Cornish Thread

[chickened]

Summer grown cornish usually have longer legs. I would not discount him yet, that same bird grown in the colder months may have shorter legs.

 

[Cedarknob]

Thanks guys. I do like him, and think he shows a lot of a promise at this age .I am, however, looking to keep one with super shank girth and just a bit wider stance than the two DC cockerels [and they're not too shabby in those departments] that I used this year, and doubt that this one is it. I'm not hatching nearly enough darks to choose from, too many little pullet eggs with no obvious top end. Fertility is great, and they make it right up to hatch, then too many can't pip. I finally quit fighting the two pullets wanting to go broody, and had one slip a tendon or dislocate her thigh somehow, so now short two temporarily and the other permanently.

 

[aviangems]

Paulo,

I am glad that you are seeing things the right way.

 

[chickened]

Thanks guys. I do like him, and think he shows a lot of a promise at this age .I am, however, looking to keep one with super shank girth and just a bit wider stance than the two DC cockerels [and they're not too shabby in those departments] that I used this year, and doubt that this one is it. I'm not hatching nearly enough darks to choose from, too many little pullet eggs with no obvious top end. Fertility is great, and they make it right up to hatch, then too many can't pip. I finally quit fighting the two pullets wanting to go broody, and had one slip a tendon or dislocate her thigh somehow, so now short two temporarily and the other permanently.

I have found that when cornish cannot pip it is usually too high humidity. I have also found that cornish do better when hatched in small hatches of a dozen or less eggs. I know the minute things don't seem important but for some reason with cornish it seems to be so.

 

[al6517]

They certainly do much better using a dry hatch, my hatches have increased 2 fold hatching at 30% humidity.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Hmm, That is odd to hear that you guys are going drier on hatching. I keep mine 65-70% and all my DCs are hatching quite well. I have some out of a project Black Laced hen that the results are not so good lately, but I open the eggs and the chicks are huge! and should have easily been able to push out but didn't. The eggs are pretty good sized too, so that shouldn't have been a factor. That line I know has some Wyandotte in it, so there could be the thing that is contributing.

 

[SD_Paulo]

Paulo,

I am glad that you are seeing things the right way.

LOL....

 

[Cedarknob]

That's good to know Al. Those that do hatch are usually sticky, looking like the other chicks do when a hatching unit's humidity has spiked and I can't get it back to the 60% I try to maintain from day 18 through hatch. I try to run the big incubator at 30%, and the time I pulled the wrong tray of eggs from it....................

....................the eggs I should have pulled out had been hatching like popcorn popping and still in the turner on day 20. Those were mostly Ameraucanas though, and seem to hatch no matter what. I do think some of the problem is the small eggs with no pointy end; there just aren't good air pockets even though those chicks are very small and seem pretty tightly wrapped by the inner membrane.

 

[Cedarknob]

I hate to say it, but lost most of my DC adults last night. I keep all of my birds in portable pens to keep them on fresh grass. I've put electric wire on the growing pen after loosing that pen of chicks, but that is nearly impossible to do with the 7 pens that can be up to 100 yards from my house and buildings. I have never lost an adult from the pens, but keep the Cornish in the middle in heavier built pens, just in case something does decide to try the adult's pens, figuring it would pick the closest or easiest pen.

I had to go to town on business this morning, as I suddenly got an offer on a property yesterday with an agreement to close today. I only had time to fix the chicks up to make it through this heat wave before I left, but had an hour between the time I got the papers for a new deed and the appointment to close., I drove home to check everything and found all of the DC pen dead, except one pullet with all of her breast skin tore off. The signs looks like the same predator that got the chicks. It had eaten a few heads, and tried but failed to drag a big hen through the little hole it had dug, so ate what it could there. Whatever this is will not go near a box trap, even with a dead chicken in it, and is too smart for other traps also. I tried hanging a dead chicken over a buried trap, but whatever it is would not get near the dead bird. I just thought of it, so I think I better go back to town and buy a solar powered fence charger.

I still have one DC cockerel and the WC cock in other pens, and two DC pullets caged in my garage and sitting on eggs. It looks like they have hatched one chick and pecked it to death, so that isn't going too well either, but at least I still have them, plus the chicks hatched since the other loss. I better go get that fence charger now.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Get a game cam too and find out what is getting in and how to kill it! I am so sorry for your losses. I think all of this in the business have dealt with this sort of thing, so we all feel you loss. I hope all the chicks do well now. Good luck.