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

[SteveH]

No more predator losses but getting a little nervous. A game cam caught a couger near here, and last night my dogs went crazy inside the house but I couldn't find anything outside. Tonight I went to town at about 5 and saw what I thought a road-kill deer about 5 feet off the blacktop had been gutted by scanvengers, but it looked mostly still intact. When I came home after dark I had to swerve to miss it because the twisted carcass was in the center of the road. I finally got curious a minute ago and drove back to look at it................. the rear quarters are missing except for the leg bones below the hocks, held to the carcass by skin, and the rib cage is mostly missing. I figure it isn't possums

but hoping it's the pack of coyotes I keep hearing down that way.

Part of me likes the larger predators returning to this area, but another part doesn't.

 

[Illia]

Okay so after much stalking of this thread I decided to join again.


A long time ago (well, too long in my opinion) I mentioned my project of crossing my Shamo cock with larger breeds like Marans for a meat project, long story short nothing successful happened, never got chicks until now, I finally got ONE chick out of my Sussex hen x Shamo cock. Then she went broody go figures. I decided to go Sussex this time because, for one, my new Sussex hens are the biggest of all my chickens here, and quite meaty too. Also, they'll throw some neater colors, and down the road, I'll see about getting some meat birds that carry mahogany, lavender, and gold to see about a purple hue just for the fun of it. (My Sussex carries Lavender)


Anyway I'm very excited for this, umm, one chick and will see how it grows to be. I'm expecting a very Cornish-esque type bird with enormous size but likely slow growth. Eventually it will be joined by many others once my Sussex hens start laying again.


My Sussex hens used for this are enormous imported line girls, better than my last idea of Marans x Shamo. The one chick obviously inherited some hard feathering, and obviously is quite Wheaten influenced in color. There's a 50/50 of it being barred, and it is indeed sex-linked but with its solid yellow chick down color there's no saying in boy or girl until it feathers out. Pics soon.


Parents -

Lovin' people's Cornish here. . . Very jealous. I'd love to have some Cornish but golly do they sound hard to keep and breed. So, I'm seeing how this project runs. Eventually I'll put some Araucana in here too for a rumpless effect and more breast as well as a different egg color and a stronger, healthier, hardier bird.

 

[SteveH]

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An interesting cross, and a Shamo of that quality is no easier to get one's hands on than a quality Cornish; color and quality combined in that Shamo probably more difficult to find than even a good White Cornish.

 

[SteveH]

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Ah come on Al, the contract will keep the job there over the weekend.

 

[al6517]

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Ah come on Al, the contract will keep the job there over the weekend.

LOl yeah I can allways find an excuss I guess, I layed off 4 guy's this past year one whole framing crew, but kept all of my interior finish crew's in hopes of more upper end larger remodels projects, will see if it pan's out. I really do want to go.

 

[big medicine]

Hey guys, and gals. I have a tough decision to make. Dad was told by his Doc. this past week that he is having some heart valve issues. As a result he is to do no heavy lifting, no snow shoveling, no going out in very cold weather. He wants to try to keep at least a few of his white Cornish, with Mom's help. He's 78 and Mom is 73.

So this leaves the blue laced red, and solid blue cornish projects up in the air. As much as I like them, I don't really have room at my place, unless I built/bought more coops, and live too far away to help keep them at Dad's. So I guess I am fishing for opinions/ideas here. The few of you that have some chicks from these projects, or even just saw the pictures, do you think there is a niche for them, are they worth going forward with ?

 

[Tracydr]

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Good thing about the larger predator is they keep the smaller predators in check. I've only had problems once with a bobcat. Never with a cougar, although when I've lived where there were cougars I think other game like deer and wild turkey would have been far more attractive than a few little chickens and guineas. I did have a yearling horse attacked once in Olympia, WA. That was scary!

 

[chickened]

I really think there is not much of a market out there for the blue or BLR cornish. They are fun to work with as a hobby (Iknow). Sorry for your parents' health issue.
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[Illia]

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The issue is that since Cornish X are the thing and few people consider REAL Cornish, sadly there's not much a market. If you had hatching eggs around I'd take some though. Don't really know about others. The key is spreading the word, pictures, and advertisement and availability. For the people looking for Cornish, sadly, no one has any to sell (especially eggs) which really hurts public interest.

 

[chickened]

I know and never really understood (stand) why the big chinese secret. I am glad to share them. With that said I do choose with whom by my criteria.
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The issue is that since Cornish X are the thing and few people consider REAL Cornish, sadly there's not much a market. If you had hatching eggs around I'd take some though. Don't really know about others. The key is spreading the word, pictures, and advertisement and availability. For the people looking for Cornish, sadly, no one has any to sell (especially eggs) which really hurts public interest.