Red Laced Cornish X and project talk (pics p. 8)

[Minniechickmama]

Why, Thank you, Sir.
Just the one really handsome one is a total jerk, although, since he has been sneaking into my Cochin and Buckeye pen at night, he hasn't been quite as bad. Now, to breed some good Cornish into him if I decide to keep the bugger around. I know it works the other way better (Cornish roo over the XB hen) but since I don't have any of the good looking crosses in the female type.....
I do have some DCs that don't look too bad so far, not great, but way better than the WLRs I got from McM. Gary is getting some eggs to me next week that will obviously be in improvement over what I have here already. But those won't be laying until mid to late winter or spring.

I booted the one jerk out of the pen 24/7 when he started acting up. My GP Hamburg roo got after him right away, so maybe that settled him down a little

If he Hamburg catches him messing with his big old girls, that boy is going to get a really big lesson! Old Hammie likes that big DP girls. It must be the challenge of getting the job done once he is on top. The funniest darned thing to see!

 

[SteveH]

BTW, Big Medicine, if you happen to read, I want to say how pleased I am with the chicks from you're blue laced red Cornish project eggs. They aren't going to pass as Cornish due to the softer feather, but they're very nice, wide chicks at this stage.......................... too young to know if any will develope that huge mass of muscle projecting out in front, but it's already obvious that the breast meat will be thicker , wider, and extending farther down the keel than anything I've seen other than good Cornish [excludeing commercial CX of course]. They're heavy shanked and large, though quite a bit slower developing than the Orpingtons they're caged with. The project chicks are as big or bigger by heft, broader and heavier framed on the average, but you can already easily sex the Orps [that are a day younger], and the Orps are feathering faster. I'm hoping one or two of the whites are male, and can head a breeding pen of CX pullets and two White Aseels.
[In fairness to the Orpington fans, I shoud state they are off a lavender/isabel project, and some of them may lack the substance and frame of really good heritage stock.]

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
I'm not supporting breeding man-aggressive birds, but I kept an Ameraucan X CX that hit me every chance he got; he quit that BS later after he hit me from behind in the big pen, and I reflexively spun and swung the empty 5 gal bucket I was carrying, bouncing him off the fence. The buffalo gnats culled him before he reproduced. Here he is at a few weeks of age with a same age EE, waiting to hit me if I open that cage door. LOL

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:

all the true representaives are so uncommon of the mentioned breeds or varieties, you have to be dedicated to the point of obscession to keep at the breeding of them.

Hence my total frustration

and passion

. It's a mess but I am fast after it.

So I thought the possibility of the Hulk throwing naturaly fertile eggs was a reach, I went out to the pens to do a little milking to Dbl check ( Shut

Steve

) LOL and sure enough I got a good white sample of a decent amount

. So my optimism is better now, woooo... Hoooo little hulks at last

, he does however like to throw a buttload of quiters.

AL


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/10364_img_0713.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/10364_img_0712.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/10364_img_0378.jpg

What an awesome rooster! He is amazing!

 

[Tracydr]

Hey, Al- I think we're going to be moving an entire year earlier than I thought. As in 12 months from now! So, be keeping me in mind for some of your WLRC culls next summer! Promise me you get rid of this insane weather before next year, too. Eleven years in OK, I never saw a year like you've had this year!

 

[big medicine]

Quote:
Sounding good Steve, if these F2"s finish anything like the F1's did, it may be a while getting there, but I think you will be very pleased with the final product. As to the feather hardness, I think breeding back to good Cornish, or your Aseels, would likely address that in a few generations. On the other hand the softer feather would likely be an advantage in colder climates. There were two of the F1's that were very noticable throw backs to their Brahma heritage, (a male and a female), much looser feather, longer back, taller, and some leg stubble, that we did not keep. So there may be some variaton in this generation as well, but that's half the fun.

Theri, I have always have been an advocate for good personalities/temperment in my breeders, especially the males. The splash BLR Wyandote male I used to bring the blue into my projects was a flighty, excitable, guy, at least compared to my Brahmas. His chicks seemed to have inherited more than his color. It took a bit working that out, but better I think to avoid it in the first place, if possible. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of using a bird you do not like.

Eggs should go out tomorrow, weather looks to be a little cooler this week as well.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
If I'm reading this right, you're getting eggs from Bid Medicine's project BLRCs? If so, I think you'll like them! I had a pretty good percentage on developers, but ran into terrible problems with high humidity during the hatch [bator at 80% and higher] and lost the majority because of it. Even with the air conditioner running, I couldn't get the inside humidity down, but went into lockdown at my usual 60% with only a bit of water in the reservoir. A big mistake; I should have lockdowned completely dry, because after the first two hatched, humidity spiked like crazy and wouldn't go down inspite of all the vents open and me frequently opening it up to help chicks out. By the way, they hatched at 22 and 23 days, and some I helped out weren't ready even then. The others [LF Orps] I incubated at the same time in the same bator hatched at 20 days; so don't get all paranoid if nothing's happening at 21 days................. they seem to run long.

I had my camera out as I headed out to a family get-to-gether [my son is home from Alaska

] so I took a few quick snapshots of them this afternoon. They're a day or two over 6 weeks.

Most [if not all] of the patterned chicks are single laced, so can't be called Dark Cornish, but black laced red looks good to me.

This white is the smallest, and all three whites are growing slower than the four BLRs. The Lavender Orpington is a day younger, looks bigger, but feels lighter than them.

Same two, a bit different angle.

Two others. You can see they all have the naked keel of true Cornish at this point, typey neck carriage, and their heads show promise of developing a fairly nice brow ridge and possibly some size. I suppose it doesn't matter on a meat bird, but I love that look.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
I was thinking they were the ideal type for breeding to produce the winter hardy bird I'm shooting for, from the minute you introduced them here.

I'm no longer convinced the hard feather is great for warm climes either...................... the 3 most Cornish appearing chicks from the DCS over hatchery sourced were the ones that died from heat.

But I may have been bit by the Cornish bug, 'cause I'm goin' into my third year of lookin' to find some good ones, though at first it was just for my project. I've got 4 varieties of Ameraucanas again................. now I'm thinking of selling all but those I need for my project and keeping a line of quality Cornish instead. Who knowes, maybe I'll run across a splash bantam blue laced Cornish roo to toss in a pen with those pullets from you.

If I weren't so poor, I'd probably have several varieties of a dozen breeds or more instead of the dozen individuals I intended to get down to by last winter.

 

[SteveH]

I've been wanting to move things around and put some of my keeper juvies in the big pen, but waiting to see if the owl problem was solved. I decided if it had not found a way in again by the middle of this week, to move some into there. It found its way in last night and killed that WLRC I pictured awhile back.

I had killed a bull snake caught in the nylon netting and had to tear the netting down to get it out. I tossed the snake in the pen but the chickens refused to eat it....................... the owl had, leaving only bits and pieces, and then went into the coop for a chicken too. Judging by the wing marks in the sand, it had tried but failed to fly off with what was left of the chicken. I wouldn't have thought an owl would go into a lighted coop to make a kill on the ground, didn't think birds of prey made walk-up ground kills period, thought they needed a dive kill; but evidently I was wrong, judgeing by Tracy's post, my own earlier losses of the CXs, the Ameraucana, and now this one.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
Yeah, if I can find my picture of the hawk killing the peachick, I'll post it. I actually have a series of pics while it sat on the yard fence, deliberating its move. I'm sorry about your loss, that was a really nice WLRC.
Speaking of bantam Cornish, other than pets, what are they raised for? Would any of their genes be helpful added back to some of these projects? How long would it take to breed back to size? I'm such a bantie/small bird lover but Banties are really so useless. Even my laying breeds of choice are practically bantie sized. I'd love to know that I could raise a bantie breed with a purpose, other than garden ornament! Not that I'm going to ditch my OEGBs anytime soon!