Cornish Rock Meat Bird Breeding Project

[nicalandia]

I've been trying to find this video for a while, these are Cobb 500 Great Grand parents Males, Sire Line A males and Dame Line C males(ABCD four way breeding) these breeder males go thru a prosess called Broilerization where they fed un restricted until they reach market Weight of about 2.5 Kilos(about 5.5 Lbs) in about 5-6 weeks and only about 12% are kept as Grand Parent Breeders. So anyone who believes that the end product grow as fast as they do because of "Hybrid" Vigor it's being mislead.

 

[trescloudy]

I've been trying to find this video for a while, these are Cobb 500 Great Grand parents Males, Sire Line A males and Dame Line C males(ABCD four way breeding) these breeder males go thru a prosess called Broilerization where they fed un restricted until they reach market Weight of about 2.5 Kilos(about 5.5 Lbs) in about 5-6 weeks and only about 12% are kept as Grand Parent Breeders. So anyone who believes that the end product grow as fast as they do because of "Hybrid" Vigor it's being mislead.

The more I study this the more I agree with the hybrid vigor idea. But if you are correct then bulk and speed of growth are actual traits. So by selecting slower growing offspring as breeders it should be possible to accomplish a slower growing bulky variety. I believe they have slower broilers available but have not seen any hatcheries that offer them. They all seem to offer the same exact Cobb 500 cross.

This is another reason I got the New Hampshires. They were fast in their day but slower than modern CX broilers. I think by making an initial outcross to NHs then back crossing to CX hens until you get birds that are too fast again then use the previous back cross generation to make "F2s" and work those into maybe F3 or F4 and start a line breeding project from there. (I feel F4s shouldnt cause a lot inbreeding issues since so many breeds are involved in their direct background.)

Then again a slower heritage variety like maybe Plymouth Rocks could possibly be used to create an even slower meat breed.

It's going to take some work to deploy and follow through with these ideas but since I play them in my head so often, I have to see what happens.

This also gives me a good reason to maintain and hopefully improve a couple heritage varieties. And eventually maybe even remake a heritage variety.

If I actually succeed I feel this would be an incredible accomplishment, especially since so few seem to be interested in such a project.

I know there is an incredible amount of work involved in all this but this stuff turns my crank and I have 15 acres of near vacant property to do it on.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The more I study this the more I agree with the hybrid vigor idea.

Hybrid vigor is a real thing, but the traits have to be there to start with. You are not going to get a great meat bird by crossing two lines of poor meat birds. You are not going to get a great egg-laying bird by crossing two poor egg-laying lines. What vigor shows up may show up in unexpected ways if you don't have the traits you want.

Don't expect hybrid vigor to make a noticeable to your project. Traits will.

 

[trescloudy]

Hybrid vigor is a real thing, but the traits have to be there to start with. You are not going to get a great meat bird by crossing two lines of poor meat birds. You are not going to get a great egg-laying bird by crossing two poor egg-laying lines. What vigor shows up may show up in unexpected ways if you don't have the traits you want.

Don't expect hybrid vigor to make a noticeable to your project. Traits will.

Yep, and the industry has put some very meaty traits in their CX broilers.

 

[trescloudy]

Seeing lots of improvement through dieting. The birds are very active now. When I come out to feed especially toss scratch they really move fast. I cant believe how much better these birds are looking and acting.

 

[HappyDuckie]

Seeing lots of improvement through dieting. The birds are very active now. When I come out to feed especially toss scratch they really move fast. I cant believe how much better these birds are looking and acting.

I had a CX rooster up until a few weeks ago- he was so active, acted the same as all my others. He ran around, foraged for food all day instead of sitting in front of a feeder. Was a good boy.

 

[nicalandia]

I had a CX rooster up until a few weeks ago- he was so active, acted the same as all my others. He ran around, foraged for food all day instead of sitting in front of a feeder. Was a good boy.

What happened to him?

 

[HappyDuckie]

What happened to him?

I couldn't eat him, I got attached after he lived so long. I didn't want him to suffer, either, so traded him a few weeks back for a laying hen. (also- he weighed a good 14/15 pounds)

 

[HappyDuckie]

I still have one CX hen thats active, though not as much as the roo. Shes staying pretty small, too, and she gets free-choice food all day.

 

[trescloudy]

I still have one CX hen thats active, though not as much as the roo. Shes staying pretty small, too, and she gets free-choice food all day.

Does she lay eggs?