Cornish Thread

[OHmamma]

You are welcome. I went looking ot buy cornish chicks and was so excited to find these. I think I might have to harass Gary the next time I see him to try to get some LF ones form him
I love these guys even if they are ugly. They are not as rough as they appear in the picture, I had them running loose that day and they had to roll around in the dirt and grass for a while. I bought them from a man from WVA that was at the Ohio national last year. I bought six but lost three and I wish that I had bought a few more. I really enjoy them most out of my 150+ chickens. I call them my little pitbulls. The littel pullet "Pet" likes to be carried around and if I don't pick her up she bites my leg until I do.

The bad thing about dominant and recsssive white is you don't know what you have for sure until you play them out. I am still trying to figure out if my white marans are dominant or recessive. I was told marans are always recessive but then again I don't know what might have been bred into these to ge them white in the first place.

I read somewhere that a dominant white chick will be white at hatch not yellow and my have black spots. Then another site I read last night said they will appear silver when covering black.

What do you know or think about this? If it helps I have only crossed them with a barred hen. I only get white or white and silver.

-Nicol

 

[Cedarknob]

I don't know a lot about it, but the commercial production birds I've owned were dominate white and usually all yellow as babies. All the recessive whites I've had varied as far as down color, sometimes even their first feathers looked off-white colored, but eventually they feathered out pure white. When I've used dominate white in a cross, I've gotten anywhere from pure yellow to yellow with heavy black leakage, and they feathered pure white to white with a few black feathers, but of course a cross to red will result in more red being shown, possibly even red pyle offspring. I'm getting some that are bright, silvery white chicks with jet black spots from my WC pen, and the first feathers in the wings are black if the down there was black. Some look almost like exchecquer. I'm hatching chicks from another pen of dominate white, Cornish Rock meat hens that were under two, mixed variety but pure Ameraucana cockerels, and some of those are pure yellow, others yellow with black spots bleeding through.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

i would be really neat if your black chicks would stay that color as adults... i know that big medicine has blue's so he should get blacks sooner or later... yours would be pure cornish so would be another blood line to mix in with his... i would love to see a flock of good LF black cornish...

Thanks Bigmamma, I like blue laced color.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the chicks coming from my White Cornish pen because the chick's colors are a bit surprising, though experience with other breeds of recessive white chickens prepared me to expect the unexpected. LOL

I have my WC cockerel over three WC pullets, three Dark Cornish pullets, and a couple of Easter Egg hens. [I have not tried hatching the EE's eggs because the incubator has been too full.] I know that all of the chicks are sired by my WC but no way of knowing which pullet laid which egg. I'm am getting the usual mix of white, yellowish white, and smokey white I've seen in other breeds that are recessive white, but also a couple of black chicks and a bunch that are white with a lot of black spots, but none that look like DC chicks. I think maybe my WC male is descended from someone mixing White Cornish with White Laced Red or Jubilee Cornish, and that he carries one copy of dominate white. I can understand why someone might think those two varieties might work well together, but introducing dominate white into a recessive white variety is not really a good idea in my opinion. Never-the-less, he was the only WC male I could find to buy, and a pretty good looking one at that, so will just have to work with what I have. I'm going to try to hatch a chick or two from my two Easter Egg hens. One is split for recessive white and the other isn't, and their eggs are very easy to tell apart. If I get a mostly white colored chick from the hen that lays the large green egg, I'll know my WC male carries dominate white.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

i have dominant white Marans so there is some out there...

You are welcome. I went looking ot buy cornish chicks and was so excited to find these. I think I might have to harass Gary the next time I see him to try to get some LF ones form him
I love these guys even if they are ugly. They are not as rough as they appear in the picture, I had them running loose that day and they had to roll around in the dirt and grass for a while. I bought them from a man from WVA that was at the Ohio national last year. I bought six but lost three and I wish that I had bought a few more. I really enjoy them most out of my 150+ chickens. I call them my little pitbulls. The littel pullet "Pet" likes to be carried around and if I don't pick her up she bites my leg until I do.

The bad thing about dominant and recsssive white is you don't know what you have for sure until you play them out. I am still trying to figure out if my white marans are dominant or recessive. I was told marans are always recessive but then again I don't know what might have been bred into these to ge them white in the first place.

I read somewhere that a dominant white chick will be white at hatch not yellow and my have black spots. Then another site I read last night said they will appear silver when covering black.

What do you know or think about this? If it helps I have only crossed them with a barred hen. I only get white or white and silver.

-Nicol

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

i have read and know that on at least some commercial white leghorns they are both dominant and recessive white... i was told that most Cornish crosses where as well...

I don't know a lot about it, but the commercial production birds I've owned were dominate white and usually all yellow as babies. All the recessive whites I've had varied as far as down color, sometimes even their first feathers looked off-white colored, but eventually they feathered out pure white. When I've used dominate white in a cross, I've gotten anywhere from pure yellow to yellow with heavy black leakage, and they feathered pure white to white with a few black feathers, but of course a cross to red will result in more red being shown, possibly even red pyle offspring. I'm getting some that are bright, silvery white chicks with jet black spots from my WC pen, and the first feathers in the wings are black if the down there was black. Some look almost like exchecquer. I'm hatching chicks from another pen of dominate white, Cornish Rock meat hens that were under two, mixed variety but pure Ameraucana cockerels, and some of those are pure yellow, others yellow with black spots bleeding through.

 

[al6517]

A true dominant white Cornish chick will be very dark to med grey, which is the sign of the silver gene, which in Cornish means true white, pure white and should and will throw most good white color if mated to the same true silver gene bird. Yellow will also be white but it won't be true silver white and then they could throw anything even when mated back to white. When they begin to feather you will see the difference in the color white, stunning and without imperfection, snow white, silver blinding white.

 

[Cedarknob]

A true dominant white Cornish chick will be very dark to med grey,.

You're saying Cornish are supposed to be dominate white? Every other Cornish breeder I've talked to said the opposite. Some of my chicks are gray, and feathering a clean white, and that's what I'm used to with good recessive white.

 

[al6517]

I am saying a well bred (WHITE) Cornish will be grey/silver white when hatched, I keep my silvers and cull the yellow whites. The best Cornish breeders in the country I know, don't waste their time playing the genetics formula game. They know genetics as we all should have a basic working knowledge of it, but to get so caught up in it to the point where it overshadows good technics is pointless, that's all I am saying. I have seen so many folks dazzle you with genetics lingo it would make your head spin, yet everything in their pen's is only good enough for the soup pot, what good is a genetics formulation if you don't have the eye or the sense to know what genetic traits your seeing and their potential value to your program. I know this sounds harsh and it's not meant to be, it's just the only way I know to get my point across.

 

[Cedarknob]

I am saying a well bred (WHITE) Cornish will be grey/silver white when hatched, I keep my silvers and cull the yellow whites. The best Cornish breeders in the country I know, don't waste their time playing the genetics formula game. They know genetics as we all should have a basic working knowledge of it, but to get so caught up in it to the point where it overshadows good technics is pointless, that's all I am saying. I have seen so many folks dazzle you with genetics lingo it would make your head spin, yet everything in their pen's is only good enough for the soup pot, what good is a genetics formulation if you don't have the eye or the sense to know what genetic traits your seeing and their potential value to your program. I know this sounds harsh and it's not meant to be, it's just the only way I know to get my point across.

Thanks Al. While reading back in last year's posts in the meat section, I saw where you bought a White Cornish cockerel with heavy bleed at an auction because your Hulk was not getting chicks, even with A.I., at times. Is this why you have to cull so heavily for color now, or is it the lesser quality he added also? [ Isn't a terrible bird, but I like the Hulk better.]

edited out because I feel this post was made in frustration at my own ignorance.

 

[al6517]

I never used that younger white I got from a buddy in any breeding, I just got him for the heck of it as a back up to another project. Your right he's terrible LOL but his head was nice. Those others were just young cockrel culls I ended up selling as barnyard birds, I get a few of these every now and then, I like to call them sports. The Hulk has sired a few good birds that I am using now and the chicks from this springs breedings seems promising. It's funny because you can see the good ones right off in the brooder in just 1-2 weeks. I was able to aquire a couple of young white cock birds but they aren't impressing me enough to breed so far and are not in pen's with any hen's, I have 2 or 3 other really good white Roo's from the Hulk that are working out very well and throwing some very good quality, I have some good WLR hen's I wantend to put with those weaker roo's to get more white maybe 25% but that was a pipe dream as they all came out looking very week color wise. My Darks are doing well and hatching is just dandy, the chicks look to be fine but I will have to wait a few more months to see if the deep dark sharp mahogany that is currently desired in the show ring surfaces. Good lacing in the colored Cornish is also a challenge, I have been lucky so far without issue, but at some point I may have to do some crossing to bring it out sharper if these offspring ever start to produce that bleeding effect, keeping my fingers crossed.