Dark Cornish crossed with Freedom Rangers?

[jsmonasmith]

Has anyone thought of doing this? I have been planning on mixing my Dark Cornish with my Barred Rocks for an improvised meat flock, but I just had the idea of mixing my Dark Cornish with the Freedom Rangers instead. Or perhaps mixing my Barred Rocks with Freedom Rangers to then mix with my Dark Cornish, kind of to create a meatier laying hen that could be mixed with the Dark Cornish for meat hatchers. Am I getting too crazy here? My Barred Rocks have had fairly poor growth and I'm not real excited about using them as stock for meat chicks. If I do I need to do some serious culling and selective breeding to improve their genetics. Their size is all over the place and very much below the growth of the RIR's that I bought alongside them. I'm not trying to develop perfect bloodlines here, just want chickens that meet my purposes, they could even be as ugly as a NN if they had to be. My intentions are to have a good laying stock for eggs while still being able to hatch out chicks that will be good meat chicks as well. I know this topic has been discussed VERY extensively, I just wanted to run the idea of a Dark Cornish crossed with a Freedom Ranger by everyone to see what kind of responses I get. Thanks.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I say it's worth a try! IF your BR aren't showing enough rate of gain I would skip even thinking about them, this is said from experience. I was asking questions similar to yours in the beginning and most of the experst warned me off of the smallish BE hen I ws planning on using. I ignored them and wound up culling every chick. I say if your going to cross with DC go big.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Only one way to find out, go for it.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Why not the Freedom Ranger to your RIRs? Or your DC to the RIRs? To improve the laying ability, then cull for size and rate of growth in next years flock. Just my thought with what you have available. Ive thought about doing a colored broiler (from Ideal) over a RIR for a while now but don't have the set up right now to make something like that happen. Steve's right though worst thing that happens is you cull every thing and start over.

 

[jsmonasmith]

Thanks, I think I will give it a try. The advice you gave about not wasting my time with the small BR's is sound advice I believe, I will take it. The idea of breeding the RIR's to my DC is a good idea, I was kind of thinking that would basically be the direction I might end up going in. I only have one DC hen right now and she started laying ten days ago, an egg every day!!! She's laying medium sized eggs already, so maybe take her and breed for larger egg size and larger weight? Overall I'm disappointed with the growth of my BR and RIR, should I just cull all of them and try starting over with a better growing layer? Any suggestions? I heard that hatchery chicks are kind of lame typically, does that correct itself after a generation or is it just bad blood lines? Too many questions! Sorry.

 

[jsmonasmith]

To summarize what I'm thinking now, and correct me if you have a better idea, is...
Freedom Rangers X larger breed layers = my faster growing large layer stock
Freedom Rangers X Dark Cornish = my faster growing large breasted large meat stock

crossbreed the results of both to get my meat stock, a large breasted, large sized layer that grows fast. Obviously noting that it will do none of the above perfectly, but that I should achieve a median of all somewhere. Too much?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

awesome!! goodluck! keep good records, share your expereinces and lot's of pics!!!!

 

[speedy2020]

I was planning to do the same thing. Unfortunately, I can't find the DC around here (Seattle) yet.

RIR x Marans= Breed1
Breed1 x DC=Breed2
or
RIR x DC = Breed1
Breed1 x Marans=Breed2

 

[jsmonasmith]

I thought about the marans too, but i think a quality RIR would add better egg production and has the same weight as the maran. The maran would be cool though because of their colors and their extra brown eggs. Ill be waiting till spring to start this project too because i cant find the chicks available right now. I'm 90% sure my feed store gets their chicks from Ideal Hatchery. I hear that people like the chicks from Cackle Hatchery more, so Ill buy my stock from them and keep a few of my existing larger RIR to add variety to the blood lines. The BR's are gone just because mine are small and i figure the RIR's are going to lay better anyways. I think they will look good too because the RIR and FR are both red birds and the DC has some reddish hues to them also. Good luck with your project as well. Let me know when you get some results and of course lets share information and ideas.

By the way- Do you have Marans already? What variety?

 

[speedy2020]

Quote:
The reason I add marans is because I heard they are fast growing and lay dark brown egg. I can get french marans chick local here about $8 each, but not DC or WC.