Question for the experts

[Richard]

I have Raised CornishxRocks 2 times now and have good results and have been very happy with them.But this spring I was thinking About trying the rangers after hearing how great they are from other people on this board. So I went to the J.M.Hatchery site to read up on them and to see if I could go ahead and preorder them now.Well I was surprized to read on their site that the CornishXRocks are referred to as a hybrid white synthetic Cornish cross. Before I started raising the cornishXrocks I did quite abit of reading on them and as I understood it they were a result of many years of select breeding .But there is no information that I can find that would indicate that they are in anyway synthetic or genectly (spelling?)altered.Am I reading it wrong? How could they make claims like that without it being true
http://www.jmhatchery.com/Colored-Range-Chicks-p5.html

 

[jvls1942]

I was told once that the CorXRock was the result of a Cornish Rooster and a White Rock hen.. If that is the case, it is just a cross breed or a mutt.. no big deal..

maybe my information was wrong?
I am not a breeder so I really do not know..

 

[silkiechicken]

The parent strains, the Rock and the Cornish. Each parent strain have been under selective breeding for 50-60 years now. When these parents are mated together, the offspring have the right genetic make up to grow fast and make meat.

No DNA in a tube, no artificial egg injections, just half a century of selective breeding. The same way different breeds of chickens were created over time, they all descended from one type of wild jungle fowl.

There is always lots of selective wording in advertising, so you can't always take everything you read at face value.

 

[Richard]

well then how could they be calling them synthetic

 

[silkiechicken]

Probably just because of crafty advertising.

Perhaps they are calling them synthetic because they do not run around in fields and grow up like "normal" images of chickens?

They are trying to sell you their type of meat bird, and so they are probably going to say things within reason to get you to buy them.

 

[greyfields]

they are not synthetic, which implies some kind of genetic engineering

The difference between a colored range broiler and a standard USA cornish cross is the agressiveness of selection. The poulet rouge scheme requires 82 day old chickens, where as the USA systems is honed for 42 day old birds. With the 40 extra days, you can breed much more color, vigor, and disease resistance to the bird.

Regardless if talking Cornish Cross or Colored Range Broiler, the "Cornish" and "Rock" used for the crossbred hybrids look nothing like those we have in the backyard. It's simply an allusion to the origins of the breeding.