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

[nicalandia]

Yes, I know that. I'm talking about chickens, not grain.

Are you aware of the saying: "You are what you eat"? Well your chickens are also what they eat and then you eat them.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Are you aware of the saying: "You are what you eat"? Well your chickens are also what they eat and then you eat them.

Yes of course. I don’t eat my chickens rn though.

I really want to raise my own everything, but where i live that isn’t possible. For now i get fresh eggs from happy hens.

 

[CNJ]

What do you do with so much meat? Is all that for you? is it actually cheaper than just buying from the grocery store?

The dressed 8 week old Cornish cross is a little cheaper than the store, but 4 month old heritage breeds like Breese chickens cost more to raise than Cornish X. However, it has high end appeal, and we can't buy Breese chickens in the grocery store, so if I want to eat it, I have to raise them myself.

I consume a whole chicken about once a week. I will try deboning a Breese chicken for Yakitori bbq next week, I got inspired by these videos. I can't understand what the Chinese and Japanese chef are saying, but their demonstration, says it all.

 

[CNJ]

I decided to run with my Breese/Cornish x crosses. I will try to lock down the blue legs and round low to the ground body type.

The chickens in the wire floor pen are begging to show abrasion on their shanks. I will be transferring them to my loop coop on the ground, maybe tomorrow.

All the different crosses did not grow as fast as their Cornish x parents, but most of them have the same body type.

At this point, I don't see any obese problems, but I am concerned about the chickens in my wire floor coop. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

In my last batch of Dark Cornish/Breese crosses, I see some black and white pencil colored ones. I kind of hoping its a throw back to the old pencil color Breese. Bourg-en-Bresse in the south of Bresse was the place to find Grey Bresse (silver pencilled). https://www.ambresse.com/french-bresse-chicken.html

These guys getting bullied, I may have to start moving the bigger ones to the wire floor coop in a rotation.

 

[CNJ]

I spoke to my neighbor on the left and asked him if the rooster's crowing bothered him and he said he was hard of hearing and he can't hear anything. My other neighbors raise chickens, so I am okay for now..............

I live in a two chicken residential zone, but there has been self sufficient legislator meetings to increase the limit to 10 in the past. I think the main reason for the residential limit was because of the illegal gambling and organized chicken fighting crime ring. The chicken fighting sport was very popular when I was growing up, they even sold chicken fighting knives at my local hardware store.

Another reason for the two chicken limit would be the crowing. I know a lot of people who hate hearing the loud crow and complain about it in conversations. My sister is one of them, she complains about her crazy neighbor who adopted a wild rooster and keeps it in her house.

I moved the first batch out of the caged floor coop, into my hoop coop this morning and they were wild. I had to use a 1 inch eye fish net to catch them, one by one. I am very pleased with their body weight. I didn't weigh them, but they are filled in, I'd say 3 to 4 lbs and still chirping. However, the two pure Breese roosters are smaller, I'll keep the bigger one for my selective breeding program. I am not sure if I can clone the low to the ground round body type with blue legs, but its worth a try.

Boiler Breeding
Breeding for meat is similar to breeding for egg production. Both require careful crossbreeding and genetic tracking, however unlike with egg production, rapid growth and efficient food conversion are highly heritable. Fast growing birds pass this trait directly to their off-spring and are chosen by having the greatest weight among its flock mates when they reach 8 weeks. Use these birds to improve your dual-purpose and meat strains. https://chickenbreedslist.com/chicken-breeding-creating-the-master-race/

I notice that only one of them had a light abrasion on its leg shank. I put an anti bacteria medicine on it. I think she will over come the issue. I can't get a good picture, they are too skittish.

 

[CNJ]

 

[CNJ]

I had to move the last batch of 5 out into a separate pen. They were getting bullied, by the older chicks. I really like the black and white feathers on this Dark Cornish Rooster/Breese Hen cross.

I notice that one of the two white chicks look whiter than then the other, but both seem to have some brown high light. Furthermore, all of them have pea combs, so I am thinking the type of comb comes from the rooster in each separate pairing. Because I also see straight combs on the Breese Rooster/Cornish x crosses.

I will try to breed these with my Dark Cornish Rooster/White Plymouth rock hen cross to see what happens with a standard ABCD pairing. I don't think the offspring will turn into Cornish X with out the dinosaur gene.

I have better crosses with the dinosaur gene to play with, so it may never happen.

 

[NatJ]

all of them have pea combs, so I am thinking the type of comb comes from the rooster in each separate pairing. Because I also see straight combs on the Breese Rooster/Cornish x crosses.

Pea comb is dominant over single comb. It has nothing to do with which gender parent has which comb.


When both parents have single combs, all the chicks will also have single combs. (Commercial "cornish cross" have single combs too.)

Your Dark Cornish/Bresse chicks will have one gene for pea comb and one for not-pea, so if you breed them to a single comb bird (pure not-pea), they will produce some offspring with pea combs and some with single combs.

Genetically, a single comb is not-pea, not-rose, and not-duplex. Pea, Rose, and Duplex combs are each caused by a separate gene. Pea + Rose makes Walnut (also called cushion or strawberry, depending on the exact shape of it.) Duplex can be V-comb or Buttercup comb.

Because rose comb and duplex comb are also caused by dominant genes, if you do not have them in your flock, you will never see them in the chicks, so you can just ignore those genes

 

[CNJ]

The first picture is the heaviest Rooster of the Breese Rooster/Cornish X hen 1st pairing. He doesn't have blue legs, like some of his sisters. I will breed him with the largest 2nd and 3rd batch hens. This will be my Cornish X line. My goal here is to produce 4 to 5 lb birds in 12 weeks or less.

The second picture is the two pure Breese males that hatched with this bunch. They have blue legs and different body types. The bigger one will be bred with the bigger female crosses with blue legs in the same batch. I will line breed the larger females of this hatch back to their father. This will be my Breese line. My goal here is to produce a bigger white American Breese heritage bird with a low to ground round body type and blue legs.

I can only do 6 to 8 fertile eggs at a time and it needs to be spread out at least 2 months apart, so its going to take a while.

 

[CNJ]

Your Dark Cornish/Bresse chicks will have one gene for pea comb and one for not-pea, so if you breed them to a single comb bird (pure not-pea), they will produce some offspring with pea combs and some with single combs.

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?