Delaware roo X Cornish hen...will I get a decent meat bird?

[greyfields]

Quote:
That's the exact cross my 'uncle' (actually me mam's cousin I think) was using in Herefordshire. His Indian Games were massive, though, compared to my Dark Cornish here in the US. I really need to work on upsizing my terminal sire. There just are hardly any breeders here, so it's a project I'll have to undertake myself.

There's also that famous episode of River Cottage where HF-W makes that cross and it wins the blind tasting. Man would I love to go to his house for dinner!

 

[dancingbear]

The Cornish roo, Dorking hen cross is one of the ones I want to try. In fact, that's the one I read about that initially got me started on this tangent.

Now I want to try the Cornish roo over several breeds of hens, but I'm holding out for good quality birds from all the breeds I want to try. I think I've found sources for all, now. The Cornish, I have at least one good source, but it's far, far, away, and I'll have to go there to pick up my birds. The other, I'm not sure of yet, I'm waiting to hear back from the guy. The 2nd one may be a lot closer. I'm still searching, though, hoping to find a source closer to my location.

Yeah, I think a lot of people confuse the Cornish and the Cornish X. Maybe these links will help clear up some of the confusion. Here's Cornish, also called Indian Game:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Cornish/BRKCornish.html
Many of the pictured birds are bantams, but they have a few photos of the full size ones as well.
Here's Cornish X, or Cornish Cross, or Rock Cornish, they go by several names, but they're all pretty much alike.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Broil/BRKMeat.html

 

[greyfields]

And with all that said... no crossbreed beats what I get when I breed the freedom rangers I've kept form each crop. I know rebreeding hybrids can give you dubious results. But, they are certainly the heaviest and fastest growing.

 

[shelleyb1969]

dancingbear, I'll post pics of my Cornish when I get them (which might be tomorrow) and let you know what their lineage is. If their quality is "up to par", then if you're interested, maybe next summer I may have a few chicks to spare. I'm all for helping fellow members out if I have what they like/want!

greyfields, do you crossbreed your rangers back to themselves, or cross them back to a different breed? Me and a friend (Miss_Jayne) are going to be getting some rangers in the spring, since I definitely won't have any hybrid meaties of my own at that time. We're really excited about trying them.

I think I'm going to order a few Delawares from Sand Hill Preservation, since I've heard that as far as a "hatchery", they've got pretty decent stock. I need a fairly good roo in order to improve the flock I currently have. They've got Dorkings, so maybe I should try a few of those too? Oh dear, this could be bad!

 

[miss_jayne]

i feel a coop building party coming soon to the Michigan Thumb....

 

[smith2]

Quote:
At what age did you process them? 7# dressed is a great weight! Congratulations.

I processed at about 5 months. They were a little tougher than I would have liked but they were still good to eat. Next time I think I'll do them at about 16 weeks.

 

[greyfields]

I crossed my Dark Cornish on Freedom Rangers (Gourmet Black and Golden). I held back a Golden Freedom Range as well. I'm going to put him on either the Black or Bronze hens which I also held back.

If all the crosses I've done, the Dark Cornish on the Gourmet Black were the largest (by far and away). The 2nd best was the Dark Cornish cross Black Sex Link. I also did the Cornish crossed with Barred Rock and Speckled Sussex. The FR crosses were easily 50% bigger every stage of the growth cycle.