I want the best Dark Cornish breeding stock I can find! Suggestions?

[Goofy Farmer]

I really need to find nice DC. I got some from McMurray and am underwhelmed. Where do I get serious monster birds?! I read somewhere that Cackle Hatchery has decent DC. But I'm still nervous about buying birds from a hatchery. Advice??? I'm willing invest some money for birds I can be proud of. But I REALLY want good stock. Should I be trying to find breeders at the fairs? I'm in Washington State.

 

[Illia]

No, don't go to fairs, they're mostly comprised of people who get from hatcheries. And yes, hatcheries have poor Cornish.

Your best bets are paying plenty $$ to get birds from farther/bigger shows from serious breeders. There's a couple serious Cornish breeders (Dark, White Laced Red, and White) in the Oklahoma area. The only trick is getting them to sell to you. Most serious Cornish breeders are kind of exclusive-type sellers from what I've seen, but if you really ask around, there's a couple BYC members here with some better than hatchery Darks.

 

[Goofy Farmer]

That's what I was afraid of...thank you for you advice...I will keep looking for people with nice birds...a lady who lives locally called me from an add I left on CL. She's got 3 hens she is willing to sell me and she says they are nice big birds from a farmer who got out of birds or something. Sounds like they are better than my McMurray birds. I should post some pictures and get feedback from people...

 

[AVizcaya]

I got 30 Dark Cornish roos and 5 hens from Cackle and was quite happy considering that they were hatchery stock but time has passed and I regret not having started out with prime stock. Trust me, in the long run, spend the money now and you won't regret it. I'm still looking for a good supplier of hatching eggs.