Keeping a few Cornish hens.................

[NatJ]

So if I breed them to a mix (pea plus straight comb) with pea comb, I should get more pea comb and less straight comb and the percentage goes up when mixed pea comb chicks from this is line bred to pea comb down the line, until they only reproduce pea comb chicken?

Yes, that should work.

You can probably save time by breeding from only the pure pea comb chicks in one of those generations.

The pea comb gene makes the comb & wattles much smaller when a chicken has two copies of the gene (pure for pea.) The pea-mix birds should have normal sized wattles, and their combs should also be larger than pure-pea birds. ("Normal size" wattles being what you would find in a chicken with a single comb, or any other comb type except pure-for-pea.)

 

[Ridgerunner]

So if I breed them to a mix (pea plus straight comb) with pea comb, I should get more pea comb and less straight comb and the percentage goes up when mixed pea comb chicks from this is line bred to pea comb down the line, until they only reproduce pea comb chicken?

It's a little more complicated than that but ultimately easier for you to get a pure pea offspring. The Pea comb gene is a partially dominant gene, not fully dominant. If you get two pea comb genes at that gene pair you get a full pea comb. If you get one pea comb gene at that gene pair but the other is the not-pea gene you can still see the effects of that pea comb gene but it is not a full effect. I call that a "wonky" pea comb.

There are other genes at other gene pairs that modify what the comb looks like. It's easiest to use the single comb to talk about this. Some may make a single comb stand up straight, others make it floppy. Some control how many points there are on a single comb. Some make the comb bigger or smaller. A lot more different modifications are possible. These "modifiers" also have an effect on the pea and rose combs so you can get different looking pea or rose combs. There is no set way that a "wonky" pea comb will look. Sometimes it is pretty close to a true pea comb, sometimes reasonably close to a single comb, but they won't quite be right.

So if you breed a mixed pea (wonky) chicken with a pure pea chicken you get about half wonky and half pure pea. Graphically with capital "P" meaning the partially dominant pea gene and lower case "p" being the recessive not-pea gene, a pure pea chicken is PP and a wonky pea chicken is Pp. The PP chicken will pass a P gene to each if it's offspring. The Pp chicken will randomly pass down ether a P or a p gene. So if you hatch enough for averages to mean much about half will be the pure PP and half will be the wonky Pp.

I know you are selecting with other qualities in mind so I'll include this. Of you breed a wonky pea (Pp) to a wonky pea (Pp) and hatch enough for averages to mean much you will get about 25% PP, 50% Pp, and 25% pp. If you breed a wonky pea (Pp) to a single combed chicken (pp) you will get about 50% wonky pea (Pp) and 50% single combed (pp).

The more traits you are selecting for (like meat qualities, leg color, and comb type) the harder it is, especially with a limited number of chicks to choose from. I was hatching 40 to 45 chicks a year (because that's how many I ate each year) and had several traits I wanted. It was frustrating and I didn't always have the perfect chick to take forward but I got there. You're probably going to hatch about the same number of chicks but you have two different projects you are working on. It will take some patience but you can get there.

 

[CNJ]

So far I have only 4 chicks of the Dark Cornish Rooster/Cornish X Hen cross and they all have pea combs (3rd batch). Furthermore,, their body type does not look as good as the Breese Rooster/Cornish X Hen cross. However, there maybe one that inherited the dinosaur gene. I can use this one to set the pea comb, but I don't like the brown on its feathers, so I am still undecided. I think its a female, not sure.

 

[CNJ]

This picture is a reference of how the Breese/Cornish x cross look at about 3 1/2 months in comparison to how much they weigh. The one sitting down weighted 8 lbs and the one on the right weighed 7 lbs and the one in the middle is a pure Breese which I didn't weigh, but he felt lighter than the other two. The Breese/Cornish x cross are heavier than they look.

The heaviest one sitting down got beat up by the smaller Breese cockerel when I first put them together. The Breese cockerel is about a month older.

The 2 Breese/Cornish x cross were from the second batch and the pure Breese runt is from the first batch. The Breese runt has a bigger Breese brother that is much taller and more filled in, he will be kept for breeding.

I am also processing my Dark Cornish/ white Plymouth Rock rooster (Pyle color) with the rest tomorrow. His crowing with the other cockerels hit a nerve today. They are probably starting to annoy my neighbors.

I am thinking about keeping 2 Breese/Cornish x cross hens and one rooster from the first and second batch for a total of 6 breeders. But that number may change if I decide to get rid of my older egg layers and dominant Breese rooster. My dominant Breese is about 2 years old and he has a good character. He doesn't challenge or attack humans. He will stand right next to me, and will move to the side when I walk by, but like the rest, he doesn't like to be picked up.

 

[CNJ]

I couldn't get a good picture of the first batch going through its adolescence stage. The hens should start laying soon. The dominant male and all the hens are husky, I think they will sire some champions. None of them are obese like we see with Cornish X.

I am happy with the results.

However, I am disappointed with my Dark Cornish/Cornish X cross. They are growing slower like the standard Cornish breed. I won't be using them for breeding.

I am thinking about line breeding the first batch to brother/sister and then use the bigger ones to breed back to their parents. In addition, I can try isolating each hen to see which one produces any Cornish X.

 

[CNJ]

I found this on a white Cornish thread. I will post it here for my future reference , its about spiral breeding. http://www.americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com/Linebreeding.html

 

[CNJ]

This Bresse/Cornish X rooster from the 2nd batch is a magnificent creature. He will sire some champions. However, the hens from the same batch didn't lay an egg yet.

I am in the process of culling my regular egg laying hens and dominant rooster, so there won't be any mix up with my breeding plan. I will keep 2 separate breeding groups, so the roosters don't fight for dominance. The first and second batch roosters have slightly different body types, and both of them are around the same weight..

I started limiting the food from the 2nd batch to 2 pints of layer pellets in the am and 2 pints of mix grain in the evening and they eat a lot of bird grit, they think its food. There are 4 hens and one rooster in the 1st and 2nd batch. I let the first batch eat what ever layer pellets they want with a peddle feeders., because they seem to act like regular chickens and like to roost, unlike the second batch who like to sleep on the ground.

The rooster from the 2nd batch has been jumping on his hens, so the hens should lay soon.

The hens from the 1st batch started laying, but I don't know who the father is, so I wont hatch their eggs until I complete the rotation.

I think one of the advantages of raising this cross is they don't have to be processed at 8 weeks, so its like a walking refrigerator.

 

[gatrapper]

Your birds look really good. I would love to see some more pictures!

 

[CNJ]

Your birds look really good. I would love to see some more pictures!

That picture doesn't do him justice, he was laying down when I came up to him and took his picture.

 

[CNJ]

He looks more natural in this one.