Dark cornish? I've been so confused...

[LilPeeps]

Hmmmmm...I can't imagine they'd send a dark cornish as a layer, but idk.

 

[scubagirl]

I have Gold laced wyandottes

Scubagirls page ___ peeps ay 5 weeks

They are fatter rounder shorter looking than your chick

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
MMH catalog says about dark cornish, "The hens are nice layers of firm-shelled brown eggs and are wonderfully hardy."

So I expect they would send her as a layer. She's right in with the other "heavy breeds" in the catalog.

Thanks everyone, I'm pretty well convinced she's a cornish. Pretty darn heavy little chick! I'm going to weigh her this afternoon, I'll post after I do so.

 

[jossanne]

I weighed her today, and she's 9.75 ounces at 29 days old. As a comparison, one of my RIR's is 7.75 ounces and one of my BO's is 8.75 ounces. I think a wyandotte would be closer to the RIR, if not lighter, if I remember my last SLW chick. Probably doesn't mean a lot, but I was right, she is definitely heavier than the others.

 

[ole-crone]

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that the pictures you showed look nothing like the 5 dark cornish chicks I've received from MM. I received 3 from my first order of brown egg layers last year and 2 more this year with my rainbow layers.

You are all right that the stance is there but what I don't see are the black 'lycra bicycle shorts' upper thighs that my girls have had. Their feathers are much more compact to the body giving the chicken a stocky, compact look. Four of our five girls had the black stocky-sleek thighs, one had thighs more like other chickens - fluffier, but still black.

Keep sharing your pictures - I might change my mind as she develops.

 

[ole-crone]

One other thing - my dark cornish hens look smaller than the others because of the compact feathering. I don't think that they are big chickens. One of ours escaped from the pen when we moved them and ended up living with our 'dark egg layers' which were over a month younger. She was the same size as the welsummers and barnvelders, if not smaller.

 

[MaransGuy]

I agree that the cornish would actually be smaller and the feathering would be much tighter. It looks just like my wyandotes.

 

[arlee453]

I just got though raising 5 dark cornish hens (and eating them) They were the nastiest chickens as far as personality (none), looks (like little vultures) and temperment (egg eaters...) BUT they tasted divine - a HUGE breast on those girls. Anyway...

At this point there are some characteristics of that chick that say GLW and some that say DC.

I'd give her another week. I'm with the others that her feathers are very loose and fluffy looking to be a cornish. Plus my cornish had VERY dark heads - they looked like vulture heads - all black, with very tight feathers.

Give her another week of feathering out and post again a pic and let's see...

 

[jossanne]

Okay... here's a pic of a chick that my parents got in their rainbow layers, hatched a week before mine. She's 5 weeks old. I'm guessing this one is a cornish, and it does look different than mine. It has much less gold around the neck, especially. I haven't seen this chick for 3 weeks, so I don't know about size compared to mine.

 

[MaransGuy]

There is another thread on here that shows a good photo of a dark corninsh from the front: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=79787

That should help you determine if your's is one or not.