Cornish Thread

[jonaedna]

Proper WLR pattern

How are you ever going to get a pair that looks just like that in color.... or perhaps you already have them?

 

[Minniechickmama]

I did take some pictures but have to upload to the computer. The best colored WLR I have actually has some double lacing popping through on some of her feathers. The other two are very red, but would be workable under a good roo.
I also have the cock bird from Big Medicine's dad I posted a while back to use on some of the girls.
I counted and sorted birds so I can get rid of some culls when I take some of my other birds in to process. I am holding back 4 cockerels and 7 pullets. I have a pullet with some funny feathers that I think is just going to go into a meat making pen. I have to evaluate the girls more as time moves on. I have some younger ones in the brood pens still to evaluate.

Going back to the eyes....
I am finding when the birds are juveniles, they seem to have the more pearl color, but by 4-months, they are yellow, though not quite toward the orangish yellow. One of my cocks has a nice pearl and the other has yellow. However, the Splash Laced cock I have has perfect eye color.

I will show pictures as I get them up. I need to take more too of some of the birds since my batteries died while I was taking pictures.

 

[Cedarknob]

I looked my oldest juveniles over a long time ago, and what I thought were probably just baby colored eyes were exactly that, and they are now yellow eyed just as their parents are. Pearl eyes would be nice, but I will sure never keep a Cornish only because they have them, or cull one just because it does not.

 

[Minniechickmama]

It is tough sorting though. So many of them look alike at this point. I culled for thinner and longer legs, narrower bodies, first. I have some sneezing issues too with a few and figured they were carrying a weaker immune system, so they are going to freezer camp too. Tis the time of year I have a few of them start with that crud. It could be in part because there is so much dust and mold flying with all the crop farmers being out these last couple of weeks. You would think we still lived on a dirt road with as dirty as everything is from harvest season.
I am keeping 5 that are out of a pair from Imwalle's BLR project. These are all Black Laced though, and some have cushion combs that I am going to attempt to get rid of. They are just for me, so I will cull hard from here on out for that. I just need to rethinking how many pens I want to dedicate to each breed I have here. I have another building started for just grow-out (and my rabbits, which I have gotten into raising larger ones for meat). I have 3 of my breeding pens occupied as grow out pens right now that I am going to need in the next month. Luckily, I have a batch going to the freezer the week of the 22nd.

That one hen that I was referring too with a better coloration... has bumblefoot. I had to remove her leg band the other day where it slipped down below her back toe. There was a little spot where it rubbed some of the skin off. Now, it is all puffed up and I will need to address that issue tomorrow.

 

[galanie]

Seems to me there's just a lot more to breed for than eye color. I'd think once one had their flock to exactly what they wanted, THEN worry about eye color. But I'm not breeding these things. Maybe some day when I have the experience with other breeds and the space. I do love them.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Seems to me there's just a lot more to breed for than eye color. I'd think once one had their flock to exactly what they wanted, THEN worry about eye color. But I'm not breeding these things. Maybe some day when I have the experience with other breeds and the space. I do love them.

There is much more that overrides the eye color, and I know that it is just a small points deduction compared to many other aspects, which is why I stated in my last post what I was culling for. I will not cull a fine looking bird just because its eye color is off. The body type is much more important. I have reviewed the points list in the SOP and I look at the most prominent aspects in each breed for culling/selection purposes.
The eye color is similar to the feathering coloration... if the color or pattern is a little off but you have an awesome bird in all other aspects, of course the color can be overlooked to a large extent. The WLRs I have, I have mentioned the color, just as a color discussion. Overall, the best looking of the three is a very dark red with little white. On the other end, the DC I hatched from the same batch has AMAZING color, but she looks completely hatchery quality in all other aspects. I am keeping her to work with because finding GOOD DCs around here is very hard and the only breeder I know of within a reasonable distance, I already have two pairs from. So, I may need to work diversity of blood into my flock of DCs.

If I have a Cornish who is leggy and isn't carrying a very wide back, it is a candidate for the freezer camp. If I look down at the top of its body and it doesn't have that distinctive heart-shaped body (very wide at the shoulder and tapering smoothly back to a point at the tail), I will put it in the freezer camp pen.

In my opinion, no matter what the breed, you first look for strong and healthy birds, then you look at the aspects of the breed that set it apart from other breeds and then fine tune them from there. And NEVER let the feathers fool you into thinking you have a good strong, healthy bird - pick it up and feel for that vigor and strength. That is one thing I like about the Cornish too, you can see what they are like without feeling under a pile of fluff, if they are thin, it is very evident. But I still like to pick them up because I just love the way they feel in my hands. They are just wonderful little beefcakes

Although, my juvies are nutjobs and go nuts every time I walk in the pen and I have a couple who think my hands are for snacking on when I got to feed them (that too will get them a one-way ticket to freezer camp - no nasties allowed).

 

[galanie]

Haha my one hatchery DK hen gets a belly scratching on the roost often. Just because I like to feel that solid chunk of a body. It's true though. You have to pick up and really feel those Orpingtons all over carefully to know what kind of body they're carrying under all that, but the cornish, what you see is what you get!

 

[Cedarknob]

How are you ever going to get a pair that looks just like that in color.... or perhaps you already have them?

I have never owned any WLRs other than those purchased from a hatchery and a few descendants bred off them and a nice DC. Never seen color patterning like that in the flesh, but back somewhere on this thread is a bantam that is pretty nice, and back even farther there are two large fowl with fair patterning also. That variety is probably very difficult get right, I'm just a novice breeder and biting off a big chew just trying to breed good Cornish of any color. However, I just love the breed; and I know from supper tonight that the culls make excellent eating. Not going to miss having to buy and raise Cornish Rocks for a big, blocky table bird, and real Cornish have much better flavor to me.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Here are 2 of the 3 WLR girls I have. The darker one has much more width and mass to her.



The second's tail looks like crap because it has been pecked off most of the summer. The 3rd one not pictured is the same way. I like the body on this second one and the head too.
That first one, I discovered upon closer examination is not single laced either, she has some double in there on some of the feathers. That is what I found with the hatchery WLRs I got from McMurray last year just as a check and see on what they were breeding.
As a refresher, here are some of the pictures of those hatchery birds:

 

[Cedarknob]

Here are 2 of the 3 WLR girls I have. The darker one has much more width and mass to her.


WLRs I got from McMurray last year just as a check and see on what they were breeding.
As a refresher, here are some of the pictures of those hatchery birds:

If a hatchery can get that color of some of those in the second picture, surely someone aiming for it can get it on their Cornish with better type. I bought your current pullet's grandmothers from Schelcht's as straight run, not caring about color at all but intending to cross them with CX to get one line for an eventual project, Never accomplished that cross. lol For some reason the grandmothers with that multi-laced color in the last picture were also the weakest bodied, but kept the pullets only and eventually bred them to a decent DC. I still had the two of the heaviest built and darker colored pullets that came off them until they went into my freezer recently. They were very steady layers of 4 small eggs, and just before I quit hatching this spring, went ahead and hatched eggs from them bred to both and my WC and one of my DCs. The chicks aren't bad, though lighter framed than I want. Nothing wlr, one cockerel is white with heavy red bleed, the others either clean white, black, or dark without the right pattern and impossible to tell apart from some of the same colored chicks that hatched without muffs [which are 3/4 Dark Cornish and 1/4 Black Ameraucana]. That's OK as none of the smooth faced chicks in that pen are going to be kept anyway.