Dark Cornish comming... Have feed question...

[adoptedbyachicken]

You might want to consider not saving your most heavy roos from the Cornish for breeding. You need the more athletic looking boys to get the job done so to speak.

I know a few have tried this and they either ended up with hurt hens from the heavy cornish roo or infertility problems. But both of them started with show line breeding so they may have asked for that trouble. If you got a hold of some good old fashioned Cornish birds you should do well I would think.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[chickenmama22]

Thanks for the clarification, Robert/beebiz! I have some 4 week old Cornish X Rock Roosters that I am fattening and was curious what that 6 pound thing was. I, too, am hoping to save a roo or 2 and see if they make it to maturity. I don't have plans for his/her mate, yet, but I like following this conversation. As an aside, it might be cool to find others who want to develop their own crosses to do some egg-trading. That's probably a long way away for most of us, but the idea is nice.

I weighed all 27 birds last night and came up with a pretty wide spread of weights -- a much wider range than the week before. The roos weigh between 2 pounds and 3 pounds 1 oz with 18 of them in the 2 lb 4 oz to 2 lb 14 oz range. Welp's says they should weigh 3 lbs by 4 weeks, so I'm a little off. (At 3 weeks, they were on target.) I am thinking of saving the lighter birds for as long as possible. I think that is what adoptedbyachicken was suggesting for the dark cornish. (I do have to confirm that the lighter birds aren't a couple of extra hens, though.)

Best wishes!
Nancy

 

[greyfields]

Don't confuse a "Cornish X" with a Dark Cornish. You can't breed hybrids and get predictable results.

 

[chickenmama22]

Hi greyfields,

Yes, I know it won't be "consistent" results, but if I can get some of those genes out of the Cornish X, that might be good enough for my own use. I value your wisdom in the replies. Do you think that it's bad for me to try for inconsistent results even if it's just for home use? I guess I'm thinking I'd select the best from the resulting offspring and breed back to Dark Cornish (or similar) if possible.

Thanks!
Nancy

 

[beebiz]

Quote:
As greyfields said, "Don't confuse a Cornish X with a Dark Cornish!" In an attempt to help everyone separate them, you can find the "Cornish X" or "Cornish Rock" as they are called, and a description of them here. These are not the birds I have ordered. What I have ordered are the "Dark Cornish." You can find the "Dark Cornish" and a description of them here.

chickenmoma22, if you cross your "Cornish X" or "Cornish Rocks" with anything else, there is no way of telling what you might come out with.... just as greyfields pointed out. But, it is reasonably safe to say that you will probably not get the results that you are wanting. If you want to try to come up with your own "Cornish Cross".... not like the ones from the hatcheries, but a presumably healthier and somewhat slower growing "Cornish Cross," do as I have done. Order you some of the Dark Cornish like these. Then, cross them with a pure breed such as Buffs, Barred Rocks, and so on.

As far as the egg swaping idea is concerned, I would love to participate when I have enough to do so. A word of caution though. Make darn sure that the person you are getting the eggs from has used the Dark Cornish roos, and not those sickly, dead before they are a year old, "Cornish X's" or "Cornish Rocks." To try to insure that we get what we are looking for, we might want to ask for or post pics of the parents of the crosses that we make!

Robert

 

[greyfields]

If you want to go that route, I would not use the X as a sire. Try keeping a couple hens and then breeding back to a Rock, RIR, or anything which isn't overly big.

It would be fun to experiment. The problem is that if you come up with some really nice birds; you could breed the same parents again and have nothing but poor results. It's a crap shoot and could be frustrating. And finally realize the "strain" of chicken you use will have more impact than the breed itself.

I kept one freedomg ranger (which is probably a double cross of Barred Rock and Light Sussex with a White Cornish as a terminal sire). I planned to try putting a Dark Cornish, RIR or Barred Rock back on her to see what on earth I got... not for production, but for simple curiousity. Of course, she could drop dead by point of lay.

 

[chickenmama22]

Thanks for all the comments. Good point about the X being a bit large. My friend has a MM X hen that is just starting to lay. She's a big, beautiful bird and still very much alive (though too large to go up in the laying boxes).

Would the White Laced Red Cornish breed be the same size as the Dark Cornish? I have access to some of them. I like experimenting in general, so it could be fun to see what I get with the Cornish Xs. I will have to look carefully to see if I have any hens in the bunch; I ordered all roosters, but received 27 instead of 25. So far, all are alive and well and looking yummy!

 

[beebiz]

Good morning chicknemamma22! I can't answer the question about the size of the White Laced Red Cornish. But, it was definately one of the Cornish that greyfields recommended that I use. I decided to use the Dark Cornish because it is more readily available to me at this time. And, the ones that I could find on the internet were a bit more pricey than the Dark Cornish. If I had local access to some of the White Laced Red Cornish, I'd certainly try some of them. From the pictures that I've seen, they are prettier than the Dark Cornish.

It's a bit unusual for a MM X to beat the axe, beat the health problems, and make it to laying age!!

I bet she's enormous!!

I'd like to see some pics of her.

If I were one who didn't mind throwing caution to the wind, didn't mind what I might come out with, and liked to experiment, I'd give it a whirl!! But, with my limited resources I need to make sure I get good egg production (my Buffs) and good meat birds that I can count on for minimal loss (Crossing the Dark Cornish with the Buffs). And who knows, you might just come up with the next "miracle" meat bird!!

May the Force be with you, chickenmamma22!!

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
I honestly always do straight runs with meat birds. By processing time, you can hardly tell the sexes apart anyhow. It gives me a little more variation in size, too, which helps in sales. Since I sell at the Farmer's Market, you are randomly dealing with people who love massive, large, tiny or medium birds. It's nice to have a range.

The White Laced Red Cornish was developed mainly as an ornamental breed for showing. With all ornamental breeds, colors and shape is often selected to the detriment of vigor. So, I'm not sure. A White Cornish would be ideal (but good luck finding one ever) and I use the Dark Cornish for the same reason; that's it availablel. In the end, I'm not worried about plumage color, so Darks work fine for me.