Meat Bird Project - Delaware, White Rock, Dark Cornish

[Kiki]

I'm not sure if the point is proven yet, but it will be interesting indeed to see if it is. The other thing that will be interesting to see is if the DCXs are sex-linked. I have 5 DCXs, started with 7. Of those 7, half were Del crosses, the other half WR crosses. Now I have 4 that are orange with brown/black markings, and one that looks like a DC (brown/black all over).

It looks like the WRs are 1 cockerel, 1 pullet. The WR/Del crosses are a bit harder to tell at this point, and the DCXs are nearly impossible.

I have a question for you.
When raising meat birds...do you prefer them to be male or female
and
do the boys grow faster?

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

I have a question for you.
When raising meat birds...do you prefer them to be male or female
and
do the boys grow faster?

That is a good question. Personally, I would prefer them to be cockerels - they get bigger than the pullets do, and they don't start their fighting until 17 weeks or so, and it doesn't get violent until after 20 weeks. From my chart of the last batch, the males are generally bigger than the females from week 1, and they continue to be bigger. At week 12, my WR cockerels were 44% larger than the pullets, and Dels 34% larger than the pullets. I also kept the pullets around an extra 2-3 weeks longer than the cockerels to let them fill out a bit more before dispatch.

I could see preferring females if you aren't thinking they will be ready by 20 weeks. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it seems to me that the males mature faster than the females, so the males would get tougher at a younger age than the pullets.

I've read a bit about forcing more of one sex to hatch based on incubator temp (+/- a degree), but I haven't tried it. It's basically killing the eggs of the sex that you don't want by manipulating the temp for the duration of the hatch. I haven't tried it yet, but I will definitely give it a go with my next hatch in April. I will probably start out with about 24 eggs, if half are female and die due to the temp, that leaves me with 12, and likely 3-4 of them won't make it (in my experience). I've also heard of forcing more males by adding Apple Cider Vinegar to the parents' water. I'm not sure if I believe that, but I may give that a shot at some point too.

 

[Kiki]

That is a good question. Personally, I would prefer them to be cockerels - they get bigger than the pullets do, and they don't start their fighting until 17 weeks or so, and it doesn't get violent until after 20 weeks. From my chart of the last batch, the males are generally bigger than the females from week 1, and they continue to be bigger. At week 12, my WR cockerels were 44% larger than the pullets, and Dels 34% larger than the pullets. I also kept the pullets around an extra 2-3 weeks longer than the cockerels to let them fill out a bit more before dispatch.

I could see preferring females if you aren't thinking they will be ready by 20 weeks. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it seems to me that the males mature faster than the females, so the males would get tougher at a younger age than the pullets.

I've read a bit about forcing more of one sex to hatch based on incubator temp (+/- a degree), but I haven't tried it. It's basically killing the eggs of the sex that you don't want by manipulating the temp for the duration of the hatch. I haven't tried it yet, but I will definitely give it a go with my next hatch in April. I will probably start out with about 24 eggs, if half are female and die due to the temp, that leaves me with 12, and likely 3-4 of them won't make it (in my experience). I've also heard of forcing more males by adding Apple Cider Vinegar to the parents' water. I'm not sure if I believe that, but I may give that a shot at some point too.

Unfortunately where I currently live I can not have roosters...
hopefully sooner rather than later this will not be a problem for me, but
I am really wanting to raise some meat birds for my freezer NOW.
I'm trying to figure out if raising "girl" ones would be a good idea or not.
Or if I can raise "boys" and process them before that start crowing..if that is even possible.

 

[tmarsh83]

Unfortunately where I currently live I can not have roosters...
hopefully sooner rather than later this will not be a problem for me, but
I am really wanting to raise some meat birds for my freezer NOW.
I'm trying to figure out if raising "girl" ones would be a good idea or not.
Or if I can raise "boys" and process them before that start crowing..if that is even possible.

If you can't have roosters anyway, then you can't perpetuate your own lines, for the time being just raise CornishX birds, and you'll be fine. They're gone in 8 weeks, no crowing, no problems.

 

[Kiki]

If you can't have roosters anyway, then you can't perpetuate your own lines, for the time being just raise CornishX birds, and you'll be fine. They're gone in 8 weeks, no crowing, no problems.

I'm not yet even thinking about my own lines.
Thank you!
Thank you!

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Well, I've never raised Cornish X quick-growing broilers, so I figured I might as well give it a go. I bought 9 from Tractor Supply, we'll see if they're quick or slow growing. Either way, something to compare to when raising my own crosses. And hey, more meat. Anyways, back to the thread...

My oldest set of Gen. 2 is already 4 weeks old, and compared to the purebreeds, there is definitely a difference:

This hatch
WR cockerel (only) 550
WR pullet (only) 481
WR/Del (only) 419
Dark Cornish crosses 478

Gen 1 - avg. (hatchery stock)
WR cockerel 505
WR pullet 416
Del 315
DC 373

 

[Barbwire54]

Well, I've never raised Cornish X quick-growing broilers, so I figured I might as well give it a go. I bought 9 from Tractor Supply, we'll see if they're quick or slow growing. Either way, something to compare to when raising my own crosses. And hey, more meat. Anyways, back to the thread... My oldest set of Gen. 2 is already 4 weeks old, and compared to the purebreeds, there is definitely a difference:
[TR] This hatch [/TR] [TR] WR cockerel (only) [TD]550[/TD] [/TR] [TR] WR pullet (only) [TD]481[/TD] [/TR] [TR] WR/Del (only) [TD]419[/TD] [/TR] [TR] Dark Cornish crosses [TD]478[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] Gen 1 - avg. (hatchery stock) [/TR] [TR] WR cockerel [TD]505[/TD] [/TR] [TR] WR pullet [TD]416[/TD] [/TR] [TR] Del [TD]315[/TD] [/TR] [TR] DC [TD]373[/TD] [/TR]

Wow, that DC really jumped up from gen 1 to gen 2 after you crossed it. All of them did, but, at first glance, I think it has the highest percentage rate of growth.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Good morning... The season hatched will make a big difference both in the rate of gain and final weight. Spring chicks will do better than summer, summer chicks seem to beat fall.... This is also the case with game birds. We first noticed it with quail. Held true with chukar as well....

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Good morning... The season hatched will make a big difference both in the rate of gain and final weight. Spring chicks will do better than summer, summer chicks seem to beat fall.... This is also the case with game birds. We first noticed it with quail. Held true with chukar as well....

That is great to know! I often wondered if the seasons made any difference! So far I'm on queue for raising 65 chickens this Spring for the freezer, I'll see what I can do about adding a few more crosses to incubator in 3 weeks. I've got 37 to add to the incubator today, and I may add 5 more to that. I need to clean out the trays first and disinfect everything, so it'll likely go on tonight. Based on the numbers so far, I'm thinking they will likely still take 18-20 weeks for market weight, but I'm okay with that for now. (Unfortunately, all of these Spring chickens will be slaughtered right around the time my second son will be born, so I may be asking a friend or 2 for help...)

I'm also excited about trying out caponizing for the first time. I'm hoping to caponize 2-3 of the biggest DCX cockerels and save them for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But more on that later...

 

[Fat Daddy]

I wish you lived closer! I bought caponizing tools a year ago and have not yet tried to use them. Studied it and watched all the Youtube on the subject... Just never actually tried it.... white Cornish are good at hiding their sex till past Capon age thou... We actually first noticed the seasonal differences while working on the "Tatanka quail" project. There were several of us seeing the same results, all over the country. So it was clearly not a isolated thing. Since then we saw the same effect on many other birds too. At first we thought it was a "heat of the summer" thing and the birds didn't eat as much.... But it is more pronounced in the fall/winter birds....