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

[Fat Daddy]

Fatt Daddy Here is a pic of some of his stock. How does it look?

That is a real nice hen man! I'm sure it's not a pullet, so I'm guess'n this is what your 4 month old birds came from maybe? Where are you at? I forget if You ever said....

 

[Fat Daddy]

I sold these this week... three trios and a extra cockerel to a nice young couple...
They were a few hrs drive away and wanted them for their 4-H show.... Hopefully before long, good LF white cornish won't be so hard to get!

 

[KoopOnTruckin]

I sold these this week... three trios and a extra cockerel to a nice young couple...
They were a few hrs drive away and wanted them for their 4-H show.... Hopefully before long, good LF white cornish won't be so hard to get!

My wife just gave me the go-ahead to travel wherever is necessary to pick up some LF whites, so next time you're interested in selling a few, PLEASE let me know!!

 

[Bigshooter]

That is a real nice hen man! I'm sure it's not a pullet, so I'm guess'n this is what your 4 month old birds came from maybe? Where are you at? I forget if You ever said....

I'm not sure how old that hen is or if that is where my 4 month old birds came from or not. It was just a pic that was in the craigslist ad.

I live in SW WA.

 

[Bigshooter]

Fat Daddy,
I have some questions for you.
How old where yours when they started laying?
How old where they before they were fertile?
How often do they lay?
Thanks


I'm hoping this winter to get a few eggs to put in the incubator from them.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Good morning... Your pullets will lay at 20 to 25 weeks of age. If the season and light hrs are right. You can force them with a timer in off season as you hope. If the temp is really cold it will be hit and miss, but in Fl that should be no problem..
Naturally they will start laying about the first week in March around here. Cornish cockerels are slower to be fertile thou. I find if you can isolate your cockerels and give them 15 hrs of light two weeks earlier, say the middle of Feb., the first egg laid will be fertile... I normally don't set the eggs the first week or so of a pullet. They tend to be small and just getting everything worked out. But I wanted to find out if the early light on the cockerels effected their fertility. So I set the first 12 laid last spring on the 8th of March. You can clearly see the date on the eggs below... Every one developed... Fertility will be scary good the first month and taper off after that. They will lay a average of two eggs every three days for a few months. By the first of August the fertility will have dropped along with out put.... Forcing your birds will effect their production in the spring, as well as their condition. But it's all up to you if it's worth the trade... Good luck with your birds... Bill

 

[Bigshooter]

Good morning... Your pullets will lay at 20 to 25 weeks of age. If the season and light hrs are right. You can force them with a timer in off season as you hope. If the temp is really cold it will be hit and miss, but in Fl that should be no problem..
Naturally they will start laying about the first week in March around here. Cornish cockerels are slower to be fertile thou. I find if you can isolate your cockerels and give them 15 hrs of light two weeks earlier, say the middle of Feb., the first egg laid will be fertile... I normally don't set the eggs the first week or so of a pullet. They tend to be small and just getting everything worked out. But I wanted to find out if the early light on the cockerels effected their fertility. So I set the first 12 laid last spring on the 8th of March. You can clearly see the date on the eggs below... Every one developed... Fertility will be scary good the first month and taper off after that. They will lay a average of two eggs every three days for a few months. By the first of August the fertility will have dropped along with out put.... Forcing your birds will effect their production in the spring, as well as their condition. But it's all up to you if it's worth the trade... Good luck with your birds... Bill

Thanks. I pick them up today. I can't believe of excited about it I am.

 

[Bigshooter]

I picked them up today. It looks like 2 roosters and one hen to me. I can't believe how big they are at 4 months old. The hen looks awesome but I am a little disappointed about the color of the roosters. They have a little rusty red color coming through on there shoulders. It's not real heavy but it is lightly there. I'll try to get some pics up of them in the next couple of days. Overall I am very happy.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Good morning... Cornish are harder to sex than most breeds no doubt. But at 16 weeks you should easily be able look at the saddle feathers just above the tail and be sure. Long skinny feathers = cockerel, uniform scale-like feathers all the way to the tail=pullet... The rusty bleed you mention is a flaw that is common with whites. Al Seminrio called it "White cornish Tom Foolery"... The orange/rust will generally show up as they get their final moult. Or about 16 weeks or so.... If you are starting to see it, it will get worse as they finish moulting. Seems to be a problem seen in cockerels and is very rare in pullets. What you are seeing is a dominate gene white bird that is red under the white.... Most likely, these started from a WLR cornish line at some point... Breeders notice "sports" that are nearly white and breed them in a effort to produce white cornish. The end result is what your see. You can breed the birds and there will be a small % that feather out all white. With out new blood, this will always be a issue. If it were me, I'd take the extra cockerel back and insist on a second pullet. There is no excuse for a breeder selling wrong sexed birds at 16 weeks. Even with a new true white cockerel, bred to pullets of this line, the rusty bleed will "pop up" in a percentage of the off spring... PM me at some point and we'll talk about getting you a proper cockerel... Good luck, Bill

 

[Bigshooter]

I sent you a pm.