Cornish Thread

[CanadianBuckeye]

@CanadianBuckeye I'd always heard about fertility issues with Cornish from standardbred/exhibition stock. I forget if you said yours were hatchery or not. I've always had 100% fertility with my hatchery birds, I actually have 5 of them (MMH Dark) in my temporary bachelor pen right now because they were tearing up my laying hens something awful. I had a decent standard bred Dark cock a while back but never got to check his fertility - he injured his leg the first day I brought him home and never recovered so he ended up dinner. But with these Bantams the fertility seems terrible. Of the additional 5 eggs I put in on the 14th only one looks viable, thank god I'm doing staggered hatches so the poor little fella won't be all by himself if he does hatch. I put in another 4 yesterday so hopefully they will do better but I'm not counting on it.

Anyways I got some new photos of the little buggers. Infertile or not I enjoy watching them, they are such neat little birds.








Cock is Chicken Soup and hen is Icbincs (I Can't Believe It's Not Chicken Soup). No one can ever claim I am not creative with my bird's names.

I think my hens are selected hatchery stock. My rooster was definitely fertile while he lasted which wasn't long! I have some hatchery chicks coming at the end of this month, so I have 2 halfway decent hens form the first breeder, that I'll be crossing with the new rooster once I select the best one.
I was watching the Chicken of Tomorrow video, a link kindly supplied by another BYC member- they had dark cornish in the contest and they mentioned that fertility was in the low 70%'s. Unfortunately there were no pictures of the Cornish, so I don't know how close they would have been to the standard.
I have some Buckeye/Cornish cross eggs in the incubator right now, just for fun.
That's unfortunate about your bantams, are they really going in the soup pot? maybe fertility will improve as the days get even longer? They are cute little guys (in that cute Cornish way!)

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Photo of a 1926 dark Cornish- Author of this book is Morley Jull- the book title is in the picture. From Archive.org.

 

[raisingdaisies]

I got a DC from a local lady to put over my BR and BO hens to make meatier babies(I don't really care if it takes a while for them to get there). Here "he" is. Only I'm not so sure he is a he now. Can't find much about them other than this thread. He's between 2 and 3 months old. What say you?





The breeder did tell me I can exchange if we find out he is a she. I'd rather not have to change because I love his personality.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I got a DC from a local lady to put over my BR and BO hens to make meatier babies(I don't really care if it takes a while for them to get there). Here "he" is. Only I'm not so sure he is a he now. Can't find much about them other than this thread. He's between 2 and 3 months old. What say you?





The breeder did tell me I can exchange if we find out he is a she. I'd rather not have to change because I love his personality.

I think he's a she. But you don't have to exchange , just add another! I just love my Cornish too. I liked my rooster as well, sadly he dropped dead, but I have 5 day old cockerels arriving at the end of this month to replace him, as well as 10 pullets.

 

[raisingdaisies]

I think he's a she. But you don't have to exchange , just add another! I just love my Cornish too. I liked my rooster as well, sadly he dropped dead, but I have 5 day old cockerels arriving at the end of this month to replace him, as well as 10 pullets.

I really do like her. Where are you getting yours from? When I was there, I saw her other 2 Cornish, and they looked more like girls than this one(smaller combs and bodies and more lacing), so I'm thinking getting another would yield the same results, lol.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I really do like her. Where are you getting yours from? When I was there, I saw her other 2 Cornish, and they looked more like girls than this one(smaller combs and bodies and more lacing), so I'm thinking getting another would yield the same results, lol.

I'm getting day old chicks are from a Canadian hatchery called Performance Poultry. People have commented on the good temperaments of this hatchery's Cornish, that's why I'm getting them from there. I really want another rooster, too. I really liked the one I had. He wasn't a great example of his breed, but he was sweet.

 

[lpatelski]

I got a DC from a local lady to put over my BR and BO hens to make meatier babies(I don't really care if it takes a while for them to get there). Here "he" is. Only I'm not so sure he is a he now. Can't find much about them other than this thread. He's between 2 and 3 months old. What say you?





The breeder did tell me I can exchange if we find out he is a she. I'd rather not have to change because I love his personality.

I believe yours is a male, not very dominate at this point. In females, the center of the peacomb is raised. In males, the center and the sides of the comb are raised.
Male @ 10 weeks

Male @ 6 weeks. Female in the back ground. These went to Iowa as a 4-H project.

Both are males @ 6 weeks. Note they still have baby feather faces.
Male in the foreground, female in background.

 

[QueenMisha]

I think my hens are selected hatchery stock. My rooster was definitely fertile while he lasted which wasn't long! I have some hatchery chicks coming at the end of this month, so I have 2 halfway decent hens form the first breeder, that I'll be crossing with the new rooster once I select the best one. 
I was watching the Chicken of Tomorrow video, a link kindly supplied by another BYC member- they had dark cornish in the contest and they mentioned that fertility was in the low 70%'s. Unfortunately there were no pictures of the Cornish, so I don't know how close they would have been to the standard.
I have some Buckeye/Cornish cross eggs in the incubator right now, just for fun.
That's unfortunate about your bantams, are they really going in the soup pot? maybe fertility will improve as the days get even longer? They are cute little guys (in that cute Cornish way!)

I somehow missed responding to this originally. Whoops. Anyhow -

The boy is named Chicken Soup because he sleeps in a big stock pot at night. The bantams are housed in my bedroom since they don't seem to handle any sort of cold well at all (they did originally come from SoCal so maybe that's why) but he goes in a soup pot in the downstairs bathroom at night so I can't hear him. The hen was named after he was, because she looks so similar to him aside from being smaller. I have no intention of sending either bird to the soup pot any time soon.

Fertility is improving but has been awful. First batch of eggs was 0/2, next was 2/5, next 1/5, next 2/4, and most recently 3/5. So it does seem to be improving a little. And it's definitely an issue with fertility, as my Silkie and Booted Bantam eggs, among others, are growing superbly.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I somehow missed responding to this originally. Whoops. Anyhow -

The boy is named Chicken Soup because he sleeps in a big stock pot at night. The bantams are housed in my bedroom since they don't seem to handle any sort of cold well at all (they did originally come from SoCal so maybe that's why) but he goes in a soup pot in the downstairs bathroom at night so I can't hear him. The hen was named after he was, because she looks so similar to him aside from being smaller. I have no intention of sending either bird to the soup pot any time soon.

Fertility is improving but has been awful. First batch of eggs was 0/2, next was 2/5, next 1/5, next 2/4, and most recently 3/5. So it does seem to be improving a little. And it's definitely an issue with fertility, as my Silkie and Booted Bantam eggs, among others, are growing superbly.

That's a good improvement! Good luck with your hatches.
I'd just love to see a picture of your little rooster in his stock pot

 

[raisingdaisies]

I believe yours is a male, not very dominate at this point. In females, the center of the peacomb is raised. In males, the center and the sides of the comb are raised. Male @ 10 weeks Male @ 6 weeks. Female in the back ground. These went to Iowa as a 4-H project. Both are males @ 6 weeks. Note they still have baby feather faces. Male in the foreground, female in background.

Very interesting! He definitely has more comb than that female and yours has about equal lacing as he. I really hope so, though I may order more anyway, he is one of my favorites. Are we allowed to have favorites of our chickens?