Dumb question about Cornishx

I have been thinking about this for awhile, just wtf did they do to the cornish x? I have researched this a bit, and can not find an exact answer.

Has anyone tried an f1 cross between an Dark cornish and a white rock?

The Cornish Cross is really a very generic term for a Big Fast Growing Double Breasted Chicken. There are actually many strains of birds used in the industry for different situations. The modern broiler industry started with simple F1 crosses, but over the last 50 years have spent lots of money on continuously breeding the best traits for feed efficiency, growth rate, and survival in an industrial setting. They are actually a terminal four way cross of different strains to produce the desired meat bird. These strains are constantly improving (to the industry's needs) and the Cornish Cross birds I get now are way different from the ones I got as a teenager for FFA/4H broiler shows at the county fair in the '80s.

So nobody has tried a direct cornish/rock cross? That seems odd. I know that if I really want to know the results, I should do that my self. I would just like to hear folks opinions.

I believe in "sustainable" breeds, except I do not really like the word sustainable,

What I really want is a chicken that can breed naturally, lays a decent amount of eggs, and the roo's make a decent meat bird. I am a big fan of mongrelism, as long as it works. Developing something that is exactly what you want.

mick mclaughlin wrote:So nobody has tried a direct cornish/rock cross? That seems odd. I know that if I really want to know the results, I should do that my self. I would just like to hear folks opinions.

I believe in "sustainable" breeds, except I do not really like the word sustainable,

What I really want is a chicken that can breed naturally, lays a decent amount of eggs, and the roo's make a decent meat bird. I am a big fan of mongrelism, as long as it works. Developing something that is exactly what you want.

I think it would be an excellent cross, really among the absolute best for a homestead chicken project. I started my chicken breeding program with a Dark Cornish roo and a Blue Jersey Giant hen, and have developed excellent results. My breeding project is on generation 6. You can find my results in a thread here if you look a bit.

good luck!

Adam Klaus wrote:

mick mclaughlin wrote:So nobody has tried a direct cornish/rock cross? That seems odd. I know that if I really want to know the results, I should do that my self. I would just like to hear folks opinions.

I believe in "sustainable" breeds, except I do not really like the word sustainable,

What I really want is a chicken that can breed naturally, lays a decent amount of eggs, and the roo's make a decent meat bird. I am a big fan of mongrelism, as long as it works. Developing something that is exactly what you want.

I think it would be an excellent cross, really among the absolute best for a homestead chicken project. I started my chicken breeding program with a Dark Cornish roo and a Blue Jersey Giant hen, and have developed excellent results. My breeding project is on generation 6. You can find my results in a thread here if you look a bit.

good luck!

I have read it many time, Adam! Thanks so much for your generous information!

I've researched it a bit on the web, and from what I understand, as was stated much more eloquently above, different breeders have slightly different mixes. We (in rural Virginia) were fortunate enough to locally get a mix that was well suited to free range, with no disease or parasites, good foraging behavior and the good sense to run for cover when a hawk flies by. Yet, they still grew like crazy, and had succulent meat, and we got a 100% survival rate. Every one of them grew up big and healthy.

We kept some of them around for a long time, nearly 5 months, but they ate so much that we dispatched them before finding out how they were as layers, BUT our neighbor kept one of his, and his girl gave him one large brown egg a day. (he was surprised they were brown, from a white chicken) IF I recall correctly, she lived for a year and a half, and then a weasel chewed her head off this past summer.

So my recommendation would be to find the best stock you can to start with, and go from there. I think if you get a nice batch, you will notice the best, smartest ones pretty quickly. Keep those around, and enjoy the others for dinner! And DON'T overfeed them! throw some food out in the morning and let them find most of their own grub, and they will be much healthier and smarter for it.

I tend to think that most of the "over-bred" chickens that some complain about still have the instincts in them. It just needs to be encouraged to come back to the forefront.

-TH

I've read the cornish cross works because the cornish are very wide birds, cross them with a taller kind and you get wide and long breasts. I think they usually use a cornish rooster and almost any other kid of hen, tho the game ones work well because they have the breast length.

It's odd with chickens, combining two breeds doesn't always give you the expected blend of traits. For instance, we had a couple that were cochin X silky. Both are gentle breeds with great parenting skills. Those crosses were mean little boogers that chased and raped the hens, killed chicks, and broke eggs in their zeal to go after any hen that couldn't escape them (they attacked setting hens). They made good soup.