Cornish Thread

[fowlman01]

Walt,

The darks and the white are a little over a year old. I know what you mean about the White being shallow and I feel the same way. (I only picked her up because of her head shape and width. Honestly, I am not sure I want to raise Whites.)

My dark hens seemed to have gone that direction (shallower) too. I only have the two dark hens. The latter pictures, of the dark hen, are of the same hen. The other one, did not want to pose on the stump for me. Of course, she would be the better of the two, but not by much!

Walt - how much is genetic versus feed? I ask because I am not free feeding them as the breeder did. Plus, I have them on a strict and measured 75% grain, 25% pellet diet like the rest of my Orientals. I feed my Orientals, this time of year, 4oz of food per 5lbs of bird. My Ko get 1/4 cup each of mix a day. The Cornish get 1/3 cup each per day.

Thanks for the feedback

Some will probably disagree, but I feel it is all genetic as long as you have a diet that is reasonable. If it works on the Ko's it should work on the Cornish.

Walt

 

[Cedarknob]

Thought I would post pictures of my Cornish for critique. I probably have a few years before I start to show my Cornish. Regardless, I am of the THICK SKIN type so be happy to hear from the group, in particular the JUDGES. Walt, your critique would be greatly appreciate, on this thread or via PM, makes no differense to me.

I lost my original BDC cock to Histomanosis aka "Wasting". The one on the stump is a "loaner" and full brother of the one I lost. I passed on him originally and as fate would have it, he found his way onto my yard...lol. Honestly just thankful to have him at this point.


Enjoy or not....lol.

It is difficult to really judge chickens by most pictures, and I don't like to critique other's birds for them, but I agree with Walt that they are undercut; the pullet on the upper right looks like she was, even from the front, back when they were in good feather, as does the borrowed bird. The other two in the earlier pictures not in positions to really look at. Not sure about leg color and girth, though they do appear a bit light in both, and a better diet might have made a difference in the color. My DC lose shank color when they start laying, but I've never yet tried to supplement their feed to keep them looking good. Looking at the loss of feather luster on the dark female makes me wonder if they could have used a higher protein , or better quality protein, in their feed. I do believe the heavier muscling needed to be carried on down from the upper breast down is 99% genetic, but believe my LF seem to benefit from higher protein levels in growing that meat quicker while young. There are a couple of essential proteins, that should help them reach their full genetic potential on shank color as well as feather condition, that they may be lacking. I've been told by a bantam breeder that nothing works as well as a free range diet for getting deep yellow shanks though.

edited to add: I culled 26 birds to the freezer today, keeping only one of the blacks [a cockerel] and two of the white/with/bleed cockerels of my Cornish males bred off the white. One I kept is the 'ugly-as-sin' bird, hoping he will continue to V-up his lower chest, and culled three others with their keels already sunken in V's, but slightly lighter framed, and hope that was the right decision. I sold 20 of my Ameraucanas last week also; feed costs are going too high for me to go into the winter with as many birds as I had. I have another 50 or more still growing out, probably half of them Cornish, to go through a bit later, plus hatching small batches weekly going into the fall from the WC over the three DCs. I hope to be down to 25 young adults and some Cornish babies when winter hits.

 

[SD_Paulo]

Thanks Walts and CK for the feedback. I cant wait for the Ventura show to really get a first hand look at good Bantam Cornish. I, too, felt they were shallow up front compared to the sketches and better birds I had seen.

I didnt mean to sound like I was asking if I could "change my VW into a Porsche" by feeding more. I was more curious as to know if I could buff up the "VW paint job" or round out the edges on my Cornish if I free feed.

Regarding the feed, I dont "cut corners" on it. They hens are laying and molting so they are pretty tattered. This time of year, my birds are on a 25% Premium Gamecock Mix, 25% Ultra Scratch(Whole Corn, Wheat, Barley, Millet), 25% Pigeon Mix and Layer pellet. 75% Grains and 25% pellet. The protien average is 16-18% and I dont believe they need more than during the summer. I will cut back the Protien, bump up the whole corn(popcorn) for the Winter. Then in the Spring bring the protien levels up again to the 18% range.

I know most Cornish breeders free feed and mostly complete diet pellets and perhaps I will change to that down the road.

 

[Cedarknob]

Thanks Walts and CK for the feedback. I cant wait for the Ventura show to really get a first hand look at good Bantam Cornish. I, too, felt they were shallow up front compared to the sketches and better birds I had seen.

I didnt mean to sound like I was asking if I could "change my VW into a Porsche" by feeding more. I was more curious as to know if I could buff up the "VW paint job" or round out the edges on my Cornish if I free feed.

Regarding the feed, I dont "cut corners" on it. They hens are laying and molting so they are pretty tattered. This time of year, my birds are on a 25% Premium Gamecock Mix, 25% Ultra Scratch(Whole Corn, Wheat, Barley, Millet), 25% Pigeon Mix and Layer pellet. 75% Grains and 25% pellet. The protien average is 16-18% and I dont believe they need more than during the summer. I will cut back the Protien, bump up the whole corn(popcorn) for the Winter. Then in the Spring bring the protien levels up again to the 18% range.

I know most Cornish breeders free feed and mostly complete diet pellets and perhaps I will change to that down the road.

Sadly, I do feed with economy in mind, but grow everything on a free choice 22% meat bird grower that is formulated to promote yellow skin [which translates to yellow shanks] and even my Cornish breeders get a mix of half of this in their commercial feed being this grower. Depending on their appearance, the breeder's diet is also half 16% or 18% crumbles. They also get a free choice mix of oyster shell and ground lime stone, whatever graze is available in their movable pens, plus garden scraps. I know I will have to use better feed, or supplements, for conditioning those intended to show. I've noted that live coverage breeding absolutely ruins plumage on my Cornish while the softer feathered breeds can pretty much remain in show condition with a sufficient hen to cock ratio.

Big Medicine provided this link for viewing the Cornish bantams that were at the big Crossroads of America Show. I was there but never took the opportunity of walking down that row. There were some great bantams there IMO. I finally watched the entire video, and feel a little better about the leg color on my LF black [which I'm tempted to show as AOV someday, the cockerel I kept does have predominantly yellow shanks but with a lot of black pigment over the top].

BTW, if you look the bantams at the big Crossroads Show over, you will see that yours would have fit in pretty well. My limited experience is that the toughest variety, whether LF or Bntm, is the darks though.

 

[Minniechickmama]

As much as I love chickens, to watch a 10+ minute video of chickens in show cages is a bit much for me. But those are some nice looking birds that were on what I watched.

Just a little off the present topic though. You know what I just love about Cornish (and my Buckeyes as well)? Is that they make a honking sound that is distinquishable from other breeds.

 

[Cedarknob]

One of my LF dark cockerels at just over 5 months. [Did some re-figuring, he is actually still short of 5 months old.]

 

[Cedarknob]

His body is still VERY good. His head no longer looks as strong as when he was a chickling but that can change again.

I got distracted and never noticed your comment.

Thank you.
I actually never liked his body as a chick, other than the frame and its potential to be a good body if he filled meat in around that prominent looking keel, and knew he has the genetics from both parents to make that possible, though there was no guarantee he would fill in. The head looked stronger when he was all bone and no meat, and I figured those bulges over the eyes would probably flatten out and be wide there with nice brow ridges, and grateful that it went that way. I only kept him and one other 'calico' white cockerel that is very much like him. The other is just slightly lighter boned, has almost identical color [but the black feathers near the tail on the opposite side], and never had the depth of keel but developed heavy muscle sooner and V'ed up nicely there already.

I had some pure white cockerels from the bird you sold me out of the three white females that were quite meaty and probably going to be bigger than their sire; nice looking birds, but they were a bit narrow bodied and far too lightly framed. They and some of my cross-variety Cornish dressed out much nicer than some of the other birds; some near-by Amish will process chickens at $1.50 each in bunches of 20 or more. In three hours they had 26 birds cut up, bagged, and already partially chilled for a total of $39. I would have been still scalding and plucking chickens if I had done it myself.

 

[Cedarknob]

Thought you all might enjoy this look at the APA SOP for Cornish, circa 1905, along with drawings of the way they looked in that day.
http://books.google.com/books?id=1H...&q=standard of perfection for cornish&f=false

They were classified as Oriental Games, and were indeed different than today's Cornish.

 

[Cedarknob]

The APA SOP of 1915 included the WLRs in addittion to the Darks and Whites.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rA...&q=standard of perfection for cornish&f=false

p.s., their eyes were specified as 'yellow, approaching pearl'

 

[aviangems]

CK you are better than me.

The oldest standard I could find was from 1925.

THANKS FOR SHARING THIS.