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

[SethsArk]

I got some new babies!



The dark ones are Cornish crosses. Black Copper Marans on a Cornish Hen.

Hi- I was trying to follow your breeding because I'm thinking of doing the same. But there is alot of conversation I chose to skip over so i want to clarify... So the darks were Black Copper Maran Roo on straight Cornish hen? Or Cornish X hen? How are they doing? They are so cute! Is is too early to find out if the white spot had any significance?
I'm so glad I found your photos and project!


TO EVERYONE:
So, I'm a vegetarian (so have no opinion on meat) and only just found out tonight that I was on the wrong track with my breeding plan. My reason for breeding is ethically i dont want my family to support the industry cruelty. My DH informed me he likes legs on birds, not excited about the big breasted cornishx we did last year. Personally- I was just thinking that it was about the quantity of the meat and quickness to table so that I didnt get too attached to the birds.
If you have an opinion on the direction I should go, even if it's not a project, please I welcome ANY advice. I dont have an incubator, but was about to buy one when I read that natural hatching using a silkie or some other broody bird was more successful. And I'd really like to be breeding our meat from our birds. While i am still a newbie to meat birds, after our harvest last year I've had alot of friends ask me to raise birds for their tables too. And one more detail, I'd like to keep the birds no more than 4 months, so I know some of the popular meat birds are not going to fit. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

 

[Cedarknob]

Hi- I was trying to follow your breeding because I'm thinking of doing the same. But there is alot of conversation I chose to skip over so i want to clarify... So the darks were Black Copper Maran Roo on straight Cornish hen? Or Cornish X hen? How are they doing? They are so cute! Is is too early to find out if the white spot had any significance?
I'm so glad I found your photos and project!


TO EVERYONE:
So, I'm a vegetarian (so have no opinion on meat) and only just found out tonight that I was on the wrong track with my breeding plan. My reason for breeding is ethically i dont want my family to support the industry cruelty. My DH informed me he likes legs on birds, not excited about the big breasted cornishx we did last year. Personally- I was just thinking that it was about the quantity of the meat and quickness to table so that I didnt get too attached to the birds.
If you have an opinion on the direction I should go, even if it's not a project, please I welcome ANY advice. I dont have an incubator, but was about to buy one when I read that natural hatching using a silkie or some other broody bird was more successful. And I'd really like to be breeding our meat from our birds. While i am still a newbie to meat birds, after our harvest last year I've had alot of friends ask me to raise birds for their tables too. And one more detail, I'd like to keep the birds no more than 4 months, so I know some of the popular meat birds are not going to fit. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!

Welcome SA. You might want to give Freedom Rangers a try. If you want to breed your own, You might try an order of straihjt run Orpingtons or Dark Cornish from a hatchery, they will not carry the meat that a breeder quality will, but be easier to obtain, and the Orpingtons will go broody and the Cornish may also, and the hatchery Cornish will not have the amount of breast meat of a CX or a true a Cornish. A cheap incubator is usually difficult to get good hatch rates from, but a Brinsea, though pricey, is easier and probably as good as a broody. If you have the room and desire to keep a flock for a meat source, you might even want to try keeping a couple of Freedom Ranger males fed on lower protein feed to breed to either of the two breeds already mentioned [the FRs will add size and faster growth], or try Central Hatchery's Rhode Island Red hens as the female line; they're closer to the true RIR in type and size [making them better for eating] than any other hatchery's that I know of, though they are not likely to go broody.

 

[galanie]

Orps are a great idea if you want dark meat. They have generally meatier legs and thighs than most breeds do. And a FR male over an Orp hen might make exactly what you need Sethsark.

 

[kfacres]

I really was not looking for an argument,
really, I couldn't tell- seemed to be your number 1 goal?


I read your page about your "ideal meat project" and the statement there that you are promoting your birds as just that, the ideal meat birds. Yet I've read that if you want to feed chickens to eat, you will buy CX, and consider anything else not worth while, even ludicrous, and another that you keep your chickens because they lay eggs and look good doing it.
My logic makes perfect sense to me... Do you think that people selling hatching eggs to make meat birds for others-- do it for themselves- nope.. pretty hard to sell eggs, and keep them for yourself. I get both from my birds-- eggs in the first of the week to eat-- eggs from the end of the week to sell. Have 2 silkies to produce eating eggs the rest of the time, and hatch replacement birds for me-- I don't want to hatch out a couple hundred chicks each summer. Dollars and cents-- if I wanted to eat homegrown chicken- you can't beat a CX-- Honestly, it's more profitable to buy it (meat) from the grocery store, and sell my eggs.

I also fail to understand why both you and chickened are bashing breeders of show quality Cornish for breeding them to be built "wrong", then bash them again as being selfish for not selling them to the people who do not like the way show quality Cornish look. Do either of you really expect those show breeders to be happy to sell their Cornish to people who think that show quality Cornish are not built correctly? Now I do understand the reasoning behind keeping a breed capable of live breeding, but fail to understand why you think those show breeders are being selfish by not selling to the people that bash them for what they have bred their Cornish to look like. I like the Cornish in those pictures of Al's and Pepper's, they do look like a lot the pictures from the 50's of ideal Cornish, as well as the colored paintings in the current version of the APA SOP. That type is what made them so desirable to the first developers of the CX to cross on faster maturing breeds, the reason that pure Cornish were bought up by buyers for developing the CX, causing the already rare breed became even more rare. Now instead of thanking the few breeders that are clinging stubbornly to breeding their wide Cornish, some are both insulting the few breeders having them, and then turning around and calling them selfish for not selling some to them.
What good to the overall population of the Cornish bird-- do those breeders provide by not selling any? Once they die-- b/c we know more than a good percentage of them are aged in years.

because I really did not join this thread to have to justify why I breed quality Cornish, who I sell to, how many I sell, or why I would also like to develop a meat bird line that would be be easier to breed but better than the chicks sold as dual purpose breeds by a hatchery.
Neither DID I.

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote:
My breeding plan is this - I keep some Pure Dark Cornish hens (I haven't been able to find a quality cock bird yet) which I use under some other, faster growing breeds that also lay well. Right now I'm trying different crosses to see which I prefer. The white spot on the head, "MAY" "POSSIBLY" be sex-linked, I'm not sure. So far they are all doing well and growing at about the same rate (except for the little icelandic which is not a large bird anyway - I'm using the Icelandic as a cross to see if it's very fast maturation rate would improve the Cornish growth rate, since I don't want to keep a meat bird more than 4 months either; 8-10 preferable)

Right now, I'm not far enough along to be able to predict anything. The babies are all plump and doing well. I like the barring or lacing (not sure which it is yet) on the dark birds, since this is one of the standards in the dk. Cornish.

Best of luck to you. The others here will give you a ton of advice based on actual 'EXPERIENCE"!

 

[Cedarknob]

My logic makes perfect sense to me... Do you think that people selling hatching eggs to make meat birds for others-- do it for themselves- nope.. pretty hard to sell eggs, and keep them for yourself. I get both from my birds-- eggs in the first of the week to eat-- eggs from the end of the week to sell. Have 2 silkies to produce eating eggs the rest of the time, and hatch replacement birds for me-- I don't want to hatch out a couple hundred chicks each summer. Dollars and cents-- if I wanted to eat homegrown chicken- you can't beat a CX-- Honestly, it's more profitable to buy it (meat) from the grocery store, and sell my eggs.

Thank you for spelling it out for me Kfacres, I was pretty slow to catch on, but now I do understand exactly why you joined this thread, and now have much more understanding about why so many breeders do not want to sell their quality Cornish to anyone other than the people they know.

 

[chickened]

Not all cornish breeders are that way nor do they mess with BYC. The ICBA has more folks dedicated to preservation of the breed... and helping newcomers.

Quote:http://cornishbreeders.org/

Thank you for spelling it out for me Kfacres, I was pretty slow to catch on, but now I do understand exactly why you joined this thread, and now have much more understanding about why so many breeders do not want to sell their quality Cornish to anyone other than the people they know.

 

[kfacres]

Thank you for spelling it out for me Kfacres, I was pretty slow to catch on, but now I do understand exactly why you joined this thread, and now have much more understanding about why so many breeders do not want to sell their quality Cornish to anyone other than the people they know.

So what's the difference between eating eggs- and sticking infertile ones into an incubator? Atleast the ones getting ate- are being utilized- instead of propigating birds that cannot reproduce naturally.

Second question: why would anyone not take full advantage of an opportunity that presents itself? It's obvious that true cornish people are not going to let loose of their genetics-- so why bother pestering them further?

Why not just take advantage of what you have in front of you- and be happy with the birds set in front and in the pens?

After awhile-- one just gives up on finding the quality of birds at one time desired-- and moves on to different motives...

Are you doubting my beliefs on making my birds create a profit?


If someone doesn't want to sell me birds-- then so be it-- I'll either go elsewhere-- or I'll invest in a species that is a little more important and potentially profitable.

What motive would anyone have to not have an endeavor be profitable?



Hey cedar...

What's the price difference between 'free' ribeyes, t-bones, or hamburger--- vs. 'free' lamb chops, leg of lamb, or fajita meat... or $.99 chicken? Which would you choose?

 

[Totalcolour]

So, we have 50 CornishX hatchery babies coming in very soon. So, we are trying something different this year. Last year we had them in pens and strictly commercial rations. This year, we are putting them in pens ON GRASS, with commercial feed "rations" and let them eat grass too with supplemental produce from the scraps in the kitchen. I'm hoping that rationed feed, plus greens, plus having to get "some" exercise will produce a tastier, if slightly small bird.

Have others done this specifically for a meat bird? I know some do it to have a "breeder" bird. Are the birds tastier? I think if this doesn't work, I'm not going to bother trying next year. It's going to be a lot of extra work and if id doesn't make a tastier bird, there's not much point.

 

[Totalcolour]

Maybe I'll just become a vegetarian


ETA: oops, did I just write that?