Have you developed your own meat breed?

[Country Parson]

Who has developed their own meat breed? I currently have some Dark Cornish, and was thinking about crossing them with Ideal's Red/Black broilers, or even the CornishX hens.

I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about breeding/crossing various breed lines. But I would love to hear what others have done.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

lots of good back reading for you on this thread!

 

[stuckinthecity]

I was just reading an old thread last night about someone who crossed a buckey rooster over his cx hens and then is (or already has) crossed the f1 daughters to the buckey and the f1 male to the cx hens and then getting the f2 and crossing them together. It was a great thread. Good luck,

 

[SJ]

I am working on developing a truely dual purpose chicken for my farm. (Oh I pine for the lost STD Lomona.) If you only want a few birds to butcher each year than I think your on the right track with crossing Cornish to a broiler or cornishx. If your want alot of meat birds I would suggest crossing a Dark Cornish roo with better laying breed than the broilers and cornishX. Sussex, Delware or NHR hens generally lay more eggs than broilers and the CornishX. Be aware crosses don't breed true.
I have 17 hens and 2 roos currently.
HENS(3 SLW, 6 RIR, 4 NHR, 4 Buff Orpington)
ROOS(1 SLW, 1 Delaware)
My plan is similar to yours in that at one point I plan on bringing in pure cornish genes for their meat qualities. Not real sure yet on which color dark or WLR. I really want whites but good luck finding any all white cornish.
The route I plan on taking is to first cross my Del with my biggest and best laying red hens. This results in a sex linked (Males yellowish & females mostly white)cross that should mature quickly, lay very well, and have a large frame. (My Del roo is over 9lbs) I'll select hens for mainly these traits. Then cross the sex linked hens with a cornish. If all goes well I should end up with a large, meaty bird that grow quickly, will still have good laying qualities, and hopefully no health problem due to hybrid vigor. Good Lu.ck

 

[Bossroo]

Don't forget the fast maturing characteristic as well as feed to meat conversion rate for the resulting chicks . In and out in the shortest time possible as feed costs plus holding costs of the parent birds are a killer to the pocketbook too.