My own meat project.

[5 Acre Rooster]

Last check, less than an hour ago, had 6 live meat project birds. I don't know exactly the sires since I penned the females and started saving eggs, before then they had 6 roosters with the flock. The group of eggs I sat tonight I know the sire for sure. Anyway I have 4 yellow/whites (With a little black bleeding on 1 that I noticed) and 2 that look almost Australorp-ish. After next weeks set I might swap out the rooster, Austra-White for another. I have only 1 pure BA and all others are BSL or BYM. I have some pure replacement birds brooding now and may try to cross them at the end of summer. Also planning on saving a rooster from the chopping block and crossing him over some of my hens to see which way the cross works best.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

A couple things I noticed when I I check on the new comers, while adding water/feed to brooder. 1 of my BYM eggs might have got mixed in with CX eggs because I have a black feather foot chick. 2 The other black chick hatched so far has leg color of BA, 1 or 2 more has some slight black on shanks.
Most of the white chicks have yellow shanks, at least 2 do. 1 has a real pronounced black spot on back while 2 have very slight if any coloration difference on fluff. I am going to check again closer for feathering, black spots and eye lid pigment. Long shot but might have some ideas to try even if they are a 5-6 way cross mutt in all actuality.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Okay took a few minutes and rated feathering, color of whites and eyes (discarding info, none found.). Did notice when checking them 3 whites are more pot bellied than other 3 birds. I could feel their weight difference in my hands. Maybe tomorrow I will get ambitious and weigh them and make sure I am not deluding myself.
Shank color on whites was yellow to slightly smoked, barely seen. The chicks are as follows

W-1 Pronounced Black spot, with 2nd lighter spot. Feathering 1 (see below)
W-2 Clear, no spots feathering 2
W-3 Smokey, Feathering 0
W-4 Smokey, feathering 0 (freshest hatch will check again in day time)
Black Black, dark shanks, Feathering 2 (Also was 1st responding with peck at hand and feed on paper towel.)
B-FF Black, dark feathered shanks. feathering 2



Ok breakdown the info I added. "W" = white bird Black= black. B-FF Black feather foot.

Feather I planned on 1-3 but decided on 0-3. 0 being almost no quill present, 1 feathers are there but only slightly. 2 Heavy long quills. 3 feathers not just quills. (May also include tail feathers.)

Smokey= white with dusting of black, spotty or overall, seeming gray.

Will try to keep track of these closely for my and other peoples reference. I think only 2 of the 12 that made lock down are yet unpipped, but is only 2 hrs past 21 mark. Will wait 24 hours for final tally. Next batch, just set tonight will be better uniform for comparison.

For other reference fertility was 92% 12/13 went to lock down. Just 1 clear. Counting pips as hatch (for my sake of reference.) Its a 83% current hatch rating. But not complete.

Like I said I may have a couple BYM in the bunch, namely the 2 blacks (But all males here have black in them somewhere.) The feather shanks I am really thinking is from my X-breed hen, not CX anything but still white. May have got slipped in pen on accident. Unless somewhere in 1 of the roosters is a recessive gene, doubtful it is in the CX but who knows.

BTW 5/6 of the hatched chicks are my current avatar.

 

[LindaB220]

Okay took a few minutes and rated feathering, color of whites and eyes (discarding info, none found.). Did notice when checking them 3 whites are more pot bellied than other 3 birds. I could feel their weight difference in my hands. Maybe tomorrow I will get ambitious and weigh them and make sure I am not deluding myself.
Shank color on whites was yellow to slightly smoked, barely seen. The chicks are as follows

W-1 Pronounced Black spot, with 2nd lighter spot. Feathering 1 (see below)
W-2 Clear, no spots feathering 2
W-3 Smokey, Feathering 0
W-4 Smokey, feathering 0 (freshest hatch will check again in day time)
Black Black, dark shanks, Feathering 2 (Also was 1st responding with peck at hand and feed on paper towel.)
B-FF Black, dark feathered shanks. feathering 2



Ok breakdown the info I added. "W" = white bird Black= black. B-FF Black feather foot.

Feather I planned on 1-3 but decided on 0-3. 0 being almost no quill present, 1 feathers are there but only slightly. 2 Heavy long quills. 3 feathers not just quills. (May also include tail feathers.)

Smokey= white with dusting of black, spotty or overall, seeming gray.

Will try to keep track of these closely for my and other peoples reference. I think only 2 of the 12 that made lock down are yet unpipped, but is only 2 hrs past 21 mark. Will wait 24 hours for final tally. Next batch, just set tonight will be better uniform for comparison.

For other reference fertility was 92% 12/13 went to lock down. Just 1 clear. Counting pips as hatch (for my sake of reference.) Its a 83% current hatch rating. But not complete.

Like I said I may have a couple BYM in the bunch, namely the 2 blacks (But all males here have black in them somewhere.) The feather shanks I am really thinking is from my X-breed hen, not CX anything but still white. May have got slipped in pen on accident. Unless somewhere in 1 of the roosters is a recessive gene, doubtful it is in the CX but who knows.

BTW 5/6 of the hatched chicks are my current avatar.

Sounds great!!! Don't forget that when you are breeding it takes about 3 weeks to get all sperm from one rooster gone and another started. That might be what you're looking at.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

I know. Wasn't concerned about who bred them when I started. Just wanted to make sure they would hatch ok. Just pulled 2 more from bator. So up to 8 healthy chicks. 1 of each color this time. So 3 black and 5 white so far. Believe there are still 2 that paiiped last night yet to hatch, if they are.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

#9 is fluffed and with the others. Will check later and see if any more are still active or if they didn't progress since 4 am.

 

[Arielle]

hpw large are the eggs?? I was surprzed by the size of the eggs and i'm wondering if all cornish x lay elg eggs??

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

These we mostly just average, about the same as my other eggs. I have all pullets this year so not a lot of jumbos, although there are a few. A few of the chick FEEL heavier. There are a couple non CX eggs/chicks in this mix. Next set SHOULD be all CX crosses. And rooster is Autra-White, maybe some leakage from prior roosters but overall they should show me a more uniform chick, if they are uniform with the possible 6 way cross. Will keep up with these post as much as I can. No weights yet but am going to keep compare with the 2 chicks I know are not CX cross that hatched with them. Both are DP crosses. so I hoping for good comparison in coming weeks. And with CX a month ahead of this batch I can eyeball some similarities/differences that I see. Will try keep posting pictures when I get them so I can use others eyes besides my own so I get unbiased view.

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Ok final count was 13 went into lockdown, 1 pip death, 2 never started, I did not check them after. 10 live chicks. I have 1 3/4 BA that I know of, I marked her egg when she layed it. And the FF. Not positive but 1 might be bearded, had an EE roo before culling him just before saved eggs for set. And this 1 is slightly chipmunk colored.
I took my large postage scale out to garage and weighed the chicks, under 2 lbs it goes by 2/10s of an ounce. I didn't do grams The lightest was 1.2 oz. (3/4 BA) and the heaviest was 2 oz. even. At 2/10 oz. increments these are the tallies, 1-1.2, 3-1.4, 2-1.6, 3-1.8 and 1 -2.0. Averaging 1.6 oz. (But I know there are 2 non meats, will have to double check the weight of the FF) Never worried about weighing chicks before so I have no past comparison.
As for color I ended with 6/4 white/black (Or chipmunk) So the white isn't a strong dominant left in the CX I don't think.

A week and I will try to weight again since that would better give growth weigh and average because the oldest chick is 48 hours old and youngest 24 or fewer. Will do my best to keep up with this on here for others referencing it. Have a lot of jobs over due though so might need a reminder often. Will post pictures if I can get my phone to load to my pc. Otherwise I have to send to my email and then copy to pc and the upload, rather a pain really.

As a side note if I don't save a CX rooster from butchering or am unhappy with the 1 I do I have a replacement rooster in brooding now. Though he was BO but not sure. I can say he is almost x2 the size of the other 11 with him. Presuming he is the same age he may be a fast growing bird I will be interested in crossing with the CX later. He was slightly larger than the whole pen when we got him. But didn't appear to be a week older, thought this thru already. He is growing feathers and weight wise at an alarming rate compared to his brood partners. I need to move the CX chicks out of that brooder so I can move these 12 roosters into theirs. Otherwise I will have to run 2-3 brooders to give everyone space. And I have more birds due now or soon so its a have to deal I think.
Will keep everyone posted.

 

[Arielle]

Looking at a bird can be so deceptive-- all the fluff of fleathers and then in pics the issue of scale. Much to be said for putting your hands on the bird and weighing them.