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

[FLKYZach]

Looks great! You going to just have 2 birds per pen? or trios?

 

[Redhead Rae]

I'm really interested in this breed now. I currently have Delaware and New Hampshire chickens that I want to use to hatch Indian River broilers, but most of my family likes breast meat and my heritage dual purpose birds have VERY little of it. I'm intrigued by the idea of having a sustainable meat bird breed.

@Fat Daddy, I know you are done with shipping eggs for the year, but do you have a list of people who want eggs in the spring? I have only ever hatched under a broody and have no experience with incubators and I'm a little intimidated to try with such rare eggs. I should probably get an incubator and try with my dual purpose birds first. I live in WV. Do you know of any breeders nearer to me that sells chicks or trios? I might be willing to go the distance for a trio of older birds from you. Thanks!

 

[Fairview01]

Looks great! You going to just have 2 birds per pen? or trios?

This is my pen 'A'. All of these birds in this pen have zip ties on either the right or left leg. I hatched all of those and a bunch more very late during the summer. Two of the have zip ties on the left foot and are my outside blood line and it sure looks like I have a cockerel and a pullet. I definitely need several more hens and a backup rooster from this pairing.

All those remaining birds in that pen have a tie on the right leg. When I hatched from my cock and hens I ended up with 2 distinctly differently marked chicks - nearly all were butterscotch swirl but every once in a while I would end up with just one chick in the batch that had pure yellow down. Those are the ones which will be moved to their own pen. The plan is to have a trio in this pen as long as I can get 3 birds of high quality. If not it will be just the best pairing. This will be my 'B' pen.

The third pen will have this fella as the rooster. I got him at a show and I like him. I don't know how much he weighs but he's heavy. Watching him i'm not sure he could get on a low roost. Very blocky across the back, nice head, decent tail set, and has pearl eyes - at least until they change. The chicks that hatched with the swirled butterscotch down will be in this cage with him. I got a bunch of them so I'll be eating a lot of chicken this spring. This will be my 'C' pen.

Pen 'A" I know for sure will be a brother/sister mating and while I can't be 100% sure I'm fairly certain those in pen 'B' are brother and sisters also simply because the incidence of yellow down chicks never exceeded one per hatch and sometimes I didn't get any. I think there is just one hen in the bunch of 4 that is throwing that yellow down chick. I'll probably inbreed pens A and B for at least 2 years, perhaps 3 if I don't see and defects showing up. After 2 years I'll have my stock numbers up so I'll go into a spiral breeding program in the 3rd year, 4th for sure.

The big challenge next year will to be to find which hen of the 4 and the cock pair up to make the yellow down chicks. They seem to be higher quality than the butterscotch swirls I get all the time.

 

[FLKYZach]

Sounds like you got your work cut out for you Good luck! Also do you ship chicks at all?

 

[Fairview01]

Sounds like you got your work cut out for you Good luck! Also do you ship chicks at all?

Not yet. At the state level Texas as discontinued their NPIP program and instead is educating private individuals to do the test. The demand overwhelmed the supply. Every time a class is announced its already full, unless it is 10 hours away in some Texas podunk town that no one knew existed until TDA decided to hold the class there.

Once I get trained and can certify my flock NPIP, I will ship chicks.

Also be wary of buying eggs through the mail. They ship more poorly than other eggs.

Get on the FB pages and you'll probably be able to get set up fairly fast but not very cost effectively. You may want to be sitting down when you see the prices.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Once I get trained and can certify my flock NPIP, I will ship chicks.

Also be wary of buying eggs through the mail. They ship more poorly than other eggs.

Get on the FB pages and you'll probably be able to get set up fairly fast but not very cost effectively. You may want to be sitting down when you see the prices.

I would be interested in some of your chicks or eggs once you can ship them.

Which FB pages are you talking about?

 

[Fairview01]

I would be interested in some of your chicks or eggs once you can ship them.

Which FB pages are you talking about?

There are several but I would start with the International Cornish Breeders Association. This covers all types of Cornish. There are others also.

 

[FLKYZach]

Not yet. At the state level Texas as discontinued their NPIP program and instead is educating private individuals to do the test. The demand overwhelmed the supply. Every time a class is announced its already full, unless it is 10 hours away in some Texas podunk town that no one knew existed until TDA decided to hold the class there.

Once I get trained and can certify my flock NPIP, I will ship chicks.

Also be wary of buying eggs through the mail. They ship more poorly than other eggs.

Get on the FB pages and you'll probably be able to get set up fairly fast but not very cost effectively. You may want to be sitting down when you see the prices.

Yes I've actually joined International Cornish Breeders Association on Facebook and no one around me actually has Cornish just Barred Rocks. Also how do you get NPIP certified? I'd love to get certified here in Kentucky sorry very new if you can tell.

 

[Fairview01]

NPIP varies by state. Texas discontinued its program with state inspectors and privatized the process by having education classes to become and inspector. IIRC Texas only had 3 inspectors to cover the whole state. Nearly impossible to get service, imagine that. A lot of people are jumping on band wagon because they're seeing big $$$. Perhaps for now but eventually the market will become saturated and the bottom will fall out. Takes about a $300 investment to get started. Only problem is it seems you have to know people who know people who know the right sort of people to get a chair reserved.

 

[Kiki]

NPIP varies by state. Texas discontinued its program with state inspectors and privatized the process by having education classes to become and inspector. IIRC Texas only had 3 inspectors to cover the whole state. Nearly impossible to get service, imagine that. A lot of people are jumping on band wagon because they're seeing big $$$. Perhaps for now but eventually the market will become saturated and the bottom will fall out. Takes about a $300 investment to get started. Only problem is it seems you have to know people who know people who know the right sort of people to get a chair reserved.

This is not true.

This class is only to be an authorized testing agent to test for PT only.

Texas has not discontinued the NPIP program at all.

In order to become a certified NPIP member in the state of Texas you much have a PT test performed on your flock.
Yes...the state vet used to send 'their people' out to do this PT testing but just recently switched to this "any body who is trained can take the class and test to be able to test flocks."

The only way to register for this training class is ONLINE. I have a good friend who took the class last week and I am registered to take it in Nov.
IF you are wanting to take the class the best thing to do is get added to the email list.
AS soon as a new class is available you will receive and email letting you know and you can hurry up and get to the website and register for the class.

There is ONLY ONE teacher of this class and he can only handle about a 30 person class at a time. (Which is why they fill up so fast.)

Here is a list of current testing agents:Roster of Authorized Testing Agents
And here is where you can watch for classes to open up:
https://tvmdl.tamu.edu/testing-information/poultry/authorized-testing-agent-training-schedule/
As of the time of this post there is a class available with OPEN seats.

And lastly here is the link to the page to get the Email notification for new classes that open up.
https://tvmdl.tamu.edu/testing-information/poultry/pullorum-typhoid-program-training-registration/