Cornish X Rocks . . . I know, I know, it's all been covered before!

[mikarod]

Quote:
EXACTLY!!! lol!

the Light Brahma (male) X Black Australorp (females) (PRODUCTION BIRDS!!!) worked WONDERFULLY for winter layers! Only ones laying right now...awesome hybrid vigor. And when the females stop laying (going on 5 years now...) they dress out to around 7 lbs. They do seem to have an issue of getting pendulum crop though...

 

[bigredfeather]

I just looked on JM's web site. Colored Rangers do seem like a good choice. They are kind of expensive though.

 

[greyfields]

I raise broilers for sale through our farm market. When you factor in mortality, the CRBs are cheaper to produce.

The only reason you would not want to raise them would be if you were a commercial producer who has a truck show up every 42 days and take all your birds. The extra 2 weeks is huge for industrial farms; but irrelevant to us small producers.

 

[dancingbear]

I had a mixed breed hen who met an untimely end this summer. She was hit by a car. I heard it happen and went right out and scooped her up, already dead. I went ahead and dressed her out.

Her body conformation turned out to be very close to a standard meat breed, but not so much fat. She was about a year and 1/2 old, healthy, vigorous, one of my best layers. She was a cross from either an Australorp hen or Australorp cross hen, and Buff Brahma roo or Brahma/'lorp cross roo. I can't say exactly, I wasn't keeping any records at that point. If I'd had any idea how well she was built, I'd have isolated her now and then to hatch her eggs, trying for more.

Some of my current cross breed hens, especially my younger ones, are very nice, stocky birds. When I finally get some full blood Cornish, (it'll happen, I will find some!) in addition to breeding with the other full-blood breeds I'm getting, I'm also going to see what the best mutt hens can produce, mated with Cornish roos.

I'll probably always have some random mutts. I have a roo right now that's a Light Brahma/EE cross. What a beauty! He's got the Light Brahma coloring, and an EE beard.

Whatever I end up with, they'll provide healthy meat and eggs, and lots of education and entertainment. I spend a fair amount of time each day just watching my chickens and guineas. They can be such a hoot!

 

[becky3086]

I had two really big chicks hatch out of some mixed eggs this year. I don't know exactly what they are but I have never had such big chicks or had them grow so fast. Two of them are roos and I plan to cross them both with something(not sure yet) and see if I get some fast growing decent chicks from the mix. One roo is barred with feather legs (either marans or barred rock in that mix-the person I got the eggs from had both), the other is a brown colored chick.
Becky

 

[greyfields]

Let me add one more tidbit... the largest 'breed' of chicken I have around here are the Black Sex Links. The males grow much faster than any other breed and they tend to be the dominant roos because of that. When I say 'largest', I mean the fastest growing over the first 6 months of life. My Jersey Giants are now the largest roos, but it took them nearly 2 years to get to this point.