Question on Breeding Delaware Hens to Dark Cornish Rooster

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

I have straight Delawares - 5 hens and 1 rooster. I am not happy with the amount of meat on the roosters when I butcher them at 20-22 weeks and was thinking of replacing my Delaware Rooster with a Dark Cornish Rooster. I am new to this. Is this a standard cross? Will the chicks be a lot meatier? Do you think the egg production will suffer very much on the hen crosses if I hold some back for egg production?

 

[RAREROO]

Because of hybrid vigor and cornish already having large breasts, it should make a good meat bird, and also another plus side would be you would get sexlinked chicks that you could tell the males from females at day old by color. Not sure about the laying with breeding to cornish though.

 

[joletabey]

I was told by the gentleman that processed mine at about the same age as yours that they needed another 4 weeks of growth - you might want to try waiting a little longer if you can. He also suggested penning them in a smaller area than I had them in to keep them less active. My Dels are always moving around and in to something or other, keeping them quieter and feeding them with the idea that you are going to process might also help.
Otherwise, I have no idea about the cross you suggest. Hopefully someone else will.

 

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

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Thanks for the info. I didn't think about them being sex linked. That will be a plus.

 

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

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I appreciate your information. I still have 10 Roosters to butcher that are at 22 weeks right now that I was hoping to let get bigger. I don't mind keeping them longer but they are already in a small pen and the fighting is getting pretty bad. They have also had free choice of feed their whole lives. A couple of days ago I had to isolate 2 roos because they were getting pecked to death and where not being allowed to eat or drink.

The fighting is what made me think of crossing the Delaware girls (which I love) with a meaty Rooster so that I could process them before the fighting got bad. I would not have had any problems with the Delaware Roosters if they would have been big enough to butcher at 18-19 weeks. It has just been the last few weeks that it is kind of out of control.

Maybe someone else has crossed the Delaware hen with the Dark Cornish Rooster.

 

[le neige homme]

Isn't there some cat that has those "CornDels" as kind of an alternative to the Freedom Rangers?

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I would love to hear what the outcome of that cross is! Sounds yummy. I probably wouldn't save the pullets for layers, but it would be nice to have a more colorful meat flock, thanks to the auto-sexing.

 

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

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Not sure!

I have never heard of a "CornDel". I will have to do some more research! Thanks.

 

[Ryu]

I haven't done a Cornsih/Del cross. But here's a cross hen:

And a weeks worth of eggs:

I usually put the outcross roo on Cornish hens. If you are going the other way, put them in a small pen without a roost, so the big guy has an easier time chasing the hens down.

Good luck.

 

[Belinda's Funny Farm]

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Thanks and I appreciate the photos! I am glad to see you are getting 5 nice big eggs from a Cornish Cross Hen and she is a beautiful color too. That would be perfect. I have been doing a little research and most of what I found is the outcross roo with the Cornish hens. But I have limited space and want to go the other way so my egg production doesn't go down. I appreciate the advice on removing the roost. Hope this works as I think it will give me the best of both.