Cornish X or not?

[Mama-bear]

We’ve been raising Cornish cross for a couple years now but have yet to see one with brown feathers. She’s all over a creamy brown with darker brown coming in on her chest. Is she still a Cornish cross? Or did tractor supply mix her up with another breed? She’s 7 weeks old now. Thanks for your input!

 

[sourland]

She appears to be a meat bird, but does not look like a Cornish X. TSC is a great source for misidentified birds.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

We’ve been raising Cornish cross for a couple years now but have yet to see one with brown feathers. She’s all over a creamy brown with darker brown coming in on her chest. Is she still a Cornish cross? Or did tractor supply mix her up with another breed? She’s 7 weeks old now. Thanks for your input!

If she still has the same growth rate.. my answer would be most likely yes... One thing about crosses... no guarantees in how the offspring will come out. Genetics is such a wide and varied complicated thing, so MANY things can happen... and ONE of the most common I have seen is color leakage. Plus at 7 weeks with that much red in the waddles I would have a hard time convincing myself it was a female. TSC is notorious for mixing their breeds up! If growth rate is not on par with your norm... MAYBE. I'm not recognizing anything screaming another pure breed I am familiar with, but also here to learn.

It's always cool to see something new, Thank you for sharing.

Hope you are enjoying BYC, welcome!

 

[HuffleClaw]

Agreed with @EggSighted4Life

 

[Mama-bear]

Thanks you EggSighted4Life, I appreciate your input. I call her a hen based on the blaring Roos she was with (ill add a pic). I’m thinking to just process her with all the others but she’s just not very meaty.

 

[Mama-bear]

Here it is with some big ol Roos

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here it is with some big ol Roos

Wow, that is a stark contrast... and TODAY those silly waddles don't look as red as they did to me yesterday... even though the pic hasn't changed!

We process when it's convenient for us, even if the birds aren't as meaty as we might like. Or we might grow it out a bit more... but I don't grow meaties and only do a few at a time by myself. If I did large batches, I would probably include all who needed processing even though there are variations in size. Whatever works best for you is good idea.

But I don't think she will end up being another standard breed that I would consider letting stay with long term intent.

Your birds look good compared to many broilers I have seen. Nicely feathered and healthy looking.

 

[Mama-bear]

Thank you, we processed 24 birds yesterday and I’m going to see what she does over the next week or so. I still think she’s a meat cross based on how she walks, or stomps is more accurate but I sent the hatchery that sold them to TSC a picture of her and they said she looks like an ISA brown cross to them and that she would be a good layer. I’m not too convinced of that yet. But I’m the mean time she easily went in with my layers last night and seems happy today. So ‍ We’ll see?! But I have a feeling in a few more weeks she’ll need to be slaughtered before her legs give out. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[AlleysChicks]

Years ago when I showed CornishX at the local fair we (the extension office) received chicks that ended up being different. Of course we didn’t realize this until weeks later when they were much smaller and not completely white. Some had brown feathers like yours and some had almost a pink cast to the feathers. At 8 weeks they were the size of a bantam vs the huge birds that were expected for fair. Everyone had small birds that year. We never did find out what exactly happened.