What would you breed a Cornish x hen too?

[ShaylaFox]

I am going to purchase some Cornish x chicks for meat purposes. They will free range and be on a controlled diet. They won’t be permitted to gorge themselves on feed 24/7. I will keep a few hens for breeding purposes. If given the chance, what would you breed the hens to? I am considering a barred or rhode island rooster. Just here to hear others experiences and thoughts. My goal is to make them slight more efficient at foraging and to improve leg quality.

 

[Molpet]

I kept a CX pullet and bred her to a colorful heritage mix roo I got off FB. She died about a year old. I did get 3 cockerels that died between 18 months and 2 1/2 years. Also 1 pullet that layed double yolk eggs. She died about 2. They were white.
I bred the Cockerels with bjg, and br hens I had.
The bjg offspring that were black grew slow and didn't fill out until 6 months. Cockerels Dressed out about 7 lbs. Didn't weight or process any hens, but have been using them for breeding. Fairly meaty looking, Good layers and great broodies.

The br came out white, barred and black.
The white were the meatiest breasts and ok layers. Cockerels dress out 6 to 8 lbs at 16 weeks. Hens are ok to poor layers and tend to squash eggs when they go broody, but good mother's.
The barred were few and far between. Cockerels Dressed out 5 to 7 at 16 weeks. Breasts are not as meaty as the white but still better than the hatchery br. Hens are good layers and great broodies. All 8 went broody.
Black cockerels dressed out 5 to 6 but are excellent layers and broodies.

 

[nicalandia]

Any Rooster would do just fine, I would go with RIR because I like the color and you Will see some red leakage on the F1s, as to the performance? You can expect about 4 pounds at 8 weeks of age

 

[esme13]

I tried something similar. I have rainbow broilers, but they are pretty healthy (due to diet). 2 hens are laying and they started laying before my new batch of pullets (same age). I have one broiler rooster (should eat him pretty soon). I added some eggs to the incubator and all started developing only 2 made it to 22 days and than stopped. So many genetics ? Just my bit on the process. But my hen! They have laid some huge!!! Eggs! So I’m happy to have some extra eggs withmy older girls only giving me 2 a day.

 

[piminuse]

Eeeeeh, from previous posts about Cornish X (can't remember from who, but I'm sure a search would be quick) it's not recommended to breed them. It's hard to get them to breeding age even with a slower growth rate gained by foraging and limited feed. If they do get to a breedable age it can be difficult for them to mate due to their oversized breasts. I remember reading a homesteading blog where someone got ONE Cornish X hen to live to be ten months via the methods you're planning and bred her to a standard breed, but most her eggs weren't viable and they only had a few hatch.

If you do give it the good ol' college try I would recommend breeding back to either the parent stock (white rock or white cornish) or maybe Delaware.

Good luck!

 

[Jennc-123]

We currently are going to accidentally try this. We have 2 13 week Cornish x hens that still haven't made it to butchering weight (I think the heat this time of year affected the whole group that I got). So these 2 hens are currently with our flock. They definitely act "different" than my heritage breeds and mixed flock. Should be interesting for both of us, I look forward to seeing your results.

 

[nicalandia]

For a successful breeding project one should only use their best stock, male and females, what big companies do is feed ad libitum for 4 weeks, select the best stock for weight gain and then feed restrict them so they can attain breeding weight at 22 weeks of age. If you select Runts for breeding females you will not get the best genetics.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My Cornish X have been raised with foraging birds. See my signature for a list. They are still some lazy ass s***, and yes they will still lay in it given the opportunity. But if you restrict their feed, they will somewhat grumpily run out in the morning when you open the gate and go free range with the rest of the flock. Then during the heat of the day they'll go hide in the shade. And the last hour hour-and-a-half before dusk they will join the flock in free-ranging again.

So some of it, based on my extremely limited experience, is a learned behavior from other birds, reinforced with feed restrictions to encourage them to go more than three feet from their feeder.

Which is part of why I'm so interested in your experiences doing this, because I'm a little disappointed in the size of my free Rangers, but much more disappointed in that lethargy of my Cornish X. Some Middle Ground would be most welcome.

 

[Jennc-123]

My Cornish X have been raised with foraging birds. See my signature for a list. They are still some lazy ass s***, and yes they will still lay in it given the opportunity. But if you restrict their feed, they will somewhat grumpily run out in the morning when you open the gate and go free range with the rest of the flock. Then during the heat of the day they'll go hide in the shade. And the last hour hour-and-a-half before dusk they will join the flock in free-ranging again.

So some of it, based on my extremely limited experience, is a learned behavior from other birds, reinforced with feed restrictions to encourage them to go more than three feet from their feeder.

Which is part of why I'm so interested in your experiences doing this, because I'm a little disappointed in the size of my free Rangers, but much more disappointed in that lethargy of my Cornish X. Some Middle Ground would be most welcome.

Mine is very odd. We have one in isolation due to the other broilers attempting to cannibalize her and she wants to join the flock. The other forages enthusiastically and well, enjoys the goats better than the chickens and floats cohesively between my not yet meshed flock halves. She is also the most friendly chicken and will go right to the kids. Maybe the key is less is more when it comes to broilers? I am very excited to see how Shaylafox does.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have any experience with Cornish X but I'll offer some thoughts.

What do you mean by "improve leg quality"? More thigh and drumstick meat compared to breast meat or maybe that the legs don't break down as easily? In my opinion, the medical problems with legs breaking down are not due to any specific weakness in the body but is due to growth rate. Their skeleton's growth can't keep up with weight gain. The parent stock for the Cornish X have to live long enough to breed and lay eggs. That's mainly accomplished by restricting feed. Any genetic weakness in the skeleton that increases mortality in them would not be a good thing. I'd think about any dual purpose cross will be OK as far as skeletal strength.

As for foraging, several people on here report success in getting CX to forage. Some don't. I think that is more a matter of technique than breeding. Reading through different threads in this section you can find different techniques people use ti increase CX foraging. Some of those are how you feed or house them. One person likes to raise some dual purpose with them to show them how to forage.

I don't have any recommendations as to which breeds might increase the ratio of leg meat to breast meat. I just don't know enough. But if your goals are stronger legs and foraging, I think those are more technique than breeding. Any Dual Purpose breed would probably be OK for those goals.

Are you planning on butchering this cross or create your own line by breeding the offspring of the cross? That would influence my decision. People that do this say they have problems keeping the hens alive for more than one laying season. Even one laying season is a challenge but they do it. They don't lay tremendously well either, compared to most dual purpose breeds, maybe 150 eggs compared to over 200. If you are making this cross to eat you may be rising CX every year for breeding stock. Again, I'd think abut any dual purpose rooster would work. If you are going to try to breed offspring egg laying may be a criteria.

Do you skin or pluck? A white or buff colored bird gives you a prettier carcass if you pluck. A darker bird shows pin feathers much more and can be a pain to pluck, especially if you butcher them while going through a juvenile molt. If you skin that doesn't matter. I'd expect the first generation of this cross to be white, not an issue. There are people on here that can correct me in this if I'm wrong on this or anything else. But if you breed offspring the other colors and patterns will start to show up in the second generation. Should feather color be one of your criteria?

We all have our own different goals and criteria. We all have our personal preferences. They are often different. The people on this forum that have crossed CX are no different. Most or them are pretty good at telling you why they like the breeds they chose. Your choices should be based on your goals and preferences, not mine or anyone else's. I think you are in a good place to get some good information. Pay attention to how they manage them too. I think your chances of success depend more on how you manage them that what breed you choose.

Good luck!