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
