"White broilers" vs. "jumbo Cornish X Rocks"

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
No, the modern birds are a four way cross, although the lines are a far cry from the standard birds.

The great-grandparent flocks exist as pure pedigreed lines: male lines (Cornish origins) can be described as Flocks A and B, the female lines (Rock origins) as Flocks C and D.

These are bred to produce the grandparents: Male Line Flocks: Male AA, Female BB and Female Line Flocks: Male CC, and Female DD.

These are bred to produce the parents: Male AB and Female CD.

The result is male and female broilers of lineage ABCD.

Plus the lines can be switched to place emphasis on different characteristics.

An ABCD cross might be used for a highly feed efficienct broiler, while an AB EF cross migh result in a bird with greater breast meat yield.

To a genticist it is fun, to the rest of us we just want a bird that will grow efficiently, quickly, and be healthy.

Jim

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

Quote:
It took a railcar full of money, a bus load of geneticists and, just recent years, and a semifull of computers to get today's meat chicken. Oh yeah- and about 75 years.

To be sucessful I would suggest you start out with the White Rocks that they had 75 years ago and the Cornish that they had 75 years ago. They were much different birds than what we have today. Where you would get them I do not know. But if you can find them have at it. If it all works out for you reflect back to the luck you were favored with and you will see that buying lottery tickets would have been a better investment.

If I couldn't get the propritary breeder stock from any of the big genetics companies and wanted to have an improved bird this is what I would do-

Get terminal cross male broiler chicks, raise them on a restricted diet simular to what their fathers were fed and mate those birds with common ordinary white rocks frorm a hatchery. That is about the best you could do with what is reasonabe, and available, today.

 

[ngamtnman]

Quote:
It took a railcar full of money, a bus load of geneticists and, just recent years, and a semifull of computers to get today's meat chicken. Oh yeah- and about 75 years.

To be sucessful I would suggest you start out with the White Rocks that they had 75 years ago and the Cornish that they had 75 years ago. They were much different birds than what we have today. Where you would get them I do not know. But if you can find them have at it. If it all works out for you reflect back to the luck you were favored with and you will see that buying lottery tickets would have been a better investment.

If I couldn't get the propritary breeder stock from any of the big genetics companies and wanted to have an improved bird this is what I would do-

Get terminal cross male broiler chicks, raise them on a restricted diet simular to what their fathers were fed and mate those birds with common ordinary white rocks frorm a hatchery. That is about the best you could do with what is reasonabe, and available, today.

I figured that would be the case. I guess I should say that I'm not looking for exactly the same bird as today's broilers. If I could get a 8. bird in 12-14 weeks, I would be happy.

I have some Barred Rock cockerels I was thinking about crossing with some white rock pullets I have. The Barred Rocks are already a decent size for 13-14 weeks old (I'm not sure exactly how old they are, I got them from Tractor Supply and they said they just had got them that week). One of them is big and a really good forager, the other is a bit smaller and is sort of lazy at times but can forage. I was thinking about picking my two biggest white rock pullets I have and crossing them. Almost all my white rock pullets are lazy. They will forage some but for the most part they like to eat and lay around.

And maybe add in a cornish line along the way also. I don't know, I figured getting a line like the commercial broilers would be almost impossible but did hope to get a 8 lbs bird in 12-14 weeks. Breast meat doesn't matter to me, I just want it to have meat, lol.

ETA: Let me add when I say a 8lbs bird, I mean live weight, I would like a 5-5.5 lbs bird dressed in 12-14 weeks.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
ME TOO!
It is so inaccuarte and misleading.

BTW another respondent- It was the Dark Cornish that was used to develope the modern meat chicken, not the White.

My research had shown that the Vantress brothers used a Dark Cornish/New Hampshire Red cross for one of the first successful CXs; but have read several other times that White Cornish crossed to Plymouth White Rocks soon replaced them. Of course I have no way of knowing if the info was accurate.

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
Here's a link to a thread that evolved into a discussion of breeding a self sufficient stran of meaties, and several of us are useing terminal end CX as breeders. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=316007&p=1

I had a bit of success crossing Ameraucana over CX [wanting a blue/green egg layer with better meat qualities], but my breeders were unfortunately wiped out by a plague of buffalo gnats this spring. Here's a 13 1/2 week old cockeral that fits the description you gave. [For size comparison, those are a large fowl EE and a Black Ameraucana hen with him.]

I've started over this year with a pen of CX pullets on restricted diets, hopefully to be crossed with both Cornish blooded and Ameraucana cockerals this fall. Inspite of his willingness and frequent attempts, my CX cockeral was simply too large to hit the mark on my EEs and Ameraucanas last year; rather then resort to A.I., I'm exclusively useing CX pullets this time around.