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CNJ said:
Hello, I think you made a mistake. You should have kept 1 mixed breed rooster for the next pairing.
F2 mixed rooster paired with parent barred female group = F3a
F2 mixed hen paired with parent barred rooster = F3b

F3a mixed paired to F3b mixed = meat bird hybrid vigor = success or failure.
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Thank you for your input, I appreciate it. I really did want to keep one of the mixed roosters but they were very aggressive and violent, harming the females when attempting to breed. I may try doing it over again and see if the next batch aren't so mean but I'll have to get another Dark Cornish rooster. The mixed females I have lay small to medium eggs. Will the size of the eggs have a determining factor on the size of the birds that I hatch from them?
 
De Bauer said:
Welcome to BYC

Not sure how the moderators want it handled but I would think posting about the meat crosses would be of great interest and for future ref in the meat birds section.. Maybe link to it from a thread is egg laying.

That was great results off the cross..

Do you plan to try other cross breeding for broilers?

Maybe do another with two other well matched meat breeds.. Then breed the best of that and the ones you kept from the Cornish x Rock cross.
Should make a nice 4 way crosslink resulting rustic broiler.

I have a good idea on a pairing I had planned if you want give it a go.

Since you say the entire set of purebred barred rock you hatched did not lay and none had any internal egg development when butchered; my thought would be a genetic/ developmental issue.. Possibly something how the eggs were handled or something during incubation.. There is research that shows the kinds of defects that can happen to chicks in the embryonic stages if the shell temp vs incubator temp is a bit too high..It was focused on CX broilers. Its what I think happens when some people report a large number of leg and heart issues in a batch of CXs.. Research supports this.. It focused on when eggs are from differing strains or they are of different size to other eggs in the same incubator.. Since you had cross and pures mixed together in the incubator maybe the pures ran a bit hotter or cooler at the shell from differences in metabolize between the hybrids and pure embryos.

Maybe something similar happened but it created true sterility?
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Thanks, I wondered also if incubator temp. and humidity may have caused the disproportionate number of roosters to hens.
 
guntha45 said:
Thank you for your input, I appreciate it. I really did want to keep one of the mixed roosters but they were very aggressive and violent, harming the females when attempting to breed. I may try doing it over again and see if the next batch aren't so mean but I'll have to get another Dark Cornish rooster. The mixed females I have lay small to medium eggs. Will the size of the eggs have a determining factor on the size of the birds that I hatch from them?
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I just hatched a big Bresse egg and a smaller Bresse egg. The smaller egg chick hatched first and started walking around before the bigger egg chick hatched. A day latter, the bigger chick was still stumbling around while the smaller chick already got its first taste of water and food. About a week latter their feathers were growing and they look about the same size.
 
The males in my hatch seem to have matured before the females were willing. I could hear them screaming and resisting at around 4 months old. However, at 5 months right before the hens started laying, their instincts took over and they started squatting when ever I reached to pick them up.

I slaughtered all the roosters and kept the best specimen to breed. However, he died a few days latter of a heart attack. The hens were willing, but he died before he got the chance enjoy himself. Next time, I will keep a back up rooster.
 
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CNJ said:
The males in my hatch seem to have matured before the females were willing. I could hear them screaming and resisting at around 4 months old. However, at 5 months right before the hens started laying, their instincts took over and they started squatting when ever I reached to pick them up.
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The pure Barred Rock roosters were only aggressive with each other, not with the pullets even through they were trying to breed with them. I was able to identify 1 Barred Rock rooster that avoided the fighting and had a nice temperament. I kept him, he's the only rooster I have now. The woman of the house was appalled at the aggressiveness of the Dark Cornish rooster I had that "fathered" the mixed breed birds I got. Actually I was too. The final straw was when we watched him breed a hen, get off, then attack her, bloodying her. I went straight to the house, got my .410 and shot him! No more wounded hens from him!
 
My 4 month old heritage roosters were kind of tough fried, but they were okay for soup and stews. I tasted, Australorps, Jersey Giants, White Rhode islands and Buff Orpingtons.

I just hatched some American Bresse and have some Barbeziuex eggs on a three day lock down. They say the Bresse chicken is best for poaching and the Barbeziuex taste better when its roasted. I'll be working with these two breeds for a while.

I want to cross a Barbexiuex rooster with a Jersey Giant hen, but that is like six months away. My 5 month old Jersey Giant hen should be laying full size eggs by then.
 
guntha45 said:
Hi Folks,
I have read many posts here but have never registered or posted before.
I had a variety of heavy breed chickens for about 10 years, between 1990-2000. I'm on my 2nd year back at it in a different location, Bethel, Maine, where I grew up.
I started out with an experiment in mind, produce better meat birds without buying the "frankenbirds" sold for only meat production and to get a self sustaining supply of birds good for eggs or eating.
I got 24 female Barred Rocks locally from Paris Farmers Union and got 12 Barred Rock males, and 12 Dark Cornish males from McMurray's. I butchered all but 1 each of the males once they were mature. I free ranged 22 of the males but there are too many issues about that unrelated to this topic, let's just say that I didn't do it this year!
I separated the flock in half putting 1 each of the 2 remaining roosters with half the hens. This past spring I got a 48 egg incubator, only 8 eggs did not hatch, 3 chicks died hatching, and I lost 1 more 2 days later. I ended up with 36 birds, 10 were pure Barred Rock(4 female 6 male), 26 were Dark Cornish/Barred Rock mix(10 female 16 male).
I butchered all but 1 Rock rooster and the 10 mixed breed hens last month. I had wanted to save 1 mixed rooster but they were quite mean and aggressive. The mixed breed roosters had almost double the meat on them as the pure Rock roosters! So I think my experiment worked but something odd happened in crossing the breeds. ALL of the mixed roosters were barred like my Barred Rocks, although much darker, and had rose combs. ALL the females were totally black, with that greenish tint in the right light, even their legs are black, and until recently their combs were totally black! Can anyone explain to me why this happened? The mixed hens I kept are laying quite well but their eggs are only about medium grade in size even though they are large birds. Also, none of the 4 pure Barred Rock females layed. I butchered them and they didn't have any eggs in them. Can anyone tell me why this happened? The original birds I started with were from different sources but my mixed hens lay well...
I hope someone can give me some insight here. Thanks.
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