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

[Fat Daddy]

Bill do you know what produced the Jubilee?

It's my understanding that the jubilee is simply a mutation of the WLR that carrys the double lacing of the dark cornish.

 

[teddyjc]

Thanks Bill. I hav'nt been able to find any infomation on the Jubilees but I just began looking today.

 

[jan12]

Thanks for the info! It hope I'm able to find someone with some white Cornish sometime soon who is close enough to my location to pick up in person. :-/

 

[lpatelski]

I have heard the same about how WLR Cornish came to be... But I have to believe it is a myth.... This is straight from the 44th SOP...
"In 1898 WLR Cornish were produced by a cross of Shamo Japanese - Dark Cornish. Became a standard variety in 1909"....

Thank you so much for all of your back ground work on my behalf. I know this is a White Cornish thread and I would like to get off this subject to keep your thread on track.I will tell you what I produced with a Dark Cornish non-pure(crossbred) I would like to find a purebred to do the same with a predictable heritage bird outcome. It looks like you have those type birds.

My crossbred results i am hoping to create with purebred lines.
I crossed my White Cornish rock hen(crossbred) with my pure Dark Cornish Rooster and got a Cockerel with red over white.



"Bob" a 50%/50% is now around 13 to 14 pounds.
When I crossed him back over a pure DC hen they produced a sort of WLR.

So I am not sure if the White Cornish have a recessive white gene or a dominant white gene. Would you know from your research? Now back to your original thread...

 

[Fat Daddy]

White cornish can have either dominate or recessive white gene. Dominate gene can cover black or most common red. You will usually see a few of these birds "leak" a rusty red color, to varying degrees, over the wings. This usually shows as the bird gets its last moult. It looks a lot like your roosters red. It's strange because it rarely shows up in pullets and not all of the cockerels. Dominate white gene chicks will usually hatch with yellow down and recessive gene chicks can show smokey black to silver down, or a combination of these at hatch.

 

[Dave C]

This bird is out of the meat pen that I should have butchered by now.... They are 14 weeks old now..... 5lb-11oz should be great fryers... Pure cornish tasty!

That's a really good weight FD

Takes my DC 16 weeks to get near the 5.5lb mark.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I butchered the first group of the white bird culls this weekend. 11 total. We also did 8 of my brothers older Buckeyes while the plucker was out.... There are no comparison in the two birds. Buckeyes almost twice as old still don't come close to the carcass of the cornish. I ended up giving my brother a few cornish just so he didn't feel bad! ;-) I cut my birds up into frying/grilling pieces as we went. Ended up with a 30qt turkey fryer full of chicken parts that would barely fit in my frig. I let it sit in a mild salt water brine for two days. Tonight I vac-sealed into meals for the freezer..... Subtracting the birds I plan to keep as breeders, and have promised to others.... I should still have another 25 or so for the freezer.... A person could clearly buy Walmart chicken cheaper. But I enjoy the fact that these are my birds. Hatched here, brooded and raised here, butchered and processed here on my little farm....

 

[Egghead_Jr]

That's nice Fat Daddy! What did you end with for carcass weight (average) of those 14 week birds- 4 lbs without neck or giblets? Some quality stock your keeping, they look good and have size.

In reading posts about standard bred Cornish people always comment on how slow to grow they are and say you need to wait until roasting age. Clearly that's not the case at all. Great weights for grilling age. For nearly a year now have been searching and months on a thread specifically setup to find exactly that weight- 4 lbs carcass in 14 weeks. Thought existing stock would need to be improved to make that. Thinking you have it.

 

[Fat Daddy]

That's nice Fat Daddy! What did you end with for carcass weight (average) of those 14 week birds-  4 lbs without neck or giblets? Some quality stock your keeping, they look good and have size.

In reading posts about standard bred Cornish people always comment on how slow to grow they are and say you need to wait until roasting age. Clearly that's not the case at all.  Great weights for grilling age. For nearly a year now have been searching and months on a thread specifically setup to find exactly that weight- 4 lbs carcass in 14 weeks. Thought existing stock would need to be improved to make that. Thinking you have it. 

I have found cornish to be a great meat bird. While they are slow to mature to a point they can be properly evaluated for quality. They tend to grow out more uniform than most heritage breeds.... A 10 week old BCM or Buckeye is not at all something you want to grill. But any cornish I'v ever tried was just a smaller version of the older bird. In fact I usually raise a group just for "game hen" size grilling. I originally started this with dark cornish. But the whites are prettier when dressed...
By the time I actually butchered this group, they were right at 15 weeks. Most of the cockerels were in the 6 lb range and the pullets averaged about 5 live weight... The cockerels would have been a 4lb carcass well enough but the pullets would likely have came up short of your goal....I can't give you a exact weight because I don't generally clean my birds in a traditional manor. The ones I keep whole I use poultry shears after its plucked and run up each side of the back bone and remove neck, back and innards, all in one motion.... Works the same as dressing quail or game birds... I put up this video years ago....

It's quick and easy. I don't use the back and tend to "spatchcock" my birds if cooking whole.... If I part them out, I debone the breast and break down the bird without ever opening the rib cage... I have many more and could dress and weigh a few as you're think'n the next time around.....

 

[Fat Daddy]

We sorted birds today. Separated the likely good birds from the not good enough. Culled the loose wings, small heads, poor tails, ect, from the ones that match the SOP as well as possible... Also when kept in such large numbers, good birds are often "roughed up" by more dominate pen mates. Feather picking is common and makes what is really a good bird, look poor. I have also found that when kept on wire, or large numbers, not all birds will roost. When they don't roost, wings tend to droop or hang poorly. This is sometimes improved a short time after the bird does begin to roost. So a bird with loose wings can really simply be a bird that is'nt roosting. I always try to give these a "pass" till they can be moved to a propper coop.
The Math...... I hatched 75 white bird. Of those 21 were color culls for the rusty freckles. Leaving 54. 3 were killed in a storm that damaged three pens... Now we're at 51.... 22 of those are pullets and 29 cockerels.... I now have two pens of "Good" birds. After my breeders and a few Iv promised to others... Should give me at least 24 more for the freezer. Not all bad!