Greyfields, I love your birds and I love what you're doing. The spirit of invention lives on! I may live far away but if you ever need taste testers for, say, chicken jerky, then I'm your woman!
Home Bred Broilers - Pics
- Thread starter greyfields
- Start date
Quote:
I've got 3 areas I can use to separate birds, so when I want eggs from particular hens, I isolate them for a few days until I have as many eggs as I want.
I'm having the same quality issues as you with hatchery birds, so I'm looking for breeders to buy from instead. That slows the whole project down, both because it takes awhile to find what I want, and because I can't do it all at once because of the expense of breeder birds. But I don't want to waste time and money on poor quality birds to start with. I might try Sandhill Preservation for all except the Cornish, (they don't have those, because they aren't rare) and Dorkings, I have a source for those already.
I missed the state fair this year, that would've been a good place to get a big Cornish roo! I might find some other poultry shows, though.
I've got 3 areas I can use to separate birds, so when I want eggs from particular hens, I isolate them for a few days until I have as many eggs as I want.
I'm having the same quality issues as you with hatchery birds, so I'm looking for breeders to buy from instead. That slows the whole project down, both because it takes awhile to find what I want, and because I can't do it all at once because of the expense of breeder birds. But I don't want to waste time and money on poor quality birds to start with. I might try Sandhill Preservation for all except the Cornish, (they don't have those, because they aren't rare) and Dorkings, I have a source for those already.
I missed the state fair this year, that would've been a good place to get a big Cornish roo! I might find some other poultry shows, though.
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Thank you for posting all of this, it was quite interesting. I too am trying to develop my own broilers, tho I am in the beginning stages. I have two hatchery bred Dark cornish pullets and a MMH bred White rock roo I intend to breed in a few months when they reach age. I also intended to breed on of my pullets to my buff Orp roo since Orpingtons are so much larger and plumper than rocks to see which I like better. I found a WL Red cornish breeder online that im trying to get eggs from. I want to try and develop that breed also to get me a Large Roo for meat bird breeding and experimenting. I have not had any experience with the color ranger broilers, only the Cornish Roasters and X rock from MMH, I def want to ck them out come march.
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From what I gather reading posts from more experienced breeders, the home crosses for meat usually turn out better with the standard Cornish roo over other breeds of hens, rather than Cornish hens with other breed roos. But whatever mixes you try, it'll be interesting to see what you come up with. I hope you do well with them.
My own Brahma roo/Cornish hen crosses were disappointing, but I got a few nice pullets out of it, for egg layers. The roos went to the freezer, (except the last 3, they'll go soon) they just took awhile to get any size, so they aren't fryers.
I'm looking forward to trying other crosses in the coming year.
From what I gather reading posts from more experienced breeders, the home crosses for meat usually turn out better with the standard Cornish roo over other breeds of hens, rather than Cornish hens with other breed roos. But whatever mixes you try, it'll be interesting to see what you come up with. I hope you do well with them.
My own Brahma roo/Cornish hen crosses were disappointing, but I got a few nice pullets out of it, for egg layers. The roos went to the freezer, (except the last 3, they'll go soon) they just took awhile to get any size, so they aren't fryers.
I'm looking forward to trying other crosses in the coming year.
- Thread starter
- #35
I wish I could give a better explanation, but I truly forget why having the Cornish as the terminal sire works better than a reverse cross. I know males/females have an unequal number of chromosones, perhaps that has something to do with it.
We raise beef, lamb and pork here as well as poultry. All the females are crossbred and we use purebred termianl sires on all of them. It's just the way it's done.
We raise beef, lamb and pork here as well as poultry. All the females are crossbred and we use purebred termianl sires on all of them. It's just the way it's done.
What is the meaning of "terminal sire?"
I've wondered that same thing. I think it's the sire used in the first stage of breeding when developing whatever strain you're after.
- Thread starter
- #38
A terminal sire is the male you use on offspring who will be used for meat purposes, rather than bred for breeding stock.
A vast percentage of beef in the US uses the Black Angus as the terminal sire, since 50% is enough here to market the beef as Black Angus. In the lamb industry, Texels are the most common terminal sire.
If you were breeding, though, with plans to retain the female offspring, you may select other breeds in order to develop frame size, disease resistance, milking ability, etc.
A vast percentage of beef in the US uses the Black Angus as the terminal sire, since 50% is enough here to market the beef as Black Angus. In the lamb industry, Texels are the most common terminal sire.
If you were breeding, though, with plans to retain the female offspring, you may select other breeds in order to develop frame size, disease resistance, milking ability, etc.
- Oct 29, 2007
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Kind of off topic, but it's also common practice to use surrogate females to gestate the off spring. Dirty Jobs showed this being done with racing horses. The sperm is collected from the sire then the eggs from the female. The eggs are then fertilized and implanted in totally different horse. It's surprising how often this is done.
Those butterball turkeys you buy at that market are the product of artificial insemination too! Imagine having that job, "I'm the sperm collector for butterball."
Kind of off topic, but it's also common practice to use surrogate females to gestate the off spring. Dirty Jobs showed this being done with racing horses. The sperm is collected from the sire then the eggs from the female. The eggs are then fertilized and implanted in totally different horse. It's surprising how often this is done.
Those butterball turkeys you buy at that market are the product of artificial insemination too! Imagine having that job, "I'm the sperm collector for butterball."
- Thread starter
- #40
Similar, yet not. I would venture to say 90%+ of cows (female bovines who give birth to animals intended for slaughter) are crossbred. Only the sires are ever purebred.
It doesn't make sense to raise purebred animals simply for eating. They don't grow as fast or have the disease resistance of hybrids. Same is true with chickens.
How an animal is fed and treated has far more impact than their genetics.
It doesn't make sense to raise purebred animals simply for eating. They don't grow as fast or have the disease resistance of hybrids. Same is true with chickens.
How an animal is fed and treated has far more impact than their genetics.
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