Cornish Rock Meat Bird Breeding Project

[trescloudy]

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

I think 12 weeks is a reasonable target time. Thats what im shooting for but 10 would be better lol. I just dont want birds that arent active and cant forage and poop like pigs with wings. Foraging would be a great trait to pull from both the Bresse and/or NH.

I want to pasture raise mine like Joel Saladin in 10x12x2 foot tractors. You just move the tractor up to fresh clean grass every day. Helps save on the feed bill. I have other ideas about that also like incorporating duck weed into self made feed pellets. Of course there would be more than just duckweed because its so high in protein.

 

[trescloudy]

I wish you well with the diet.

My experience was diets don’t work and the damage is done to their hearts and kidneys in the first 6 weeks.

Sorry I am way behind so skipped a bunch, I had fish to slaughter.

I currently have a 2 year old CX rooster that did well with the diet but he was the only survivor. He's actually quite aggressive for a CX and hilds his own in a coop with about 7 other roosters. Hes probably top dog in the pecking order.

I also have a couple of 2 year old CX hens that are still laying so im going to see if we cant make something happen. He can mount hens but i don't want to over work him so ill just let him visit his hens once a week while i watch and make sure nobody gets hurt lol.

I have chicks from those 2 hens but they are with a NH rooster. The chicks come out quite white with reddish heads and are large.

 

[trescloudy]

Update:
There are two New Hampshires, 1 American Bresse, and 1 BHxCX. Im gonna go out on a limb and say the big NHxCX there is a cockerel. His crop is full and the heat he gives off is crazy.

Oh yeah these birds are 8 to 10 days old and yeah the big dude hatched first so he is 2 days older but still... wow

I have lots of ideas running through my head but keep hatching is my plan.

 

[trescloudy]

Finally seeing my 2 year old CX rooster mounting my 2 year old CX hen! Woohoo! Its finally his turn and he wasted little time. First hen i saw him hit was that CX hen but he hit a couple NHs too.

This might work out much better than i was thinking. He lined up pretty good too. Im proud of the old boy!

Toads on the way next!

 

[CNJ]

Finally seeing my 2 year old CX rooster mounting my 2 year old CX hen! Woohoo! Its finally his turn and he wasted little time. First hen i saw him hit was that CX hen but he hit a couple NHs too.

This might work out much better than i was thinking. He lined up pretty good too. Im proud of the old boy!

Toads on the way next!

Wow, it took two years for him to spawn....................

I have about 13 fertile eggs hatching in a few days. I regret putting in so many of the Breese/F2 Cornish X cross hens. These should pull more on the Breese side, but hopefully have more meat.

 

[trescloudy]

Wow, it took two years for him to spawn....................

I have about 13 fertile eggs hatching in a few days. I regret putting in so many of the Breese/F2 Cornish X cross hens. These should pull more on the Breese side, but hopefully have more meat.

Meaty egg layers for your meat bird project too

 

[CNJ]

I have 3 hens with my 12lbs rooster, but one of them lays double yolk eggs. At first I thought she would eventually lay single yolk eggs. However, I did research online and found out they have farms that breed double yolk egg layers, so she may have the double yolk gene. I need to find out which hen is laying them, so I can cull her.

 

[trescloudy]

Ok, what a rodeo this turned out to be. I left my CX rooster in with 4 NH hens and my last CX hen and he mounted CX so many times in a 24 hour time frame that i had to hospitalize her.

It took a while for her to heal up. Now i keep a saddle on her and only let him in with her once a week.

I got 5 CXxCX eggs in 6 days. Shes been laying almost an egg a day now that shes healed up. The saddle seems to be the ticket. Shes too tender lol. Its funny because the NH hens don't get nearly as tore up.

I just shut my incubator and hatcher down about 10 days ago and was enjoying the break but you gotta make hay when the sun is shining.

Im going to put 5 or 6 CXxCX eggs in the incubator tomorrow along with CXxNH and NHxNH tomorrow. I have almost 20 NH hens and my one CX hens is producing almost as many eggs as the rest of the flock and she barely eats. Something interesting is going on here.

In 3 weeks i should be hatching my first toads.

Also i have 2 awesome looking NHxCX chicks that are bigger than anything ive hatched this year. Funny thing is that the hen is the biggest of the two. They both came from the same hatch.

 

[trescloudy]

CX hen with CX rooster

 

[trescloudy]

NHxCX pullet