Hey all my fellow dark Cornish admirers!
I saw a post mentioning these so maybe this might help a couple people if I share my experience.
Dark Cornish vs freedom rangers vs Cornish x :
So I have all 3. Here's what I learned.
Cornish (mcmurray) are tiny in comparison at the same age (almost 5 months) as the FR and CX.
My CX are laziest but have gigantic breasts lol. They literally are bigger than thanksgiving turkey's right now. It's incredible. Mcmurrays CX were awesome and tasted great dressed out in 9 wks. I kept 2.
They also like to sit in their own poop and poo on themselves and their stomach drags on the ground now. They poop so much it's gross. Their feed-meat conversion is the cheapest and it can't be beat.
I recommend starting small and getting pastured pens with a steady source of water. High Maintence. Also wouldn't eat scraps. Picky.
Freedom rangers - I was disappointed. Breast meat is the same as about a RIR or white rock or New Hampshire. They grew fast and almost kept up with Cornish x, but then slowed down at 7 weeks it (seemed like) while Cornish x was still packing on meat. I might as well bought a RIR or NH. They look similar to those anyways. Forage ok. Feed conversion is not near as good as Cornish.
I would get a purebred instead of these.
Dark Cornish - mine are not at all to butchering size and they are almost 5 months. They are good foragers and intelligent however,
and still my favorite. I think how you all mentioned trying to get ahold of good meaty genetic lines is hard-- that's absolutely right and the problem lies there.
I'm going to breed dark Cornish x freedom and freedom x Cornish cross and also the dark Cornish x Cornish cross to see what pops out. I know it takes years and is unpredictable due to hybrids but I'm just curious.
I'm also going to selectively breed my dark Cornish to try to get a better bird..
Also for the ones interested in dark Cornish crosses for meat, lookup the "corn del" cross. It was corn corn x del corn I think. Meaning full dark Cornish x 1/2Delaware1/2 dark Cornish.
I could be wrong but it was interesting.
I saw a post mentioning these so maybe this might help a couple people if I share my experience.
Dark Cornish vs freedom rangers vs Cornish x :
So I have all 3. Here's what I learned.
Cornish (mcmurray) are tiny in comparison at the same age (almost 5 months) as the FR and CX.
My CX are laziest but have gigantic breasts lol. They literally are bigger than thanksgiving turkey's right now. It's incredible. Mcmurrays CX were awesome and tasted great dressed out in 9 wks. I kept 2.
They also like to sit in their own poop and poo on themselves and their stomach drags on the ground now. They poop so much it's gross. Their feed-meat conversion is the cheapest and it can't be beat.
I recommend starting small and getting pastured pens with a steady source of water. High Maintence. Also wouldn't eat scraps. Picky.
Freedom rangers - I was disappointed. Breast meat is the same as about a RIR or white rock or New Hampshire. They grew fast and almost kept up with Cornish x, but then slowed down at 7 weeks it (seemed like) while Cornish x was still packing on meat. I might as well bought a RIR or NH. They look similar to those anyways. Forage ok. Feed conversion is not near as good as Cornish.
I would get a purebred instead of these.
Dark Cornish - mine are not at all to butchering size and they are almost 5 months. They are good foragers and intelligent however,
and still my favorite. I think how you all mentioned trying to get ahold of good meaty genetic lines is hard-- that's absolutely right and the problem lies there.
I'm going to breed dark Cornish x freedom and freedom x Cornish cross and also the dark Cornish x Cornish cross to see what pops out. I know it takes years and is unpredictable due to hybrids but I'm just curious.
I'm also going to selectively breed my dark Cornish to try to get a better bird..
Also for the ones interested in dark Cornish crosses for meat, lookup the "corn del" cross. It was corn corn x del corn I think. Meaning full dark Cornish x 1/2Delaware1/2 dark Cornish.
I could be wrong but it was interesting.
