How to make my own meat birds?

[Nicks_Chicks]

Hey, I was wondering how to make my own Cornish cross? I know they pretty much have Cornish and white rock in them. I've heard from some that it's a four way cross, and from others you have to use special strains of both breeds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Cornish Cross were developed in the middle of the previous century. In the 1950's they pretty much took over the commercial chicken meat industry, they were that much more efficient than anything else available. Different companies have developed their own version by selective breeding. Some of the study into them has been genetics but a lot is also how to manage, house, and feed them for greatest efficiency.

The basic model is to have four unique grandparent flocks. Each of these flocks brings certain traits to the final product. Some of these traits pertain to body conformation or how fast they gain weight. Some make the grandparent or parent flocks easier to manage. Some of this is common knowledge, it is hard to keep secrets when so many people are involved. But some of it are well kept trade secrets.

Many of us create our own meat birds. If you figure out how to do it you can greatly improve your birds in a few generations. On a certain level it isn't that hard to improve them. Eat the ones you don't want to breed and breed the ones that you do want to eat. But do not expect to match the Cornish Cross in your backyard.

 

[Molpet]

what is your goal? Nothing is as cheap as buying cx and raising for 6=8 weeks ...well except buying the meat at the grocery store.

I wanted something I could hatch and raise myself...but it's about $7 a lb for organic. This is feed costs to keep a flock of breeding stock over winter and feeding the chicks to 16 weeks.
I kept a cx pullet and bred her to a random roo off fb. Got 3 cockerels I used over barred rock, black jersey giant and buff orp. cockerels dressed out around 5lbs at 16 weeks.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

^ so much this.

Making a first generation hybrid bird with some sex-linked trait is easy. Making a reasonable facsimile of a modern meat bird, result of more than a half century of research, is not. It is hard enough, in fact, that even the "big boys" sometimes get it wrong.

A couple years back, Tyson was suffering a chicken shortage because the male line they selected didn't prove sufficiently fertile.

and I used existing Cx in my culling project - got the dominant white, didn't get the rapid growth, the "double breast", or the large final size traits in the offspring. and w/i a couple generations, apart for a random bird showing up white at hatching, you'dnever know I had ever used Cx in my original stock.

 

[Nicks_Chicks]

what is your goal? Nothing is as cheap as buying cx and raising for 6=8 weeks ...well except buying the meat at the grocery store.

I wanted something I could hatch and raise myself...but it's about $7 a lb for organic. This is feed costs to keep a flock of breeding stock over winter and feeding the chicks to 16 weeks.
I kept a cx pullet and bred her to a random roo off fb. Got 3 cockerels I used over barred rock, black jersey giant and buff orp. cockerels dressed out around 5lbs at 16 weeks.

Basically in case the world goes to heck we can produce our own. We know we can eat regular ones but it's just easier.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Basically in case the world goes to heck we can produce our own. We know we can eat regular ones but it's just easier.

In that case, I suggest you bring in some Colored Rangers of some sort. Slower growing than Cx, but they will actually forage some and get to good size.

Then follow @Ridgerunner 's advice, and " Eat the ones you don't want to breed and breed the ones that you do want to eat. "

 

[NatJ]

Basically in case the world goes to heck we can produce our own. We know we can eat regular ones but it's just easier.

If the world goes to heck, you will not be able to buy feed for them either.
It is much easier to make a semi-suitable feed for slower growing birds than for Cornish Cross. If you get it even a little bit wrong, they grow slower and/or have health issues. Slower growth is what other chickens would have anyway, at which point there is not much benefit in having "Cornish Cross" at all.

 

[GreenHaven]

Basically in case the world goes to heck we can produce our own. We know we can eat regular ones but it's just easier.

Why not reach back to older breeds that used to be raised for meat. I am raising Dorkings (there are many others) for this purpose - they go broody reliably so they will resupply you without much work on your part.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If the world goes to heck, you will not be able to buy feed for them either.
It is much easier to make a semi-suitable feed for slower growing birds than for Cornish Cross. If you get it even a little bit wrong, they grow slower and/or have health issues. Slower growth is what other chickens would have anyway, at which point there is not much benefit in having "Cornish Cross" at all.

^^^ so much this. Its hard enough for people to come up with a workable "at home" mix for adult layers, and they don't even have to produce all the ingredients themselves.

Producing an "at home" feed suitable for Cx (and maintaining separate "breeder flocks") if the world takes a detour into the dark ages is a Sisyphean task, at best.

If the world takes that detour, I'll be eating my chickens (but for a few) and relying on my rabbits and scrub goats for bulk protein, use the occasional egg for cooking. Maybe a wind power pump for aquaculture if we are in some Steampunk-style fantasy...

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It seems odd to me that everybody assumes that after the world "takes a turn for the worst" we'll all still be living comfortably in our homesteads with our animals and appliances, merrily cooking just as we are now. Doesn't anybody watch the news? Imagine how you would survive if "after" looks like the Gaza strip or any of those war-torn towns in Ukraine. Or west North Carolina or Florida after the hurricanes.