Cornish Thread

[varidgerunner]

True Cornish will only lay from about mid April until mid August, regardless of age. As has been said many times, they are a warm weather bird. I could count the number of eggs laid from Sept until March on one hand in all my years combined.

Well, that's fascinating. I raise pure asils and they lay better than that. Mine usually have brood by april, one hatched on March 3 last year. Many times they are laying their third clutch in mid august. Get a handful of eggs through the winter, got one on Christmas day last year. So if Cornish don't lay from August until April, that is because they have been selected that way, not because of their ancestry, purity, or "trueness".

 

[CLSranch]

True Cornish will only lay from about mid April until mid August, regardless of age. As has been said many times, they are a warm weather bird. I could count the number of eggs laid from Sept until March on one hand in all my years combined.

So the Cornish I have that will be 20 weeks old in mid Dec I can plan on not laying until April. Darn

 

[Fat Daddy]

So the Cornish I have that will be 20 weeks old in mid Dec I can plan on not laying until April. Darn

While Im sure thats been Kfacres personal experience. One cant take such a blanket statement as fact...... Its simply not so. There are many breeders of show quality bantam cornish that prefer to breed in the colder months. The reasoning is the colder weather keeps the birds smaller and therefor "better" for show.... If you provide well above freezing quarters. enough hrs of light. Your birds will produce. The fertility or numbers of eggs wont be like natural spring, but they will produce.... I take a pic with my cell phone as I set eggs. mostly to remember when hatch day is. You can see in this screen shot these were set feb 12th and about 50% hatched.... They may not be show quality, but they are **** sure pure!

 

[varidgerunner]

My asils don't even need "well above freezing quarters". I had one that was on eggs last year through a cold snap. In an outdoor coop with no supplemental heat, outside temperatures dipped to -10 f. She still hatched out eggs. Keep the drafts out and watch them go. Not trying to detract from the Cornish at all. Just trying to point this out to anyone who would try to use poor laying as a hallmark for breeding by linking it to the Cornish's "Indian Game" heritage.

 

[CLSranch]

Thanks Fat Daddy and ridge runner. That's what I thought. Especially the selection process. Just like any crossing or pure breeding you can keep what you like such as laying in the winter and EAT the ones who don't. Another benefit to Cornish. Big enough to eat the fails or extras even if your not raising them just for meat.

 

[theoldguy]

Hi, If you heat and bring light in the coops in winter, any breed of chicken is going to increase egg production and roosters will breed more often ,for sure. Cornish don't do as well as other breeds with cold weather( being a tight feather breed). I get the occasional egg Dec to Feb here. Mine start hatching in early May(may 5th this year). As for the cold weather making them shorter,Adam Hady who is a well known breeder of show Cornish( hes from the mid west) came out to a California show and said the west Coast had shorter birds then the mid west birds that were at the stow.Bottom Line is tight feathered birds don't tolerate cold weather as well as soft feathered birds just a fact of insulation.I have raised Bantam Cornish for 35 yrs (off and on) and they still surprise me. Cornish were never bred to be an egg layer. Thanks guys,have a great day.

 

[kfacres]

Hi, If you heat and bring light in the coops in winter, any breed of chicken is going to increase egg production and roosters will breed more often ,for sure. Cornish don't do as well as other breeds with cold weather( being a tight feather breed). I get the occasional egg Dec to Feb here. Mine start hatching in early May(may 5th this year). As for the cold weather making them shorter,Adam Hady who is a well known breeder of show Cornish( hes from the mid west) came out to a California show and said the west Coast had shorter birds then the mid west birds that were at the stow.Bottom Line is tight feathered birds don't tolerate cold weather as well as soft feathered birds just a fact of insulation.I have raised Bantam Cornish for 35 yrs (off and on) and they still surprise me. Cornish were never bred to be an egg layer. Thanks guys,have a great day.

It's usually about April 20 to Aug 15 for laying around here for me.

 

[varidgerunner]

I don't think it's the feathers. My Ga Nois lay February 'til October and they make Cornish look like Cochins.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Pick young Cockerels with wide combs(there have been study's showing higher fertility with wider combs in the Cornish)

TOG that's very interesting but I can't quite picture how to do that. By wide, do you mean at the very base? Or the entire comb width should be wide from the beak to the back of the head?
The dark cornish I have are actually supposed to be from a line of good layers. I'll see how things go with that when they are old enough, probably next spring. For sure, I was impressed with the size and superb eggshell quality of the hatching eggs my chicks hatched from.
One of my cornish roosters was shivering this morning- -5oC not really that cold! I've never seen a chicken shiver before. I hope he toughens up for winter, it's going to get a lot colder than that!

 

[theoldguy]

Yes combs wide at the base.