Dark Cornish Crosses

[archeryrob]

Nice looking bird Frank. Do you know his weight?

FYI, for others Frank sells breeding pairs of white show stock. I would buy from him but I would rather have the darks.

For the OP, I posted week by week result for mine and will do it next year again when I get better birds from some one. You can track my spreadsheet for growth rates and 20 - 24 weeks they are still growing but slowing down.

 

[Fairview01]

Nice looking bird Frank. Do you know his weight?

FYI, for others Frank sells breeding pairs of white show stock. I would buy from him but I would rather have the darks.

For the OP, I posted week by week result for mine and will do it next year again when I get better birds from some one. You can track my spreadsheet for growth rates and 20 - 24 weeks they are still growing but slowing down.

That young cockerel has a lot of good things going for him. I dont think I have anything with more pronounced shoulders than he has. He has spectacular width across the breast and same across the back. For 6 months his head is enormous. Unfortunately his tail angle is at and sometimes held above the horizontal. Im going to give him a wack at the hens this year but his future is limited.

Don't know how much he weighs other than he's heavy. Its such a pain weighing them. What i will say a meat bird cant carry good weight without good bone to support it. All mine have that.

That's one of last years cock bird that is in a new home. If my chicks dont have enormous shank development in the brooder they don't make it out of the brooder. Their nature of being tight feathered belies their weight. When i sent him home with this young man he was tipping the scale at 10lbs at 18 monrhs old. He still has another year of slow growth until he reaches his full potential.

I am starting a line of darks this year. This is one of the hens. That white background just pops her color. Cant wait for the eggs.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Here are some pics of my parent stock when I got them. They have nice heart shaped bodies and large breasts and meaty thighs.

This is what a 6 month old cockerel looks like as a carcass

This is how much meat was on the carcass. This is a full sized dinner plate. The proportion of white meat to dark was a little under half (the legs and thighs are very meaty).

 

[Redhead Rae]

There are very few breeds i would recommend buying show quality birds if you are keeping them for personal use, but the heritage meat birds don't hold up in quality when bred by a hatchery because they start breeding for egg production so they can sell more chicks, which isn't the point of a good meat bird.

 

[archeryrob]

Beautiful birds guys. I'm ready for making a new flock myself and need to find some new darks. Eggs or birds if anyone can help or point to a source.

Frank, he might not have the show qualities in the tail and such, but he would be #1 on my list with bigger shoulders and a wider breast. I'd love some of his sires, just wish he was a dark.

 

[Fairview01]

There are very few breeds i would recommend buying show quality birds if you are keeping them for personal use, but the heritage meat birds don't hold up in quality when bred by a hatchery because they start breeding for egg production so they can sell more chicks, which isn't the point of a good meat bird.

Yup. Even the best winning Cornish left to their own devices in a community breeding environment will breed themselves into skinny lanky birds. The large shanked wide backed double breasted rooster is at a decided disadvantage when it comes to covering hens. The skinny lanky cornish cockerel that should have become Sunday dinner is able to cover and siccessfully inseminate more hens than those big clusmy meaty birds.

Backyarders that only want a sustainable source of meat will become quickly disappointed with their flock in the third generation. They dont make the connection between breeding to the SOP and having the supreme meat cornish.

Eat the skinny ugly ones and let the big meaty ones live.

 

[Fairview01]

Beautiful birds guys. I'm ready for making a new flock myself and need to find some new darks. Eggs or birds if anyone can help or point to a source.

Frank, he might not have the show qualities in the tail and such, but he would be #1 on my list with bigger shoulders and a wider breast. I'd love some of his sires, just wish he was a dark.

I hatched 400 eggs this spring. That young cockerel is one of the 14 from that 400. 386 didnt make it.

 

[archeryrob]

So what is the solution to keeping the meaty birds genes flowing? Does the meaty birds throw more blank eggs and you just get a lower production rate to hatch in the incubator or if there some better solution?

 

[Fairview01]

So what is the solution to keeping the meaty birds genes flowing? Does the meaty birds throw more blank eggs and you just get a lower production rate to hatch in the incubator or if there some better solution?

The 'good birds' dont throw more infertile eggs they just cant compete with the more agile skinny lanky ones. It just takes those big desirable birds more attempts to be successful. I rarely have less than an 85% hatch rate and generally over 90%. I also use the Leahy redwood which probably lends to my hatch success. I do not use AI. If they cant do it themselves i dont help.

Those big boned pullets and cockerels need to be isolated from the community flock in their own breeding pens. That is the source of flock quality. Grow out as many as you like but start with the worse when it comes to sending individuals to camp Kenmore.

 

[Phunktacular]

@Fairview01 that dark Cornish hen has amazing color. I don't even know where to get a breeding set from. I'm going to have to start going to farm shows and auctions to begin meeting the poultry public.