What do you cross to get cornish X chickens?

[Alex_Zurago]

Source???

Obviously, they don't breed true, as hybrids - but my CornishX hen lays reliably, and viably. Its my understanding, from numerous threads on this forum and others that CornishX cockerels can be raised to breeding age (generally on a restricted diet) and "do the deed" - though perhaps not with the same viability of other breeds, for whatever reason.

But I've seen nothing suggesting they were either sterile or physically incapable. Just that it was difficult to get them to the age in a physical condition where they could perform mechanically.

Could you AI a Cornish Hen from a Cornish X roo to get a bird closer in growth rate to a Cornish Cross but not to the point of defects?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Could you AI a Cornish Hen from a Cornish X roo to get a bird closer in growth rate to a Cornish Cross but not to the point of defects?

Not likely. Again, as hybrids and such extreme ones at that, they're going to throw a wide range of offspring. Most subpar or unusable, some okayish and maybe a good one or two

 

[saysfaa]

Indeed.

IIRC, they've been under development since at least the 1950's.

Because of this, starting with cornish and rocks is going to be a very rough approximation. Seventy years is a lot of generations for each breed to drift even if the strain they started with wasn't more important than the breed.

 

[3KillerBs]

Because of this, starting with cornish and rocks is going to be a very rough approximation. Seventy years is a lot of generations for each breed to drift even if the strain they started with wasn't more important than the breed.

Not to mention the commercial producers' ability to work with hundreds of thousands of birds for selection in a generation rather than the few hundred that a very large-scale backyarder could produce.

 

[cubalaya]

You cant. They are genetic hybrids. Why would you want to? Its an unsustainable breed. The Delaware was the perfect meat chicken but it took longer to grow out

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Not to mention the commercial producers' ability to work with hundreds of thousands of birds for selection in a generation rather than the few hundred that a very large-scale backyarder could produce.

AND the CX is not, in spite of the speed at which it puts on weight, a bird which quickly reches onset of lay. My CX were over 6 months old (around 28 weeks) when I started getting my first eggs from them. Meaning each generation of CX breeding involves a lengthy period in which you wait before you can cross the current hatchlings with others to reinforce desired traits. a period in which disease, injury, or predation can potentially set your breeding back a generation or more.

I'm currently in the midst of a culling project - a selected roo, all the hens get in on the effort, and I cull out the undesired traits. Many of my birds are "early lay".

So from the first cross, between 16 weeks and 20, I can have my first eggs. Call it week 19. I can incubate those and hatch them (call it 10 birds) by week 22. Another 10 at week 25. Another at week 28. That's when I finally get my first round of potentials from the CX.

At week 31, I get another round of each. Week 34 again, week 37, again. At week 40, not only can I continue to cross my original breeders, I can also use my batch of 10 from the first hatching, allowing a 2nd gen cross. I'll be on the 3rd gen by week 60, when I'm just starting the 2nd gen on the CX. And, all along, I've had greater choice of birds for each generation's crosses with the fast layers than the CX at asimilar time period... Meaning I have a better chance of a desired trait being available to reinforce.

 

[Geena]

I asked Mcmurray Hatchery if their dark cornish and white rock feathers are the dominant type. I still waiting on reply. They usually answer my questions with in a week.

If you have a dominant white rooster crossed with a recessive black hen all the babies should turn out white. However, if the rooster and hen both have dominant color you are going to get a mixed looking chicken. Then if the mixed babies are bred together there will be 25% white, 25% black, and 50% mixed. I found some info on Google search, but can't remember link.

I think if you let the cornish cross eat their fill in the morrning and then take away their feed, they should survive. I started an experiment with my 6 week old cornish roosters from Mcmurray hatchery. I took away their feed this morning when they stop eating. I'll put the feeder back this after noon and take it out after they are done. I have two of them, right now they eating about one and a half pint of crumble morning to evening. Hopefully they will end up eating less by feeding twice a day, I may end up feeding them once a day, it depends on how they look. Right now they look too FAT and bald.

This is old so you probably got your answer already, but in case anyone else might want to know- the White Rocks I received from McMurray were dominate white.