Droking cornish cross for meat

[mhw]

I have heard that a dorking cornish cross is even better than a regular cornish for meat. Any ideas on the subject? Right now I have 99 barred rocks that are dual purpose and will be processing the males for meat and keeping the females for eggs. I was hoping in the future to raise something just for meat and keep the eggers seperate. I also didnt know if I was crossing the dorking with the cornish if I would want a dorking male or female and a cornish male or female.

 

[greyfields]

The Cornish is always the sire. So, a Cornish X Dorking has the Dorking as the dame. This is a common "backyard cross" for making your own meat birds. I've eaten one myself and it's a more common bird in the UK than here.

Any crossbred chicken is going to have advantages over any purebreed. So, I'd say the cross you propose would be worlds better than a purebred Barred Rock... but, of course, your resulsts will not approach a commercially bred broiler in size, growth rate or FCR.