I have read people keeping meat birds back and trying to raise them. Some with better success than others. Everything I have read is breeding like Freedom Ranger Rooster to Freedom Ranger hens. I have been wondering is anyone has every tried to cross like a Kosher King Rooster over a Freedom Ranger Hen or one of the meat roosters over say Freedom Rangers special New Hampshire Hen or the enhanced Delaware chickens that are now available? or even the NH and Del cross?
Just wondering if you did this what quality of meat bird you would get? Or if anyone has every tried crossing them. Sorry to ask so many questions but Just had a heart transplant and my mind is the only place I can do anything right now. So I am planning out all kinds of things for when I am back to 100%!
If you want easier to raise meat birds, then stick to Red Rangers AKA Freedom Rangers.
If you are a daredevil and want to raise the Cornish X meat birds, then read this and pick out of it what will be useful to you:
Get yourself some chicks from a hatchery:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/jumbo_cornish_x_rocks.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/big_red_broiler.html
Raise them and cross them. To raise the Jumbo Cornish X Rocks to reproduction age, you must restrict their feed intake, for example, feed them all they can eat for the first 3 weeks, then starting on the 4th week, cut back to only feeding twice a day until they step aside, then on the 5th week, only once a day, until they step aside, and on the six week, calculate how much they were eating per bird on the 5th week, and reduce that amount somewhat and give them that once a day, and if you see that they are gaining weight and they look too fat, or their legs are spreading apart, then reduce the feed more and more, and keep track of how healthy they physically look, feel their breast, if it feels like the breast is starting to split, you are feeding them too much, hold back on the feed more until their breast feels flush or the breast bone is barely noticeable.
Important fact: In order to restrict the feed of the Jumbo Cornish X Rocks, you must keep them away from all sources of food, that means you have to keep them caged, or in some sort of enclosure, so they will only have access to the food that you provide.
The Big Red Broilers you can raise like any other chicken, just make sure they don't eat too much so that they can be healthy enough for reproduction and egg laying.
Once you have adult Jumbo Cornish X Rock roosters, cross them with the Big Red Broiler hens, and the main reason for doing this is because the Jumbo Cornish X Rock hens are not very good layers, you will be lucky to get a good amount of eggs form them, specially if they are on the heavy side (due to lack of feed restriction), so by crossing the Cornish X rooster to the Big Red hens, you will get chicks that will be better at laying than the Cornish X, and they will grow faster or should at least, than the Big Reds, then it will be up to you to select the largest of the chicks and keep them for reproduction, and through selective breeding (using only the biggest birds) you will be able to produce large fast growers which will also provide you with a usable amount of eggs per week. This project will take you around 8 months or so before you will have your first eggs of the crosses in an incubator, good luck.
