Cornish Rock Meat Bird Breeding Project

[trescloudy]

Good idea! Thanks for sharing.

 

[trescloudy]

So...

Today I was out with the birds and noticed one of my CX hens (pullet) is limping. I also noticed the same bird had a dirty back yesterday. My son came out to help me and i told him i was kinda bummed that we had an injured CX hen. He mentioned that maybe she was injured after being mounted by one of the 3 monster roosters (cockerel). I told him about her having a dirty back and we agreed that she is probably getting mounted. So we walked outside and watched the CX birds feed on the scratch that I tossed into their run about 10 minutes prior. No more did we get outside and around to the backside of the run and we witnessed a CX rooster mounting a CX hen. He didnt appear to have it down perfect but he is dangerously close. I mean so close I wouldnt be surprised if he hasn't already hit the spot a few times by now.

Putting these CX birds on a diet is definitely working. I noticed that all 6 of the CX hens have dirty spots on their backs between their wings. It's quite obvious that these CX birds are indeed mating or at least attempting it. Now I think it's just a matter of getting eggs and hatching them now. Just waiting for these girls to start laying.

Woohoo!!!

Oh also I put the injured pullet in with my New Hampshire chicks ( 6 or 7 weeks old) to hospitalize her while she hopefully heals.

 

[trescloudy]

UPDATE:

Day after hen was found limping. Colder day than yesterday. Birds not quite as active. CX birds probably a little less active than the other birds. Wounded CX hen (pullet) is doing a little better. Noticed the biggest CX cockerel with a slight limp.

Watched CX birds for at least 2 hours. I pulled in and all the birds ran out to my truck at the far end of their run. They have figured out my truck means they are going to get fed, especially the broilers since they have been on a restricted diet. Anyway I saw the largest CX rooster trying to mount one of the CX hens. He wasnt successful and is starting to develop a slight limp. I think they are kind of dislocating their legs.

Soooo....
I'm going to move 3 of the CX roosters out and just leave one rooster with the 5 good CX hens tomorrow. I'll watch him and see how he interacts with the CX hens. If he is mounting them I'll let him stay. But if he isnt after a few days I'll put in another CX rooster and go from there as I have 4 all together.

One reason I'm moving the 3 boys is that roosters like to gang up on hens or fight roosters that are trying to mount hens. That is too much weight on a CX hen or any hen for that matter. I've not witnessed any of this behavior with my CX birds but its probably going on. To help keep the healthy CX birds healthy I'm going to pull out all but one of those big boys.

It's a learning process but thinking it's going to be worth it.

 

[trescloudy]

So I believe its day 3 for the pullet in the "hospital". She was walking pretty good this morning. She still has a very slight limp but should be well soon. I think she may have misplaced her leg while getting mounted.

She probably has the shortest legs of all 6 pullets I kept. I kind of figured that would give her more stability but she was first to get injured.

Her comb curls to one side. So she is the shortest and cutest CX girl in the flock and she appears to be the favorite, go figure lol.

After removing her I noticed that a couple other hens are getting dirty backs. So maybe the rooster will spread out his "quality time" a little more with other hens when she gets reintroduced to the flock.

I was reading that it takes 5 to 6 months before CX hens start laying. So I'm going to separate the girls from the boys until they start laying to keep injuries down until 2 or 3 weeks prior to incubation time.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My CX hens are laying, down here in N FL. 28-29 weeks when the two of them started. Still a bit inconsistent - every other day, roughly. Good luck in your breeding efforts!

 

[Compost King]

My CX hens are laying, down here in N FL. 28-29 weeks when the two of them started. Still a bit inconsistent - every other day, roughly. Good luck in your breeding efforts!

Just out of Curiosity, can you roughly describe the egg size and color? Not an important question just a curious one.

 

[trescloudy]

Thank you U_Stormcrow. Sounds like your birds are in about full production right now. My research is telling me that broilers only lay about 140 eggs per year. That's less than every other day.

Did you keep any roosters?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Just out of Curiosity, can you roughly describe the egg size and color? Not an important question just a curious one.

I'll try and photo tomorrow, if its not raining. As I barely got past the 8 colors in a box of crayons, medium, light brown is otherwise the best I can do. Sadly, all my layers offer eggs in the palette of "brown", and the difference in size is not always obvious with Comets, Rainbows and CX laying right now - my Brahma *should* be starting too, but at this point, I'm not sure I would even recognize a new layer by a change in eggs. The comets lay the darkest brown eggs and tend towards largest, but compared to the duck eggs, they aren't huge.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Eggs, yesterday and today.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

the middle egg on the leftmost row? Maybe top egg at right. I think that's CX. The duck eggs are obvious. Large brown egg in the middle of the second row left, and the bottom corner of the rightmost row? Comet. After that, its a guessing game - but most are Rainbow.