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

[KatyTheChickenLady]

When I was little my old indian granpa used to take me coon hunting. Coon hunting is not fun for a little girl; you tromp through the woods all night, the woods at night is not a fun place for a little girl; old indian granpas don't like to talk much, so you just listen to the very spooky sound of the invisible hounds calling out all night in the woods . . . coon hounds bite little girls when they get excited; then it culminates with granpa shooting the cute little fuzzy up in the tree. Coon hunting was not fun, but I went because I loved my granpa , and if boys could do it so could I!!
One cold spring night, we were tromping home through the flooded fields that were lit by the moon. granpa had a gunny sack of little live baby coons thrown over his shoulder, I could see them wiggle every now and then from my slow poke place in the rear. I hated the hot wires that ran across the fields and I always got all the way down on my belly to go under them (not fun in a flooded field), but granpa he just stooped down and under and took them in stride.
All my days of silently suffering through the coon getting shot were made good when one of those little babies in the gunny sack reached a hand up and grabbed that hot wire just as granpa was bending under it. I laughed so hard I never got invited coon hunting again. Granpa died a long while back and I'm sure that little coon is gone by now too, but I'm still laughing.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:

so grandpa got a taste of his own medicine of getting the poopers scared out of him?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

oh standing there in that water, he got the shock of his life.

But back to birds - hey steve! I butchered a 24 month Am roo a few weeks ago, his carcass weight was almost 5 lbs. I cooked him last night (oven not crock pot). Honestly that was one of the best tasting birds we've had . . . you may really be on to something with your cross.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Loved the story , you should go pro .

My young Ameraucana look meaty , though awful small . I didn't take time to really find out how much meat is under their feathers when I last wing clipped . My EE are not meaty at all . Its been many years since I ate anything other than a store bought chicken except for the recent CX I culled and some stewing hens back in the 70s . I really hadn't given much thought to breeding for flavor , but its good to know you found the Ameraucana flavorful . I know the Marans were once prized for their flavor so your crosses may be gourmet stock .

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

gourmet birds . . . that's what I'm hoping for baby!

 

[SteveH]

I built a creep feeder so that my smaller/younger Ameraucanas and the EE cockeral that will cover the CX on the first go-round could be on full feed in the same pen as the CX pullets on a restricted diet . The top opens and there's a trough running the length of the back wall that will hold more than enough feed to last 10 or 12 chickens two days .

After a few days two of the CX learned to twist their bodies to take advantage of the wider diagnal of the 6" square openings , worked their legs like NFL linemen on blocking dummies , and put themselves on full feed

Getting in was easier than getting out ; its butted against the shed behind it , but would slide several feet before catching enough sand to stop it and allow them to squeeze back out

I made a modification that's working [ so far ]

I'm starting to think the hatchery bred WLRC are going to be better meat birds than I expected . They're slowly getting a more meaty body type . While definately not show type , the pullet in the background of the second pic is starting to look more like I hoped they might turn out ; meaty breast yet up on longer legs like the old paintings of the original Indian Games [ i.e. Cornish ] . Both the CX cockeral and WLRC are 17 & 1/2 weeks .

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

great idea on the feeder steve. I think you'er right about the cornish, I like them more every time you post pics of them.

 

[al6517]

Evening folks : Awhile ago I seem to remember me promising some of my meat bird project pic's, well I finally got a few so if you'd like I would be happy to show what progress I have made so far. It is fairley long and comprehensive so if you can bear with me we can have us a nice long discussion later as is why I like this thread so much. We seem to have the same frame of mind with regards to each others project's, and following and learning is just great.

Some of my buddy's have been supportive and helpful in my efforts they need mention................. Jim ( Buster 52 ) Pepper 48, my good buddy Monty of the Okies thread and a special thanks to a master Cornish man who's step's we all wish we could walk in, great guy GB1, Thanks Gerald.

So as many of you know I am into producing a self sustainable meat bird as are Ya'll, My focus being different variations of breed ing my own parent stock of big Ole billy bad a** meat bird's. My mission is long an ongoing but these things do if you want the pipe dream LOL. Here is what is developing now and some future idea's as to where I want to go with this.

My Main seed stock as many of you already know, are Large White Standard Cornish.......... ( The Holy Grail ) of seed stock, and some Terry Britt Stock White Rock show breeders, along with my Cornish X birds that have been nutured and grown to healthy laying age and weight for experimental control group. I like the idea of starting out and dealing with white feathers and pinkish white skin, and the best stock to achieve all the things we are looking for in a shorter more controlled pace.

I have bred the following various combination's.............

1.) Standard Cornish Rooster Over Pure white rock hen's
2.) Pure White rock roosters over Standard Conish hen's
3.) Cornish X rooster over Standard Cornish hen's
4.) Standard Cornish Rooster over Cornish X hen's
5.) Cornish X to Conish X

Some of hatching was spotty due to fertility issues with the Big Straight Cornish Roo as we all know can sometimes at best be tough, but with persistance and some decent AI work we were able to have some success. The same went for the Cornish Cross Roosters who did well, but still hatching their ratio's was low. The white rock's to each other was fine but I didn't need as many of them.

I culled for several thing's in these stages.......... bone growth, structure, good solid leg's with above average girth and plenty of shank length, head & neck confirmation, comb selection, and feather tightness close fitting compact feathers with the tell tail sign of slight ( 1-3 ) black ( Ticking ) mark's which indicates a true silver gene in good Cornish Whites. I looked at growth rates right from the start but chose only those with the other qualities first, as muscle and tissue can be easily put on with our meat bird grow out methods, but bone structure and the ability to grow into the frame must come first for my program. I have gotten some exceptional Buckeye stock and I am hoping to work them into this complex equasion at some point, still working that in but I have some promising idea's there also. A little word about the cull's as they grow out they have ability and will be very nice and better for the table as any so called dual purpose bird, and this will help serve as yet another learning tool in as far as taste and overall look/table fare which is also paramount in the program.

Ok so here they are along with a brief explanation of what we want to focus on in the pic.

A White Rock Roo over a Standard Cornish Hen at 5 week's old- Pullet

A good head & neck on her with Pea comb and straight short brow.

Good back structure with more fluff but still tighter.

Good stout leg's with decent shank length and a broad stance

she is filling out nicely and on schedule.

A grow out pen of the same age and crosses all 5 wk's old with good differences to watch for.

Another good hen from the above group.

This one is showing more Straight Cornish Back and feather type with a lower back profile and super nice tight close feathering.

I was very happy to get 2 worthy Pure Standard Cornish chicks out of my trio. A hen and a Roo

Good pure Standard whites and even Bantam Cornish whites must have a slight greenish tint to the front of the leg, That pretty much shout's out Ken Herring stock ( which my Hen's are ), notice the length of shank.

here in the Standard White Cornish you must have that tell tail bare breast bone that is the must standard for good Cornish White's only.

The white Cornish Standards together in their grow out pen.

An important word on Standard White Cornish Shank's, we have as of late been experiencing short shank length on these birds and I feel in my opinion from watching these hulking monsters try to breed that this is a problem and fertility is suffering from it, here I purposefully chose the longer shank when culling for future breeding success. Without it my breed/seed stock is worthless. here you can see the Rooster's leg girth is promising.

So in short there you have what I am working on and my progress so far. I would like to incourage further banter and see what we can learn from each others work on this program. In 4 more weeks i will be posting more of what these same birds are doing and we can go from there. In the mean time I am still hatching and working my brain and network to the bone trying to get better birds and stock, while still working to get some serious numbers on the groung from which to evaluate from.

Many thank's to my friends and for everybody's help and encouraging support for without we could be wallowing in despare LOL.


AL

 

[nnbreeder]

Wow Al, those are beautiful birds. Great job!

 

[SteveH]

Thank you for the pics Al , and congratulations on producing those great looking birds .