Crossing Barred Rocks with Dark Cornish

[Farmer_Neal]

Hello,
Does anyone have any experience crossing Barred Rock hens with Dark Cornish roosters for meat birds instead of the industrial Rock Cross? I would be interested in knowing how fast they gain weight and how much they weight say after 8, 10 or 12 weeks? Thanks!

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Not crossing these myself, but know there are probably others here who have.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You won't get anywhere near the growth or feed conversion of the industrial cornish cross birds. Those are produced with highly selected inbred strains which are not generally available. They orginally came from common stock, but there has been decades of breeding and selection using them since then.

.....Alan.

 

[jjparke]

The industry cross is a white plymouth rock and dark cornish. The barred rock is a cousin to the white rock so who knows maybe it's a good cross. I know they use that combo not only for the large plump carcass it produces but also it produces a pleasant looking skin color. And most importantly the current strains they use for meat production have been bred over so many generations you would be starting about 50 years behind. I say try it though because it is fun. I am currently trying to breed my own sex-links so good luck.

 

[exsia]

I've crossed black sex-linked hens to my dark cornish roos. The majority take after the dc and have a rounder body and are either all black or have the dc pattern. They're all under 2 months so I can't say how they'll do once it's time to butcher... but I'm pretty happy with them so far. I've also crossed my Thai's to the BSL hens... and they're my number 1 selling meat bird this year. They grow the fastest and the little cockerels always tower over all the other chicks of the same age. I always sell out before they reach the 3 month mark since my customers prefer a young and meaty- but not fat chicken

 

[Erautbort]

I know this is an old thread but I just hatched a incubator full of chicks from a Dark Cornish rooster over a few Plymouth Rock and a Barred Rock. There are several unique colors as chicks. the last hatch before this one, I tried to do the same but I had not separated my Dark Cornish and Rocks from my flock of other varieties. So I had a bunch of chicks that were dark Cornish with orpington, americauna, and Rhode island red. .
Anyway, this hatch went well enough with my preferred breeds. Out of 24, half have the typical yellow/white Cornish cross plumage and the other half have the Barred Rock or Dark Cornish coloring.

 

[Mosey2003]

I know this is an old thread but I just hatched a incubator full of chicks from a Dark Cornish rooster over a few Plymouth Rock and a Barred Rock. There are several unique colors as chicks. the last hatch before this one, I tried to do the same but I had not separated my Dark Cornish and Rocks from my flock of other varieties. So I had a bunch of chicks that were dark Cornish with orpington, americauna, and Rhode island red. .
Anyway, this hatch went well enough with my preferred breeds. Out of 24, half have the typical yellow/white Cornish cross plumage and the other half have the Barred Rock or Dark Cornish coloring.

Why did you modify the feeder like that?

 

[Erautbort]

Why did you modify the feeder like that?

.
In one of my earliest hatches I had kept the chicks inside for several weeks. I noticed one chick had a sliver of her eye lid hanging at the close and didn't know what caused it until I saw her get her head stuck in the hole and stuggled to pull it out. As she tried, the sharp edges of the holes would scrape at the sensitive edges of her eye lid. So I decided to turn 14 small holes on each side to 7 bigger holes they couldn't get stuck in. But now the purpose of the cover has been foiled, so I eventually took it off. Now they poop in the feed and kick it around more often. I guess it works to attract them to it for the first few days.

 

[Okeene chicken lady]

I've crossed black sex-linked hens to my dark cornish roos. The majority take after the dc and have a rounder body and are either all black or have the dc pattern. They're all under 2 months so I can't say how they'll do once it's time to butcher... but I'm pretty happy with them so far. I've also crossed my Thai's to the BSL hens... and they're my number 1 selling meat bird this year. They grow the fastest and the little cockerels always tower over all the other chicks of the same age. I always sell out before they reach the 3 month mark since my customers prefer a young and meaty- but not fat chicken

Where do you get Thai roosters? I want to raise some of my own fast growing meat birds. I crossed my Barred rock hens and my dark cornish rooster. Looks like it's a sex link mix because all 3 chicks are black but one has a white dot on its head.

 

[Klutch]

The thai is tall/long framed just like a Aseel, but slow maturing. I would believe you would get some hybrid vigor from the cross which should with faster maturing than a pure thai. There are breeders of thai, shamo, aseels, that breed for size and you could find them on your local craigslist.