.

These eggs were fertilized by their Breese father, they only been together with their brother for a week. The eggs in the picture are single yolk.

The planter is heavy, so it doesn't tilt or move around. It is working better than a 5 gallon bucket. They won't lay in a 5gallon bucket, its too small for them.

My goal is dressed 4lbs or heavier, sustainable meat birds with in 12 weeks or less.

 

[trescloudy]

I did two separate incubations with my original Breese/Cornish x cross. They were about a month apart, in the first hatch I got 4 hens with different color legs (Green, blue, yellow, white) and an 8lbs rooster with yellow legs. This rooster look like he got more genes from a parental White Plymouth Rock. In the second batch I got a bigger 12lbs rooster with pearl white legs and 5 hens with different color legs. The 12lbs rooster is the only one who doesn't roost and he look like he inherited more Cornish X dinosaur genes. The hens from both batches are heavier than pure Breese.

The eggs from the first batch has stabilized, but I still get an occasional double yolker. I'd say they lay eggs every other day. The eggs from the second batch is inconsistent with occasional double yolkers and soft eggs. Once I see only hard eggs, I consider them stabilized.

This is a picture of the brother sister group from the first hatch. Its raining, so the eggs are dirty. I use disinfecting wipes to clean them and let them dry wet for the bacteria protection coat.

One of the hens is laying in the peddle feeder, its troubling, so I put two fake eggs in the planter instead of one, seem to have worked.

These eggs were fertilized by their Breese father, they only been together with their brother for a week. The eggs in the picture are single yolk.

The planter is heavy, so it doesn't tilt or move around. It is working better than a 5 gallon bucket. They won't lay in a 5gallon bucket, its too small for them.

My goal is dressed 4lbs or heavier, sustainable meat birds with in 12 weeks or less.

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You are killing it bro, thanks for sharing! This thread has a lot of excellent information about meat birds because of all the sharing going on here. I've learned a lot because of it.

Let me share some of the best things ive learned.

* If you put CX on a diet you can keep them "healthy" for years.

* How to feed CX for selection and breeding

* The "meatier" a hen is the less eggs she will lay so.... Keep a dame line more inclined to lay better, not like a laying variety but should lay 3 or 4 eggs a week, 4 being better. Smaller but shaped right isn't a bad plan. Keep a sire line strictly for size and shape for the table only. Use the biggest correctly shaped possible breedable roosters.

I havent actually accomplished this yet but I do think it could be accomplished with Henry Knoll New Hampshires. Im already getting 7 pound plus dressed carcasses from 16 week birds straight from his flock.

Thats far beyond great by all measures for an inbred variety (non hybrid) imo but it takes twice the time to accomplish that than it does by raising CX.

Its also important to keep, maintain and improve each variety into a true breeding representative of varietie/s you use in your breeding projects no matter if its for meat, egg production or dual purpose. So... using varieties that came fresh from a hatchery most likely wont breed the awesome hybrid you are shooting for. First you have to hone each variety into its own standard of perfection before using it to create a true F1 hybrid.

Its fun to play to get an idea of what might happen long term with fresh from the hatchery birds but putting in the elbow grease will probably get you something way better.

Even when you take your time and go for the F2 point where i believe you may be you will get all different gene combinations. You might find that crazy combination you are looking for in that generation. F2 is what you get when you inbreed your F1 like say your bressexCX birds together. Inbreeding brothers and sisters of the initial F1 hybrid gets you the F2. Its not a wrong thing to do at that point especially if you are looking for a certain combination of the 2 initial varieties.

Ok ive rambled enough tonight. Lets try to keep this thread going because its a cool thread lol.

 

[CNJ]

I caught my Breese/Cornish X cross hen that was laying in my peddle feeder, she was the same hen I put in a separate pen to break that habit. I decided to put her with my 12lbs rooster, but before I did, I weighed her, she was 8lbs. This is heavier than my previous year old Jersey Giant hen. I knew my hens were heavy, but I didn't think one of them would weigh 8lbs.

 

[trescloudy]

I caught the Breese/Cornish X cross hen that was laying in my peddle feeder, she was the same hen I put in a separate pen to break that habit. I decided to put her with my 12lbs rooster, but before I did, I weighed her, she was 8lbs. This is heavier than my previous year old Jersey Giant hen.

Those are big birds bro. Can't wait to hear and hopefully see how that project plays out.

Ive been interested in JGs but i dont want to lose focus on what i have going.

In a couple weeks if everything goes well you should be ready to start incubating if thats your plan which pretty sure it is.

 

[CNJ]

Ive been interested in JGs

They take more then a year to reach their stated mature weight of 10lbs for roosters and 8lbs for hens. That's a lot of feed..............

 

[CNJ]

In a couple weeks if everything goes well you should be ready to start incubating if thats your plan which pretty sure it is.

I just put 14 eggs from the Breese father/Cornish X cross daughters in my incubator. I'm going to process them with in 12 weeks. I am sure this bunch don't have any standard Dark Cornish/Plymouth Rock eggs

 

[trescloudy]

Here are some chicks i just hatched. Some are straight NH, some are straight Bresse and a couple from coop #4 look to be NHxCX. There should be no other white birds from that coop as its all NH outside of 2 CX hens.

There is a white chick with a reddish head that came from that coop. Was the first to hatch and already acts like the most alert chick out of that hatch. Hes a little bigger than the straight NH but these Henry Noll NH get huge.

Couple friends came over yesterday and were tripping on my biggest NH rooster. He is such a giant bird lol.

I'll be posting updates. And i have at least 3 more hatches to go. Who knows, i might hatch more than that but i might wait til late summer to fire the bator back up. Its a lot of work to keep up with lol