Like beating a dead horse... I have an idea...
I'm pasteing this here, as part of another post that I made earlier today. I felt it was along the same lines in terms of topic...
Now for thoughts on your meat bird project... I have the strong belief that a true, breeder quality/ seedstock cornish rooster can be a tremendous terminal sire on the average ole barnyard flock of hens, even as much on a flock of heritage or higher quality females. I think that they possess outstanding muscle and meat animal shaped carcasses. I do not believe that the hatchery quality Cornish is as good of an option-- as far too many times what I have seen coming from these lines isn't much better than the other hatchery quality chickens-- and if compared to a high quality, breeder bird of most other breeds... the hatchery quality cornish birds aren't as quality either. To me, when you think of carcass and meat bird potential... I rank the following in order: CX, BQ cornish, BQ other DP breeds, hatchery quality cornish, hatchery quality other DP breeds. The pure cornish are just too slow maturing to compare to the CX birds, IMO.
If I were into a project such as this... I would try out some starved CX pullets, some BQ DP birds, and some BQ cornish birds..> I would be gearing towards trying to create a consistant base of F1 CX(f)/ DP(m) (For males) birds and a F1 strain of Cornish(m)/ (cornish(m)/ DP(f)) (for females)birds...and try mating these two lines back with each other to create my end product.
Like this to clarrify: for those who won't be able to figure it out..
Strain 1- Cornish/ Rock X females mated to Dual Purpose males. Keep the males from this cross to use later.
Strain 2- Cornish Males mated to Dual P females... Keep the females..>Mate those daughters back to a Cornish... Keep the females..
Mate the males of Strain 1 to the final product females of strain 2.
Here's why I chose what I did... The CX males, will not be able to successfully cover very many females, even though the females will be terrible egg layers... you only need a few of their sons. We want to utilize their genetics, but minimize their exposure- thus keeping them on the sire side. Put those CX females under active, fertile DP roos- breed really doesn't matter.
DP hens for their laying ability in Strain 2- cover them with TRUE Cornish males as a terminal type sire... Keep female offspring-- come back on those females again with a Cornish roo-- can be their father, doesn't matter. Try keeping the egg laying abiltiy of the DP females through the generations. These should be far superior to the CX decendants, although not as good of a layer as a leghorn.
The end product would be 3/8 Dual Purpose, 3/8 True Cornish, and 1/4 Cornish/ Rock X. That's plenty enough hybrid vigor effect to generate practical, productive meat birds.
maybe I shouldn't have let out my secret???
Anyone want to join me in this experiement? I have the TRUE cornish, hardest part??? I also have the Cornish x DP birds already as a female base>
