Genetics – Crossing a meat hen and a laying rooster

[hoog]

It was recently determined in the "What Breed Or Gender is This?" forum that the chickens I was given are white/Cornish rock or mix.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=177100

Apparently these birds often don’t last long (they grow too fast). I was planning on raising a flock of dual purpose birds. So my question is can I get a leghorn rooster and get a decent dual purpose cross or should I just eat them all and start over with a new flock.

 

[THunter]

Eat 'em and start over.

 

[tadkerson]

You can cross pullet broilers with a egg layer type male. You have to know what you are doing to get the broilers to lay eggs and not die on you. I have made the cross. You would have to start over and feed restrict the pullets. I would not use a small framed bird like a leghorn as the male, I used a large orpington as the male. It worked out great. After three more generations, I have broilers that lay eggs and grow to 5 lbs in ten weeks ( this was my goal). It can be done but you have to know what you are doing.

Tim

 

[TimG]

Quote:
I just did. It seems to me that what you are doing is similar to what I hope to do myself someday. I wonder if you wouldn't take a look at this thread and add anything you think useful from your experience.

Your "genetics" and "Chicks and Pullets" pages did not load properly for me -- I got just a blank page even though I can see that there is a source file.

Also, the Indian River broiler that you mention on your page is also (I think more commonly) called a Delaware. I mention this because I think lots of people are looking into the Delaware these days and if you used that word on your page you might get more hits from search engines. When I was googling Delawares, it never occurred to me to also google Indian River.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I remember reading in a book from the late 1800's that talked about crossing meat type males (I think they said brahmas) to leghorn females then crossing those back to the father to get a dual purpose bird.

 

[Krys109uk]

I raised Jumbo Cornish Cross pullets a few years ago & also bred with Orpingtons. Quite literally they will sit there & eat themselves to death if allowed to do so. It was not easy, in the end I kept each separately & gave a measured amount of feed to each. If kept together some trough faster than others.

 

[maf2008]

Tim,

THIS is what I am looking for. I would LOVE to get some fertile eggs from you. Please let me know If you ship eggs or what breeds you use for the cross?

You can cross pullet broilers with a egg layer type male. You have to know what you are doing to get the broilers to lay eggs and not die on you. I have made the cross. You would have to start over and feed restrict the pullets. I would not use a small framed bird like a leghorn as the male, I used a large orpington as the male. It worked out great. After three more generations, I have broilers that lay eggs and grow to 3 lbs in ten weeks ( this was my goal). It can be done but you have to know what you are doing.

Tim


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Visit my web site; adkersonfarm.webs.com

 

[Byrdj]

Tim,

Did you breed back the F1 Orpington x Broiler pullets back to the Orpington rooster each time for three generations or did you breed the crosses together starting in the first generation?

Quote:

 

[maf2008]

Do you have any eggs that you can sell that are crossbred cornish x and good egglayers? if so what is price? and the breed cross?

Quote:

 

[tadkerson]

I had to go back and make a correction in my first post; the broilers grow to 5 pounds in 10 weeks.

The broilers are not where I want them at this time. I have the growth I want and better egg laying ability but they are not foraging as well as I would like. Last year I started working rhode island red into the mix. My rhode island silver are a larger bird so I will soon start breeding in the silver to get rid of the red in the birds. I will make the eggs available for hatching once I have enough data to support my claims concerning the birds. If things work out, I will be doing a study with my broilers at a local university.

I hope the members do not think bad of me but I do not want to broadcast my breeding regimen to others. I hope to make some money from my work. I have put in years of work and money into the project. I will be retiring in a few weeks and I will need to raise my income in the future.

Tim G.

My heavy rhode island silver will look like a delaware or Indian River. The picture below is of one of my breeding males. The male in the picture is a fourth generation rhode island hybrid. He has some smut in his feathers but I will get rid of that in the next generation. His brother does not have the smut (nice clear silver breast) but he has some red issues.

I need to update some of the pictures on my web site. I checked all the pages and they loaded for me. The image gallery is empty. I have not had time to load pics. I will try to work on my site tomorrow.

I went back and read the thread. I plan on only having two lines in my breeding program for my broilers. I think I can get what I want from two lines.

The French use naked necks ( Label Red or briese) as a broiler type bird. I have had cornish in the past- they have the frame that one would build upon to make a meat type bird. Both birds would be a good place to start.

To develop line breeding for broilers you will have to have the genetics in the male line that will nick with the genetics of the female line to produce superior offspring. The male line and the female line will be both be inbred, it is when you cross the male line with the female line the correct genes or quantitative loci ( bits of DNA that are not genes) are inherited by the offspring to produce a superior hybrid bird.


Tim