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

[SteveH]

Quote:
We all make mistakes. If you're like I can be, you may whip yourself for them too much; a useless waste of emotional energy. I used to have an older friend [R.I.P., Roy] that set a great example for me. Within minutes after any big screw up, he would smile and say "If that's the worst mistake I make today, it's going to be a pretty good day.".

With the heat, some life stresses, and too much going on at one time, I know a major setback after spending so much time and effort in getting where you're at can be pretty overwhelming. My prayers are with you, and I wish I had some quality Cornish so I could help you out.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
We all make mistakes. If you're like I can be, you may whip yourself for them too much; a useless waste of emotional energy. I used to have an older friend [R.I.P., Roy] that set a great example for me. Within minutes after any big screw up, he would smile and say "If that's the worst mistake I make today, it's going to be a pretty good day.".

With the heat, some life stresses, and too much going on at one time, I know a major setback after spending so much time and effort in getting where you're at can be pretty overwhelming. My prayers are with you, and I wish I had some quality Cornish so I could help you out.

Thanks a heapin bunch for the encouraging words Steve and your right we beat ourselfs up too much about such things and Roy had some wise words to heed. Charley is also going through a rough patch and losing some to wild dog pac's I think he said, wiped out 7 big Tom's he was raising. I still have enough left to get a start next spring........... LOL seems like every year I am starting sheeesh when will I just get there and start being able to share a few of these nice birds with some Cornish friends. I have some Whites and WLR's in the bator now and more collecting so we will begin the saga yet again.

AL

 

[Tracydr]

Al,I bet the ones in your incubator are your best ever!
I had a pitbull break down the gate to my yard, which I thought was pretty much impenetrable, early this summer, and kill half my Cornish Xs. It was going after my Papillon, when my Doberman took it down. My Doberman is usually a sissy but I guess she was defending her family. Thank God, as I would have just died if something had happened to my little Papillon. As it was, all the dogs and birds, not to mention people, were pretty traumatized for a few days. I kept kicking myself for not having reinforced that gate even more, but who knew?it seemed to have worked well for the past four years.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Heat is not forgiving. If I forget to water even a portion of my garden, I lose the plants. Recently, a water main broke where I keep my horses. Thank goodness somebody who lives out there called me. It was 114 degrees and the horses were sucking the automatic watering pans. I would have had sick horses in no-time!

 

[SteveH]

I bartered for an addition to my pens tonight, and hope to bring her home this week. Last week I spotted a White Aseel hen near here. She didn't look as upright in stance as a quality Aseel should be, and I mistook her for a White Cornish pullet that probably would not develope out as thick I want, though to be honest, closer than the hatchery sourced WLRs I had. In some ways the slow growing, smaller Aseel is a step backwards for me; but her muscular chest and legs with that primitive, predatory looking head just kept in my mind untill I decided to see if she was available.

If I never find a White Cornish to buy or trade for, at least I'll have one ingredient to mix and bake my own, kinda, sorta, homemade White Cornish

[Plus she's just a cool looking bird.]

 

[al6517]

Some of the bigger Cornish guy's out west have been working in white Aseel to their white cornish programs in hopes of getting a longer leg that would improve natural breeding. They end up coming out with really long shanks and even longer necks but still maintain the better cornish qualities, you can then have those roosters breed with stouter hen's and it will work out. Good job on getting the Aseel Steve you will like the bird, they are very gamey so be careful on how you house him. They will even fight others through wire and get hurt, although they aren't a problem with their owners. If you can get a hold of a nice trio from that guy and set some eggs they can be worth some nice dough. Of course we all want to to see him.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
It's a hen. He doesn't have a roo, but said he had another Aseel hen brooding that I haven't seen. This guy has a wide variety of poultry wandering his pens that he just enjoys looking at, and is not really a breeder; he has them under a Speckled Sussex roo currently. My thinking is that if one of those softer feathered recessive whites that I have from Big Medicine's blue laced red Cornish project is male, the cross to Aseel might be a good one for producing a more typey bird, though certainly not a low-rider.

 

[Tracydr]

Thanks, All of you fro providing details to my questions. I'm just beginning to learn about meat breeds and believe that I will want to focus on one of the Cornish varieties, most likely the WLR or Dark Cornish. Id love to start sooner than later but I already have three roosters in a city neighborhood where roosters are not allowed. (two OEGBs garden ornaments, one Egyptian Fayoumi). So, I'm holding off on getting into the Cornish until we move, which will probably be about 18 months to two years from now. In the mean time, I'll develop my skills by raising some batches of Cornish Crosses.
My thoughts on the WLR is that they are less likely to be eaten by predators if allowed to free range. Seems when I've had any bird in a free range situation, from chicken to guinea to peafowl, the white or lighter colored ones end up nearing extinction within a years time. I could start out with a mix of colors in a guinea flock and within a year have nothing but wild grays, all the pretty lavenders and lighter colors having been eaten by hawks and coyotes. The same always happened with any lighter colored chickens and white peafowl that I tried to keep.
I really love the looks of the WLR Cornish, as well as the WL Blue. I'm excited to see some breeders concentrating on the meat aspect, rather than trying to just make a "dual purpose" breed, which I think is never very good at either one of it's jobs.
My next door neighbor has a couple of laying hens of the dual purpose variety, both upwards of 10 pounds. I can't understand wanting to feed a couple of hens that much, just for a few eggs. Not to mention, they are breeds very poorly suited to our Arizona hot climate. I was trimming my tree and happened to notice them over the fence yesterday, they looked positively miserable, panting in the shade,while all my light breed layers were running around, foraging in the sun.
I think is very important when selecting and breeding poultry to consider the environment where you will be raising the birds and what you expect the birds to do for you. Will they be confined or loose, hot or cold weather, foraging or sitting in front of the feed pan, crowded conditions or more natural conditions? Do you want lots of eggs, meat or both? Dark meat or light meat?
Then again, most people buy chickens because they see the cute little fluffy fuzz butts at the feed store and give absolutely no thought whatsoever into what breed they are buying.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Haha that could easily be said about me, with all these big Orpingtons in Texas. But I really did get them as a dual purpose bird, not just for eggs. I've been curious how a Cornish/Orp cross would do. Been strongly tempted to get a few but I'm still growing out the last batch of chicks and don't really want any more babies till spring. I won't buy an adult bird but I did see some Dark Cornish of laying age on Craigslist the other day and wow did that tempt me.

 

[pepper48_98]

I had to butcher one of my roos this afternoon and thought I would post a pic or two. This is a cornish/maran cross. He was ust over 8 lbs live weight and dressed out at 7. 14 mo. old

I have lost all my turkeys and 6 youngsters to dog and coons. Thought I would process this one before they got him.

 

[NevadaRon]

Wow it's really bumming me hearing about all these losses. In these pics you can see some of the construction of my "fortress".