Hi, all! I apologize upfront if this is a really stupid question and I will learn a LOT more about the whole process before I start, but I'd like to have a sense of what will and won't work.
I bought my day olds from McMurray which included 8 Dark Cornish. I wanted straight run but they only had males that week so I took them. They are about 4 weeks old right now and starting to (slowly!) feather in. I'm not so convinced they are all boys anymore. Some seem to be coming in really black and some seem to have a brown and black patterning. I won't know for sure for a while yet though.
Now for the question. Ultimately, my goal is to cross Dark Cornish over another English breed for a fast-growing meat bird. But I would want to bump up my Dark Cornish population a bit first to be able to pick out the best males for the breeding project and eat the rest.
If I do have straight run, how likely is it that they are going to be siblings if they all came out of the same hatch? I certainly wouldn't want to inbreed to that extent. I believe someone on the boards once said that McMurray brings in so many hatches from different places that the likelihood of related eggs is small. Any opinions on that? Should I just order some girls or some fertile eggs from another source?
I bought my day olds from McMurray which included 8 Dark Cornish. I wanted straight run but they only had males that week so I took them. They are about 4 weeks old right now and starting to (slowly!) feather in. I'm not so convinced they are all boys anymore. Some seem to be coming in really black and some seem to have a brown and black patterning. I won't know for sure for a while yet though.
Now for the question. Ultimately, my goal is to cross Dark Cornish over another English breed for a fast-growing meat bird. But I would want to bump up my Dark Cornish population a bit first to be able to pick out the best males for the breeding project and eat the rest.
If I do have straight run, how likely is it that they are going to be siblings if they all came out of the same hatch? I certainly wouldn't want to inbreed to that extent. I believe someone on the boards once said that McMurray brings in so many hatches from different places that the likelihood of related eggs is small. Any opinions on that? Should I just order some girls or some fertile eggs from another source?