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

[speedy2020]

This is a picture of the Breese father to the Cornish X cross daughters, some of them have black spots and non of their legs turned blue yet. I think they around 3 weeks old. The 2 smaller chicks are pure Breese and they about 1 week old. They managed to fit in with the older chicks. They growing like regular chickens.

I am looking forward to the 2nd batch hatch with the 11lbs rooster to his sisters. I have 4 fertile eggs that should hatch in a few days. The fertility rate of this group was about 50%. I have 3 fertile eggs in another incubator and about 7 new eggs in another.

I have 4 hens in this group and they are still laying small eggs and double yolkers. I get 1 to 2 small eggs a day and 1 to 2 double yolkers every other day.


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Let's us know how the cross turn out.

 

[CNJ]

Let's us know how the cross turn out.

I see 2 with pea combs, one look all white and the other has a couple of small black feathers. This batch may have been compromised, since I had a standard White Plymouth Rock/Dark Cornish hen cross living in the same pen. I took her out the other day and put her in a processing pen.

The 2 younger pure Breese chicks already has blue legs which confirm their identity. The other chick legs did not turn blue yet.

I moved all 4 of my Breese/Cornish X crosses in with their 8lb brother and I moved 3 hens from the second batch of Breese/Cornish X crosses in with their Breese father. I kept 2 hens from this group with their 12lbs brother.

Now I have 2 brother sister groups from the same Breese/Cornish X parents with different hatch dates about a month apart and with different size roosters (8 and 11lbs) and one group of hens with their Breese father.

 

[CNJ]

I am looking forward to the 2nd batch hatch with the 11lbs rooster to his sisters. I have 4 fertile eggs that should hatch in a few days.

All 4 eggs did not hatch, they gave up early in the yolk stage. I should have checked them on lock down. I checked them after 8 days and separated the fertile eggs, but did not check them on lock down. Any way I have 3 more eggs from the 11lbs rooster that will go on lock down today. I will check these to make sure they are Dark. I hoping that my 11lbs rooster sire some babies.

 

[CNJ]

The 3 eggs from the 11lbs rooster hatched, but only 1 out 8 of his new eggs were fertile. I think he has a problem catching his hens.

His 8 lbs cousin is way more aggressive with the hens than he is. I will wait at least 3 weeks before I start collecting eggs to hatch from the 8lbs rooster.

The first batch of chicks was compromised with the dark Cornish/white Plymouth Rock hen. I see 2 chicks with pea combs and 2 chicks with straight combs. However, the ones with pea comb are white, so it meets one of my objectives. I always wanted a standard White Cornish.

I think the 2 pure Breese chicks are roosters, I was hoping for hens. I have only 1 pure Breese hen and she only produces roosters?

I'll probably process my Breese/Dark Cornish line this week end. The roosters are crowing to much in the am.

 

[CNJ]

My Breese/Dark Cornish hens just started laying. This breeding group look like they will produce similar feathered chicks. The rooster and hens have good body confirmation. These hens started laying eggs a month latter than pure Breese chickens. They seem like decent layers and they don't eat as much as my fat Breese/Cornish X crosses.

Some of my Breese/Cornish X hen crosses started getting broody. One of the hens kept hiding in my hydraulic peddle feeder, so I took her out and gave her some time out. These hens are heavy, heavier than any Heritage breeds I raised thus far.

I tightened the pictured rooster's collar and muffled his crow. I did the same thing to all my roosters. I feel relieved, they were getting annoying..................

I bought velcro rooster collars that come with an attached buckle. The velcro is different from the ones I made. They lock on and its hard to take them off, so the roosters can't take them off like the ones I made.

Now that I have tightened their collars, the sound of their crow sound like they are crowing from a distance. It doesn't sound like its coming from my yard.

 

[CNJ]

I moved these F2 chicks out in a grow pen, I am happy with the 2 pure Breese roosters, but I can see 3 with the Dark Cornish blood. One of them has black and white feathers, one has the Pyle or (brown and white) feathers and the best one has pure white feathers. These 3 are from my Dark Cornish/White Plymouth Rock hen and pure Breese rooster. I am only going to keep one pure Breese and the standard white Cornish. I hope the standard white Cornish chick turn out spectacular.

 

[CNJ]

This is the most chicks I have hatched at one time. The bigger chick in the picture is a couple of weeks older. He was living with his 2 older brothers, all three of them came from the 12lbs rooster, but the smaller one hatched a couple of weeks latter. I moved him with the just born chicks to be a role model and to share the brooder light.

I thinking about moving the 2 oldest ones out with the first compromised batch. Most of the just born chicks are from the Breese / Cornish X cross daughter. However, maybe 4 of them come from the 8lbs rooster. In this selection, I will only keep 2 large hens with blue legs.

One of three hens with the 12lbs rooster is laying double yolk eggs. However, this egg in the last picture must have 4 yolks. Its the biggest egg I have ever seen.

I just tried putting the 2 older chicks with the ones outside, but they were constantly being pecked, so I brought them back in.

 

[CNJ]

I am happy to report that the unknown hen that was always laying double yolk eggs with the 12lbs rooster has started laying single yolk eggs. What a relief................I guess its part of the maturity process.

The only group I haven't put in an incubator is from the 8lbs rooster group. I need to wait another month before I start or I won't have a grow out pen for them.

I have decided to make the 8lbs rooster the dominant male, since he can roost like normal chickens. My 12lbs rooster still sleeps on the ground, and his 3 hens started sleeping on the perch.

 

[CNJ]

I was doing some research on Hybrid vigor and came across Prepotency vs. Hybrid Vigor. This video has set me on a coarse towards purifying a prepotency family through in breeding. Once this line is purified, crossing it creates one time hybrid vigor like Cornish X.

 

[larsbenson]

I was doing some research on Hybrid vigor and came across Prepotency vs. Hybrid Vigor. This video has set me on a coarse towards purifying a prepotency family through in breeding. Once this line is purified, crossing it creates one time hybrid vigor like Cornish X.

Out of curiosity what traits are you breeding for in this project? What is the end game you have in mind?