Crossing Cornish X with RIR?

[DutchEggs]

Last year I ordered 25 jumbo Cornish cross and the parcel was delayed while in transit (due to covid shutdowns I suppose) to my home so most of the chicks died within 24hrs of arrival.It Didn’t seem worth it to me to fuss with meat birds for the few that lived so I just raised them with my batch of new layers and let them free range.The only roo I have is one of these birds and I saw him doing his roo thing with some of the hens, so I checked eggs for fertility. Fertile! A week later I set a few of these eggs in the bator and this weekend hatched Cornish Cross/light Brahma chicks! I can let you know how they grow!

 

[Xouie]

View attachment 2674274Last year I ordered 25 jumbo Cornish cross and the parcel was delayed while in transit (due to covid shutdowns I suppose) to my home so most of the chicks died within 24hrs of arrival.It Didn’t seem worth it to me to fuss with meat birds for the few that lived so I just raised them with my batch of new layers and let them free range.The only roo I have is one of these birds and I saw him doing his roo thing with some of the hens, so I checked eggs for fertility. Fertile! A week later I set a few of these eggs in the bator and this weekend hatched Cornish Cross/light Brahma chicks! I can let you know how they grow!

Can’t wait to see!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

and I just culled S. White, who was apparently Sam White, not Snow White. 6.06# at 20 weeks. Another sibling (earlier hatching) was 5.6# at 14 weeks.

My crosses over the Cornish are 50/50 on size, either same as all the other birds, or about 20% larger, but none have put on weight like a true CornishX - and of course I didn't have a RIR as the sire, its been one of two mutts - this is the one I'm using now - 5.85# at 18 weeks. He's a little more red than he appears in this picture, and the blacks have the green sheen - my cell phone has trouble with it, particularly as my soils have orange/red clays mixed with the Florida sands.

 

[nicalandia]

There was a research on this to see how would a RIR/Broiler cross perform when compared to slow growing colored broilers, the Cornishx weighted about 3000 grams at 8 weeks of age, RIR about 600 grams, the F1 cross were 1900 grams, the Red broilers about 2100 at same age, the RIR/Cx x Cx(3/4 CornishX) were about 2400 grams and the RIR/Cx x RIR were about 1400 grams(let me try to find the research)

I would say that in FCR when you cross CX to dual purpose breed you get the average of the parent as far as FCR and ADG(Feed Convertion Ratio and Average Daily Gains) most dual purpose breeds average about 700 to 900 grams of weight at 8 weeks of age when treated and fed like Broilers.

When thinking about doing a breeding project of DP breed with CornishX I suggest that you take into accout the egg laying performance of the DP breed you are using(more eggs mean more growing broilers) also the shape of the Carcass will vary, for example the best looking carcass I have seen was from a Dark Cornish/CornishX cross, it had very nice broad breast. The most productive of the cross are between Red Sexlinked hens with CornishX rooster, but perhaps not the best looking carcass due to a narrower looking breasts

Found the research: https://www.european-poultry-scienc...ss-traits,QUlEPTQyODIyNjQmTUlEPTE2MTAxNA.html

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

View attachment 2674274Last year I ordered 25 jumbo Cornish cross and the parcel was delayed while in transit (due to covid shutdowns I suppose) to my home so most of the chicks died within 24hrs of arrival.It Didn’t seem worth it to me to fuss with meat birds for the few that lived so I just raised them with my batch of new layers and let them free range.The only roo I have is one of these birds and I saw him doing his roo thing with some of the hens, so I checked eggs for fertility. Fertile! A week later I set a few of these eggs in the bator and this weekend hatched Cornish Cross/light Brahma chicks! I can let you know how they grow!

I'd also be interested in seeing how those chicks turned out.

 

[ladybrasa]

There is a good thread on here about someone who “experimentally” raised Cornish X to keep them alive. It’s do-able but takes work. Even so, I have not encountered CX stories living more than a few years.

 

[ladybrasa]

SO SORRY - I seemed to have somehow gotten on the wrong thread. PLEASE DISREGARD

 

[ILChickenTV]

Too bad you don't live closer. I always get patterned red pullets in my meat mutt batches that I'd be happy to give you to get started with. I prefer the black and blue birds, so the red ones usually go in the freezer. I get splash, mottled, laced, barred and partridge looking birds, which is interesting because my original breeding birds were all solid colored. I've been getting a lot of white here lately as well, which I didn't get at all for the first couple of years, because my cornishX was recessive white. You can see a partridge looking pullet in this pic.
View attachment 2497082

Wow, those look great! How did/do they lay?