DIY cornish x breeding

[Hiltonizer]

That's doable. You'll need a flock and separate lines of both Cornish and Rocks.


X2
Keep us informed.

I just pulled the trigger on a chick order, so it'll be quite some time before I have results. Current estimated ship date is April 13th from Welp.

Ordered 3 red laced white Cornish cocks, 44 white rocks hens, and 3 NH cocks (as a hedge on selling hatching eggs as comets are always popular) . Hopefully by fall I have some out of the box results to share then can work on optimizing down the road.

 

[tinzman8]

I'll be following this thread as well for updates, I have white cornish, and white rock eggs in the bator that I am going to experiment with as well.

 

[sweetbanana]

......and now, what are the statistics so far?

 

[Hiltonizer]

No stats yet, the hens didn't start producing hatchable sized eggs until late fall, consequently I had held off a few months so that they aren't brooding when it's routinely -10F in my barn.

So, I've just put the first batch in the incubator yesterday. These will hopefully hatch on the 27-28th. The other half of the experiment, home-grown Comets, are also in there as a control. Once the chicks hatch I can start to record growth on both hybrids and compare. The NH roosters for the Comets are actually bigger and grew much faster than the Cornish roosters... but the Cornishes obviously have a better shape. It should be interesting.

It's a limited trial for now, as I know I can sell Comets all day come spring, experimental meaties not so much until I have data, so there's only a dozen of the meaty eggs in the 'bator.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think you are approaching this in a good way. I'll be following along too. It will be interesting to see what comes of hatchery birds entering a program like yours.

As for your observation, New Hampshire is a fast maturing breed (12-16 weeks), Cornish is a slow maturing breed (24+ weeks)

 

[Hiltonizer]

Just did my first candling today, not good news for this experiment.

Out of 38 eggs, 14 were of this meat cross. 8 of those had no activity or stalled early. The rest were the the Comet experiment which uses the same batch/breed of hens, and only 1 of those eggs went to the pigs.

So, everything else being equal, the variable is this WLRC roosters. They just seem to not be getting it done. They don't have much size on the girls, so that makes me think they just aren't getting it in. There's a WLRC hen also in there, so she could count towards one or two of the 6 remaining eggs. They've been in with the girls since they left the brooder, so fertility issues is the last problem in the world I expected. Bummer.

Hopefully the 6 hatch to get some early information. I'll definitely try a second hatch in case there was an anomaly with collecting eggs out of that particular pen at that particular time. I'm hoping it was just something to do with that side of the barn being a little colder than the other.

 

[Hiltonizer]

Debunked my own fertility theory today, tested 5 corn-rock eggs and all were bulls-eyes.

Bizarre.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know what your setup is like but this time of year you'll get better fertility out of the roosters with some photostimulation. They need it just like the hens do.

 

[Hiltonizer]

They have a good amount of natural light as the barn has windows, and I extend the day a few hours with white LED Christmas lights that web the barn ceiling. Given that 5 of 5 were fertile when I checked yesterday, I'm going to have to chock it up to a temperature issue since that's on the southern side of the barn.

 

[Hiltonizer]

Updating as none of the remaining eggs hatched, but the hatch was overall miserable and wasn't specific to this cross. I've since modified my incubator setup... but finding it nearly impossible to get 4 thermometers to quorum.

I have people beating the door down for local Comets, so the incubator is full of those for now in hopes I find success. Won't get to set the corn rocks again until at least the 22nd.

I'll get results this season if it kills me though.