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

[Cedarknob]

A project Cornish Rocky [Cornish Rock EE] pullet, hatched in late spring and have been laying for quite awhile so I've got a handful of F2 chicks from them hatched this fall. As you can see, they're large, meaty. plus they lay large eggs with some being green and others more blue in color.

 

[Cedarknob]

A couple of project blue laced red Cornish pullets hatched this summer. They're hard feathered and have nice type; not sure what their mothers had mixed in with the white Cornish, but were obviously splash under recessive white as every chick sired by my DCs was blue laced red. These two will be kept to breed to a nice DC, though may later go under BLR cockerel to try for a few splash laced pullets..

 

[Cedarknob]

Some White Cornish with a project Black Cornish, mixed variety Dark/White, plus some Darks; all hatched.in late spring.






A nice DC cockerel next to a WC pullet; both hatched in late spring.

 

[delisha]

That blue lace and WC are really nice looking birds.

 

[big medicine]

A couple of project blue laced red Cornish pullets hatched this summer. They're hard feathered and have nice type; not sure what their mothers had mixed in with the white Cornish, but were obviously splash under recessive white as every chick sired by my DCs was blue laced red. These two will be kept to breed to a nice DC, though may later go under BLR cockerel to try for a few splash laced pullets..

Good looking birds. Who were their mothers of questionable qualities ?

 

[Cedarknob]

Good looking birds. Who were their mothers of questionable qualities ?

That blue lace and WC are really nice looking birds.

Thank you both.

The story that went with their mothers was they were supposed to be pure WC offspring of the last, highly inbred, living pair that descended from a pair purchased many years ago direct from Lewis Strait. However, I was told by two different people that the guy had tried and failed to breed first blue and then spangled off them in the past, and guessing the parents [which were both reported as white by the the guy that picked them up for me] of the pullets that I traded for were recessive white crop-outs from his blue crosses. I culled them and many of their white offspring as soon as I hatched the off-colored chicks, thinking they were recently crossed and not worthy to breed. That might have been a mistake, as the offspring still left here are turning out pretty typey and much better quality than I expected. I don't think they were intentionally misrepresented to me; however test breeding proved that they have something buried in the wood pile somewhere so being open about it.

I also have some fairly decent white pullets hatched at the last of summer, bred off my last birds that descended from hatchery type Cornish and sired by the white Herring cock. The best of them will go into a breeding pen under spare show quality cockerels next spring. They should produce pretty classy looking chicks for those looking for Cornish but not wanting to get started out with real expensive birds.

ETA: Since fate provided me with them, I am going to go ahead and breed the double laced blue pattern accepted by the Europeans and Australians in their large fowl Cornish.

 

[delisha]

It will be a fun endeavor. It is always so exciting when the chicks hatch and you get to guess how they will look as adults.

 

[galanie]

Nice birds...My whites look similar. However I do not have very good pictures of them. I will have to spend some time taking them.

3 weeks old


My favorite! Dinner! This one butchered out to 11-12 lbs - 20 weeks old

Gotta admit. That bottom one is a great looking bird.

 

[Cedarknob]

My white, large fowl Cornish. I'm grateful to Aviengems of Miami, FL for selling him to me; and doubly grateful that he has proved to be adaptable to the climate here and a fertile breeder. I have a muffed, white daughter of his in my project pen now, with some 3/4, DC blooded muffed pullets to be added later.




ETA: While there is a chance that adding more pure, show quality blood to my project may reduce egg size, I think there is no other bird capable of adding the meat to my line as true Cornish can, other than adding more blood from a commercial strain of CX. I'm afraid too much more of the commercial broiler blood may produce rapid growth related health problems, and the obviously heavy thighs and legs seen on my true Cornish are superior to the commercial broiler strains in my opinion. I like the heavier bone needed to carry the weight too; leg failure is a known problem in commercial birds, and somewhat more so in the few lines developed for the specialized growers of birds sold solely for mechanical meat separation and where processed, white meat nuggets or fillets are the major desire................ where meat to bone ratios and white to dark meat ratios actually do play a part in their market worth. I've found the extra breast meat of the true Cornish to be more moist and flavorful than commercial white meat also. I had grown to dislike white meat that wasn't pumped full of solutions to add moisture and flavor to it until getting back to ''real' breeds of poultry.

 

[Cedarknob]

Three of my 2011 Dark Cornish hens. The one on the right lost the right side of her chest to a badger, but survived and went back to laying to produce some fall chicks off my WC cock.






Another White Cornish pullet hatched in late May this year, nevt to an even younger Dark Cornish pullet.