Crossing Cornish with others....

[estpr13]

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Well rats... I have already made plans to help my brother move that week. The last time I was in that building was in the early 70's. Thanks for the info. I appreciate the chance to go.

 

[estpr13]

Well, I weighed my Del (roo) x Cornish (hen) meaties and found that after 13 weeks my roos weighed from 5 lb 1 oz to 4 lb 6 oz. The hens only weigh aroung 2 lb 8 oz.

The smallest roo has more dark feathers and the beginnings of a squashed comb and long tail feathers. The othe three roos look cornish with Delaware feathering. Almost no combs.

I'm thinking that perhaps I should seperate the roos from the hens to see if the hens might be able to get more to eat. Only the smallest roo attempts to crow at this time. All the rest are calm and gentle.

 

[newmaineguide]

Well, its been more than a year since I posted last on this line. In the last year I have learned a lot about what I want in a homestead. I can say this, I do not want birds that grow so fast that their legs twist and prevent them from walking or breeding. Furthermore I do not want chickens that I have to feed non stop. I not only want to raise my own food, but I do not want to pay more to raise it than I could to buy it butchered. Furthermore, I want a bird that can free range and eat grass/insects to supplement a large percentage of their diet. The Gray Meat Bird breed is one that I have looked into. Here in Maine I have from the middle of may to the middle of September to raise birds. At that point I must butcher back to my breeding stock.

 

[RuffTuffCreampuff]

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Have you looked into JM Hatchery, they have the Freedom Rangers?

Pam

 

[estpr13]

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I have some true Cornish and they are very flighty/active. Even tho they can free range quite well, I don't trust them to free range because who knows where they would get off to. They can fly better than most chickens, and I live in the city.

I have heard good things about the freedom rangers. There is a site where someone was keeping a thread diary on theirs. I'll look for it.

Edited to say "found it."

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=122611

Found another site:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=121933

 

[Agape Builder]

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I would suggest a Dark Cornish rooster crossing with Plymouth Barred Rock hens. That is the basic cross that forms the basis for the modern Cornish X-Rock broilers, except they use White Cornish roosters and Plymouth White Rock hens. The Dark Cornish roosters represent a breed that is one of the best breeds out there for rustling up their own food in free range. The Plymouth Barred Rock is similar, but also makes a great brown egg producing hen. The Barred Rock was also the standard for the American broiler industry up until the 1920's or 30's. The cross will be darker than the commercial broilers, thus keeping it relatively safe from predators compared to white birds.

Basically, you will produce a HEALTHY version of the commercial broilers that will grow a little slower, but will also excercise more in free range and rustle up a good bit of their own grub. Sure, you will have to wait a little longer to butcher these broilers, but you will end up with the great muscling of the Barred Rocks with the spectacular double breasted qualities of the Dark Cornish roosters.

Edit:

The Dark Cornish was mentioned above as being difficult to keep control of. Well, if you are keeping a small flock, you will only need one rooster for every dozen Barred Rock hens or so. And, the added benefit of having the cross breed flock is that the Cornish rooster will always stay close to his Barred Rock hens, always keeping him close to home versus having all Dark Cornish birds that might range more. Also, knowing where his food is will keep him coming back as well. Being able to fly easily will only protect him from predators.

 

[TimG]

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Did you get some?

 

[newmaineguide]

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I only have one gripe against the rocks. In my experience rocks are not very broody. I am not interested in running an incubator. We had an incubator when I was a kid. One year it was not working so we simply used bantams as our incubators. Survival rate was higher and there was not any need for heat lamps and chick feeders. No having chicks in card board boxes or checking an incubator ever few hours for new chicks.

Faverolles seem to mature at about the same rate as rocks, and are about the same size. I have read that they are a broody chicken that makes a good mother. I find that very inviting. I am hoping that a cornish faverolles cross will produce what am looking for. I have also considered the orpington to cross with cornish. Thank you for your input though. Any advice anyone has to give I am eager to read.

 

[newmaineguide]

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I have read about the freedom rangers and the gray meat birds too. They look exactly like what I am looking for as a product, but I wonder if they breed true? I am looking to be self sustaining. If Gray meat birds or the free rangers or the red/gray/u pick a color broilers breed true and make good mothers that are broody I will be more than willing to keep them. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that like most other meat birds, they are F1 hybrids. I doubt they make good mothers or are broody. I may be wrong. Keeping cornish and another breed that is broody gives me walking mothering incubators that eventually become spent hens. It also gives me the ability to make F1 - F3 hybrids all the time.

I am interested in your cornish stock though. How large are your roosters? Would you be willing to sell fertile eggs for hatching?

 

[Agape Builder]

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I only have one gripe against the rocks. In my experience rocks are not very broody. I am not interested in running an incubator. We had an incubator when I was a kid. One year it was not working so we simply used bantams as our incubators. Survival rate was higher and there was not any need for heat lamps and chick feeders. No having chicks in card board boxes or checking an incubator ever few hours for new chicks.

Faverolles seem to mature at about the same rate as rocks, and are about the same size. I have read that they are a broody chicken that makes a good mother. I find that very inviting. I am hoping that a cornish faverolles cross will produce what am looking for. I have also considered the orpington to cross with cornish. Thank you for your input though. Any advice anyone has to give I am eager to read.

Favorelles were once bred (long ago) for utility purposes, but the current lines are mostly used for exhibition. They are "pretty", but not very large and not likely to make a spectacular cross for a good broiler. If you do not like the White or Barred Rock hens (which have long PROVEN themselves half of the reliable foundation of the broiler industry, over and above every other breed of chicken out there other than the other half of the hybrid equation, the Cornish roosters), then consider the slightly smaller Plymouth Partridge Rock hens that are considered by experts and hatcheries as one of the BEST setters and broody hens out there. They are slightly smaller, but they will be able to incubate the eggs and protect the chicks for you, so that you can keep the baby broilers in with adult chickens without fear.

Another suggestion that I would consider superior to using the Partridge Rocks (which hens slightly resemble Speckled Sussex in coloration) as the basis for your hybrids, I would suggest using the Barred Rocks (or even White Rocks) as I originally suggested, and then use either a couple or few Partridge Rock, Buff Orphington, or Cochin hens to brood the eggs for you. All three of those varieties make excellent mothers and they will sit on the eggs and raise the chicks from any hen, not just their own. That way, if the Barred ROcks do not want to sit on their own eggs, then you could put 10 of the hybrid cross eggs under each of the momma hens that you keep just for the purpose. Even old spent hens of those varieties will work good as mothers for you. The standard Orphingtons and Cochins are so big, you might even be able to get 12 eggs under each of them.

So, depending on the size of the flock that you want to raise, perhaps you could use one Dark Cornish rooster for every 10-12 White or Barred Rock hens to produce the good broiler hybrid cross eggs (hopefully one egg per hen per day), then use Partridge Rock, Buff Orphington, or Cochin hens to sit on the eggs and raise the offspring.

Remember, if you want to use the production hens (the Rock hens) to brood their own eggs, then they will stop laying while brooding the eggs. Then, you will lose production rates considerably. Also, they will be spotty at best in laying while raising the young. Therefore, it is to your advantage to keep the Barred Rock hens OFF of their own eggs so that you can keep them IN production. Use other larger hens as the brooders so that your Rocks can keep laying eggs. That is the best way to increase production and give you a larger flock of broilers for you to pick from so that you can watch the hens to see what hens produce the best broilers. (You can mark the eggs according to the mother hen before putting them under a broody hen. Or, since you can wait ten days after laying before putting the eggs under a broody, then put all of one hens eggs under the same broody hen so each batch will come from the same mother hen and you can track it easier.) That way, you can cull the hens to get the best genetic matches to produce the best broilers.

So, 1 or 2 Cornish roosters to 12 Barred or White Rock hens, with 10 to 30 Buff Orphington or Cochin hens to brood the hybrid eggs. If possible, keep the broody hens separate from the production hens and rooster. Harvest the production hybrid eggs daily, marking them according to the Rock hen that they came from (if possible), then place 10-12 eggs (preferably from the same production Rock hen) under each large broody hen.

That way, you have the best of both worlds. You have your good homestead broiler cross, pluss you have your broody hen flock to raise the babies. Your broody hens will have their hands full raising a bajillion hybrid broiler chicks and will not worry too much about laying their own eggs. That is part of the reason why spent Buff Orphingtons or Cochins would be great for the job, especially if you could find some cheap.

You won't have to have an incubator or to pay for your broiler chicks. In fact, you might be able to sell the excess and make some money off of it. If you keep all of the eggs and brood them all, then you will definitely need to build a tub plucker and then you will have a second part time job harvesting broilers on the weekends. Sell them whole at $4, and make some bank. As soon as I get a little more room, this is what I want to do.