Crossing my Red Ranger Hens.

[Compost King]

A new update. I just purchased Dark Cornish Eggs on eBay from someone who lives close enough to pick them up from. A new bird with good meat portions who could use a rapid growth boost from something like a Red Ranger. I also want to cross a Dark cornish with all sorts of other birds I have. My NJ Giants, my Ayam Cemani (giant black breasts!) and My dorkings. The Plumpness of Cornish with the long deep keel of a Dorking... that has to be a great cross.... If all works out then I will be hatching these out the first week in September. I am also getting Black Blue and Splash Amerucuna (sp?) eggs off of craigslist on the same day I pick up the Dark Cornish.

 

[Morrigan]

I love the idea of a Dark Cornish/Dorking cross. I hope the eggs hatch out well for you, and we can continue to follow your experimentation.

I had another late season broody hen, and ordered 6 slow white broilers from my feed store for her. I had a second hen go broody, literally the day before they arrived, who promptly stole 3 of my first broody's chicks. I now wish I had ordered more chicks! I'm planning on keeping one hen (assuming one is hen) from the brood, to joint the ranks of my nascent meat flock, which current consists of a NN cockerel and pullet, and a red ranger pullet. Next year, I hope to add some Dorkings to the mix.

Here is a picture of the broody who stole the chicks.

 

[Compost King]

I love the idea of a Dark Cornish/Dorking cross. I hope the eggs hatch out well for you, and we can continue to follow your experimentation.

I had another late season broody hen, and ordered 6 slow white broilers from my feed store for her. I had a second hen go broody, literally the day before they arrived, who promptly stole 3 of my first broody's chicks. I now wish I had ordered more chicks! I'm planning on keeping one hen (assuming one is hen) from the brood, to joint the ranks of my nascent meat flock, which current consists of a NN cockerel and pullet, and a red ranger pullet. Next year, I hope to add some Dorkings to the mix.

Here is a picture of the broody who stole the chicks.
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I love hearing about people making meat flocks. I love CX and all but I prefer a sustainable flock so I do not become dependent on someone else to provide perpetual meat. I will still be dependent on feed mills though because I can't produce enough chicken feed to keep meat birds fed but maybe one day I can find a way to sustain their appetites too. Going to need more than a small city lot... although in this city our lots are often bigger than most suburbs.

 

[jolenesdad]

Just getting into this thread! Yay, more reading.

@Compost King is there a point in the thread you discuss limiting feed. I remember in a hatch a long you mentioned one of your pens was for meat birds to limit feed. . . Trying to research that now that I held back 5 meat birds.

 

[Compost King]

So far only the Cornish X need limited feeding, I did limited feeding with my Red Rangers at first then someone posted on here that he just let them feed at will and they laid fine. I started giving them unlimited feed and they laid just fine. I haven't had another meat bird read Point of Lay yet to know if other of the free Ranging meat birds need rationed feeding. For now I am assuming its just CX with this issue. What did you hold back? was it Robust white?

 

[jolenesdad]

I held back three (maybe four) Robust whites and I also went ahead and held back the single royal red female I have. That one is like the freedom ranger color yield.

I’m a LITTLE concerned I messed up and held back a Cornish. :-/ looks like I’ll be learning to process my own a little sooner than I planned. Anyway, I’m almost certain that when loading my birds for the processor I spotted one of the girls I meant to hold back, but I’m also pretty sure I had five meaties still in my layer pen this morning.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think I may just lower the protein.

 

[Compost King]

I might have a little concern for the meat birds with large breast proportions, they may need feed restrictions. DuluthRalphie from the toad thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/ only offers his breeding CX's feed just before sunset so they are hungry all day and forage more. I got my CX to forage more by doing a buddy system where I pair them up as chicks with a breed or hybrid known to forage well. They develop a bond in small brooder then I put them in my composting pen where the buddy bird that likes to forage has the CX follow her around and pick up her habits. I have only done this once but it was a great success. The Buddy bird to the CX was a Naked Neck x Red Ranger... I had 2 of those to make a trio with one CX but one of the NN x RR's died in the brooder.

Check out the Toad Raising thread, toads are what Duluthralphie calls his meat bird which was a cross between a CX and a Dixie Rainbow (freedom ranger type hybrid). He is comical making it a great read.

 

[jolenesdad]

I might have a little concern for the meat birds with large breast proportions, they may need feed restrictions. DuluthRalphie from the toad thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/ only offers his breeding CX's feed just before sunset so they are hungry all day and forage more. I got my CX to forage more by doing a buddy system where I pair them up as chicks with a breed or hybrid known to forage well. They develop a bond in small brooder then I put them in my composting pen where the buddy bird that likes to forage has the CX follow her around and pick up her habits. I have only done this once but it was a great success. The Buddy bird to the CX was a Naked Neck x Red Ranger... I had 2 of those to make a trio with one CX but one of the NN x RR's died in the brooder.

Check out the Toad Raising thread, toads are what Duluthralphie calls his meat bird which was a cross between a CX and a Dixie Rainbow (freedom ranger type hybrid). He is comical making it a great read.

I’ve been reading the toad thread... and yeah I have the same concerns with the large breast birds. But to be honest, they’re nothing like Cornish.

I have at least 4 of my 15 Cornish this go around that can’t walk without tipping over on their breast so they scoot. Poor things. I really don’t like Cornish crosses anymore.

The royal red sort of has a Cornish cross-style way of walking, this slanted straight legged paddle of sorts. That’s her most Cornish-like trait. But she jumps, roosts, and ranges. She doesn’t range AS much as the Robust.

The Robust are honestly just large chickens. Large, meaty proportion chickens. They scratch and peck and move all around.

I think they have a chance at breeding. We shall see!

 

[Compost King]

I’ve been reading the toad thread... and yeah I have the same concerns with the large breast birds. But to be honest, they’re nothing like Cornish.

I have at least 4 of my 15 Cornish this go around that can’t walk without tipping over on their breast so they scoot. Poor things. I really don’t like Cornish crosses anymore.

The royal red sort of has a Cornish cross-style way of walking, this slanted straight legged paddle of sorts. That’s her most Cornish-like trait. But she jumps, roosts, and ranges. She doesn’t range AS much as the Robust.

The Robust are honestly just large chickens. Large, meaty proportion chickens. They scratch and peck and move all around.

I think they have a chance at breeding. We shall see!

Keep us posted on how breeding them goes, egg laying habits egg size etc..
I have 6 CX and the 3 males I am going to process very early. I just have to make sure I am right about which ones are male and which ones are female. Its looking like the females develop feathers faster and male develop combs faster but I am not certain yet. They aren't even 2 weeks old yet and I was told it will be obvious by week 4 because males will be significantly larger.

 

[jolenesdad]

Keep us posted on how breeding them goes, egg laying habits egg size etc..
I have 6 CX and the 3 males I am going to process very early. I just have to make sure I am right about which ones are male and which ones are female. Its looking like the females develop feathers faster and male develop combs faster but I am not certain yet. They aren't even 2 weeks old yet and I was told it will be obvious by week 4 because males will be significantly larger.

Yes those combs will give away for sure, seemingly overnight, if you think you’ve got three males, you’ve probably got st least three.

Also body shape. The males are a straight up triangle from a fairly young age, and the females are more of an oval. You can how the breast forms around the keel differently. I for sure could notice a difference in shape by the time they were about 3 lbs.

I had such a crazy week and I really wanted to highlight those differences in body shape in my thread but didn’t get quite the chance to. I actually think both of these are robust, but they fill our similarly, just supersize the Cornish. you can see the boxy front of the male versus the rounded female. It’s even noticeable from the side.

Male

Female

Here’s also a boy Cornish (triangle above with the blue dye mark) and female robust (ovals)... I didn’t get an overhead female Cornish shot.