White Cornish: Building a Quality, Sustainable Flock for Meat and More.....

[Kiki]

cheap/cheaper is the best way to go!

I laughed out loud...cute!

 

[Fat Daddy]

FD,how do you select your breeders?

Hey JR. I always tried to keep it simple. Choose what eats at me the most about my birds as they are, and work toward fixing it.... If you try to "shotgun fix" every thing at once, you tend to lose any ground gained in previous years. One year i worked toward better wings. I hate loose, droopy or long wings on a cornish. wings that are carried too high on the back eat at me too. Also worked on legs one year. Wide set, thick with the shortest shanks I had....This year I plan to shoot for improving tail sets. Mine have crept up a bit higher than they should be. It helps to raise a assload of birds! The larger the pool of birds, the more likely that perfect bird will be there! Now if I have enough good birds, Ill choose for improved combs too. My cockerels have trended toward taller combs than I'd like...It never fails thou. the bird I feel best "fits the bill" will have another flaw.... Black feather, fluffy feathers, ect.... So its always settling in one way or the other. Last year I hatched and raised 75 white cornish. Ill end up with about the same this year. But I take a long time making these choices. I watch my birds A LOT, mostly because I enjoy it. But I find it easier to see what I dont like about a bird than what I do.... This is how I normally "thin the herd" as it were. Normally the last few are so close it really dont matter alot.... My birds are well muscled and great on the table anytime after 8 weeks or so. I love the little game hen size meals. But it takes 20 weeks plus to see what the bird actually can be. Thats why I always end up with 20 or so that I cant use as fryers every year. I make a lot of sausage, sell and gift these.... Bottom line, we'll never be "DONE".... Never be "Good Enough".... That my friend is what I love about breeding toward SOP birds.... I dont worry much about being judged on them, there will always be something that needs work. I like it that way!!

 

[JRNash]

I think one of the first things that caught my eye with the cornish was the tail. Not the width or anything else,the tail. I love the breed,the history. Thanks for sharing your passion for the birds. I just spent an hr.washing eggs. Polish,hold up,look.Grab another and repeat.lol I also spend a lot of time with my birds

 

[Fat Daddy]

I have been having trouble in pen "C"... Im sure it has more to do with the "new" rooster, than the old hens. But it concerns me none the less.... This is the pen that the original rooster got stuck on its back and died just before breeding season got started. This pen is also made up of two year old hens. They have had a strong will to go broody and laying has been sparse of late. In the last fertility test, Pen A and B were still good. 4 out of 5 from each developed. But in pen C, only 2 out of 5 showed development when candled.....I also set the next two eggs that came from pen C and neither were viable. Seems its always that pen that is the problem! Iv made it clear to all those Iv sent eggs to of late that there is a problem in pen C. But I wanted to post it here so there are no surprises just in case....

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Hey FD, I finished my hatch (I'll give them another 24 hours just in case) but so far I got 3 A's and 2 B's. I have 1 viable pen C egg in the shoe, but no movement in the remaining eggs so I'm not holding out too much hope for any more. The chicks are very healthy, and LOUD! Way louder than my Delaware chicks in the same brooder, I'll take it as a good sign! They're doing well and seem to be okay with us picking them up, they seem very friendly and happy. I just wanted to say again THANK YOU!

 

[Fat Daddy]

I'm glad you had a few hatch Matt! Pen C has been a problem all year... I actually got three eggs from that pen today thou so maybe they'll straighten up... it's weird about Cornish chicks. I have brooded them with them with buckeyes many weeks younger and never had any issues with aggression at all... They just get along well...

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

Well, no luck with the final few eggs in the incy. Here's a photo of the 5 that hatched, 4 silver and 1 yellow. I put red zip-ties on the Pen A's and blue on the Pen B's, and I'm also web-cutting in case the bands fall off.

 

[JRNash]

They look great!!

 

[Fat Daddy]

They do look good! I covet the silver chicks most of all! Edit to add: in a few weeks you'll not be able to tell which one was yellow. They'll all be white...

 

[Fat Daddy]

Earlier in this now very long thread. I mentioned that I also raised very good Buckeyes as my egg layer flock. They were a gift from a friend in OK. I give him cornish in return...He mails alot of eggs too and we both get the same questions... He is in the process of a series of videos to help explain the normal methods to those who may not be as experienced.