As many of you know I have been hard at my meat bird project for some time now 3 yrs, I am at a point where things are exactly what I want. Huge birds that are agile without leg or heart problems that roost at 4' without a problem, lay well early and lay ginormous eggs, grow pretty fast to butcher weight at 25 wks old at 5lb dressed for hen's and 7-8lbs dressed for Cockrels. No to get some serious #'s on the ground to begin hatching and selling them.
I have had a good hatching season so far I got an early start and was collecting in January hatched some in Feb, hatched some in March, the bator has 90 in it now due to hatch in 10 day's, and I have already started collecting for the next hatch. here are a few pic's of what has been going on so far.
AL
A pen of my project meat birds they have been doing great laying and I am hatching well from them.
A 5 mo old Project meat hen and she is already laying, and weighs 7-9lbs
I like that her back is nice and broad it helps the cavity and keeps them under the rooster nicely, her breasts are huge already
The egg on top is a normal everyday egg from them, the bottom egg is an extra large.
This is some of what has been hatching in Whites, WLR, Darks, and Jubilee's all standards. there are also some project meat chicks in there too.
Cornish Chicks
Some teen's in the outside brooder, all Cornish of course.
Here are a few of some of the Standard Cornish parent stock.
Of course the Ole Hulk looks to be ready for another breeding season, I have overcome some issues with him but we are back on track.
A young Cockrel who is proving himself very nicely, have hatched some already from him.
Hope you can see I do have my hands full this year and I must say it does feel very nice for a change.
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Hi Al,
Thanks for the update. So the CX x Cornish are producing eggs and chicks? Do you have any comparisons between (straight pure white Cornish), (CX x pure white Cornish), (CX x dark Cornish) or any other out-cross you've done as far as egg production numbers etc?
Are the 90 eggs in the original AL-Abator? Can you post pictures of the expanded AL-Abator? Did you create a separate hatcher?
Thanks,
Joe
Quote:
Hi Al,
Thanks for the update. So the CX x Cornish are producing eggs and chicks? Do you have any comparisons between (straight pure white Cornish), (CX x pure white Cornish), (CX x dark Cornish) or any other out-cross you've done as far as egg production numbers etc?
Are the 90 eggs in the original AL-Abator? Can you post pictures of the expanded AL-Abator? Did you create a separate hatcher?
Thanks,
Joe
Hey Joe.............. well let's see........... Yes I have expanded the AL-A-Bator I just added 3 more racks and installed a dbl wafer back-up system in it, the hatcher isn't finished yet but when it's done they will sit side by side and be a matching pair.
My egg production on these lastest new birds is really good, they hick-upped a tad this winter but never stopped as a flock at all, They do lay better than any straight Cornish, much more and eggs of super size, lot's of dbl yokers ( gotta fix that ).
I don't really know what to call these yet, but in a nut shell I have raised and crossed the Cornish into the X's the Rocks into the Cornish, the rocks into the X's and the X's into more X's and XX's into XX's, and then culled re bred culled re bred and so on until I got it, I have literaly crossed dozens of times into all combinations to get them. The current prodigy is a bird that looks sort of like a Cornish X but with no down sides, thick strong legs to hold the weight and frame, larger body cavity to avoid heart problems and process feed better, not too fast of a growth rate but plenty fast still but with all of the crossing's the meat quality at an older age was a big factor and the meat will never be tough or chewy. I also bred for small combs and wattles, tight feathers, yellow skin, and most importantly Vitality, they get around very well and can be as hard to catch as a daggone leghorn LOL.
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Great picture, thanks for posting them. How long before your dad finds out the results of the NPIP inspection?
Joe
Thanks. Well the blood smear tests were all negative as we were doing them. The tracia swabs for avian influensia have to be checked at the state lab. They figure it would take a couple weeks, I don't imagine there will be any problems.