is this a Dark Cornish rooster?

The hens are all barred, but not the MG roosters (now all in the freezer). Well wouldn't a sex linked cross be great - I hadn't realized that! Will have to let you know.

it seems humans are often tempted to breed animals to an extreme that makes them unlikely to survive without human assistance. That is getting extreme!

Magdelan wrote:Having seen your ABNS Authentic, I think he is far more handsome and beautiful than my roo (who shall remain nameless until his fate is decided).  Love to see some head shots :-).  

Not sure I would ever use "handsome" or "beautiful" to describe him. I would go with fugly, so-ugly-he's-cute, and/or delicious.

Here's more ABNS!

So, uh, whatcha doing there? You need Sue to help?




A side shot from this morning. He would have preferred less taking photos, more eating tomatoes with his friends.


An above shot, comparing him to a couple of my white chantecler pullets. They have a bit of poofyness to their feathers, whereas he is very tightly feathered.

Mmmm. Now I find myself craving roasted chicken for supper ...

Lol Authentic did you need me to bring you one of my freezer camp Roos tomorrow? Lol

Karaandblue wrote:Lol Authentic did you need me to bring you one of my freezer camp Roos tomorrow? Lol

That will probably make it worse. Then I'll REALLY want to eat him.

Poor ABNS

Karaandblue wrote:Poor ABNS

I'll let you pick him up tomorrow. Just try to resist the urge to lop off his head and cook him up. It's hard, I'm telling ya.

Ok. I bet it is. Lol

authenticfarm wrote:

Not sure I would ever use "handsome" or "beautiful" to describe him. I would go with fugly, so-ugly-he's-cute, and/or delicious.

thank you Authentic for putting those extra pictures up.  He is quite a character isn't he     Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?     Such solid leggies and breastasies, am feeling a foray into the world of spatchcock for this evening's dinner on account of this talk of eating cornish chooks!   I have but a humble store bought birdie in the freezer, time to retrieve.  Could you seriously eat ABNS with that endearing "sharing" attitude??  Of all my chickens I find the dark cornish the least aesthetically beautiful (love the feathers very much and their characters too)  but the crosses are quite nice.  I do love their nuggety bodies and am thinking I will keep the black australorp x dc and buff orp x dc pullets, along with the two straight dc pullets because I think that like Heda and Karaandblu, and BCKev and many others probably, looking for good meat crosses.  

Karaandblue I noticed that when the dc were younger they would be more flighty and run about, fly to the moon sort of kids but they have sort of settled down a bit now.  Still "get about town" but less in the air.  When I go in to the coop they are always eating the snow off my boots.

Authentic, Do you think ABNS would make a good cross with your Chanteclers?  Will take some photos of the crosses to show what they are like, just for curiosity sake.  One is the pullet I asked about yonks ago, was she a pure bred dk cornish.  To trained eyes, of course not but I had no idea then, just thought she was very pretty.  

Here is a pic of Roast some months back, couldn't help myself, the faster he grew like he did the more I saw him as something to put in the oven.  Same age as the purbred pullet in the picture but gigantic in size beside her.  Think I already put this picture up?  not sure.  He is now much more defined and developed cordination  -  funny body was unco back then.  He's a dc x white wyandotte and this might be a winning blend because he grew very fast.  All the other roosters have caught up but I dare say they don't have the mighty breasty chesty he does.  Will take a current pic today of him.  Am on the hunt for mites and lice so will take pics before I become the body groper they didn't know lived in the big house, today I am rummaging in their fluffy regions for crawlies  .   And he's barred, help with the sex link thing?    

Females have to be barred for sexlinks. Males just give barring to EVERYONE! lol

It seems to be the female line in the end, horses (arabs, the only ones I know anything about mostly), people . . . and now chickens.  

Here is the Boy.  He is quite handsome now, I am surprised.  His chest is big, doesn't show too well in my funny pic, but maybe not very beefed out?  I don't know, so little experience with this kind of thing, nothing to compare to with hands on.  We were going to give them another month or two to get more filled out anyway so maybe that will be the tell.

Magdelan, I may try a small hatch with him over my white pullets. He hasn't started to breed yet to my knowledge. Took him forever to make any sort of crow. He sounds like a growling dog when he does. Errr rerr rerr.

authenticfarm wrote:Magdelan, I may try a small hatch with him over my white pullets. He hasn't started to breed yet to my knowledge. Took him forever to make any sort of crow. He sounds like a growling dog when he does. Errr rerr rerr.

that's so funny Authentic, keep laughing, can't quite stop.  I have some out there who have done that particularly exciting crow.  Also have some who sound like they are being murdered.  could be used for sound effects in scary movies!   they must all be deaf.  

I'd love to see what you get.  Obviously white   .  but, they'd have good winter combs and maybe good chops too :-).  

Here are my two dk pullet crosses.  the black ause x dc is Nugget, cause she is one and the other doesn't have a name but she's the one I posted about while back.  And better one of Roast, shows his chest.


I'd really love to see what other people have got for cornish x's.  Please post pics if you have time and inclination.  Know it is busy time for everyone so won't be slammed into the mud if you don't but at same time, don't be afraid to either    Now I go to hunt down and identify the pesky lice/mite entity that has staked a claim on their poor butts as if it were a gold mine   

Hmm, your birds always make me think Magdelan.  Crossbreds are always fun especially when they are a first cross of 2 purebreds.  

Your first pullets makes me wonder if she is actually an Australorp x Dark Cornish.  Australorp is usually E,E.  I am not sure what Dark Cornish are here, I believe OMF or someone else said they where eWh,eWh.  This means that all the crosses would be E,eWh and be mainly black like your other pullet is.  The pattern gene usually does not express in the first cross to my rusty recollection.

Having said that when I crossed my PChant rooster over my Black Am I got mostly black pullets but I know one for sure was patterned.  So I could be totally wrong on that count!     I suppose it depends what else is lurking hidden in your black bird. My Mottled Java x Wheaten Am all the pullets were black and the males showed various degrees of red in neck and wings.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack, just some stuff rattling around in that empty space I have in my head.  Really need to find my books so I am not relying on my old timer brain.

I don't mind hijacking, this is not really hijacking any way CSlave, it is all relevant stuff but I don't pretend to understand it at all. And to be fair to the essay here, I BELIEVE the black chicken is a black australorp x dc. She came from BCKev's breeding experiment pen with dark cornish as a key ingredient and when I sent the pics of her to him a while back he said he thought she was this cross but possible I guess that there were other birds in there too of unknown blends. Her head looks dark cornish though, do you agree? Because I don't understand the genetic "speak" very well I am not sure what you were thinking she would look like. "Empty space in your head" pffft.   

ooh, ooh maybe the unknown ingredient is to do with the dk cornish being from a hatchery source (probably, not confirmed but going by looks alone probably) maybe the inclusion of other breed in the dk cornish hatchery birds is the odd thing out here? Whatever they may be - not sure now who said that now, back in earlier post.

heda gobbler wrote:I got mine from Triple J too but mine were hatched I think first of May last year so bigger - and very dominant.  I am going to cross the rooster to the Mistral Gris hens I kept from last year's meat birds - see if they can produce a satisfactory meat bird for home use.  Just seeing if Mistral Gris crosses well.  I have four hatchery dark Cornish hens from that same hatch that I might cross to a Buckeye rooster, I dunno.  Just messing around with crosses.  I had quite a few hatchery Cornish roosters but all but one went to freezer camp a few months ago.  Small but well shaped for eating.

Heda or Karaandblue (or anyone who had the experience) can you comment on flavor?  did you try pure dk cornish as well as dk cornish x?  If so, what would you say about difference in meat and texture etc.  Something Tara said way back (now relying on memory) about the difference between meat that took time to develop and meat that was quick to grow from a cross breed kind of blend and grew fast.

I only got the one set hatching eggs of Cornish from Triple J - all hatchery style. I did have Cornish Bantams years ago but never ate any. Have some hatchery Cornish in the freezer but have yet to work my way to them. Just judging from the bulk of the real Cornish I'd say they'd be closer to the restaurant Cornish Hen.

Magdelan wrote:  And to be fair to the essay here, I BELIEVE the black chicken is a black australorp x dc.  She came from BCKev's breeding experiment pen with dark cornish as a key ingredient and when I sent the pics of her to him a while back he said he thought she was this cross but possible I guess that there were other birds in there too of unknown blends.  Her head looks dark cornish though, do you agree?     

I do believe that as well, it was the other bird I was speaking about showing the patterning. I didn't think that would show up in a first cross, but I suppose it is possible.

I was probably not clear that I thought the black bird was that cross. Sometimes my brain goes faster than my fingers and I don't get all the thoughts that are rattling around up there into my post.

I'm going to have to go to a restaurant and have cornish hen. it is obvious, plain and simple in the aid of scientific study, I have to go out for a meal   . Thanks Heda.

Ok Coopslave, I was rushing and didn't read your post slowly enough. I see now. She indeed has patterning. I think I should not have posted these pictures because there is some vagueness over parentage. In talking to Kevin in the past he said he believed he had a buff orp in there, possibly your mulling it over has pulled up a loop hole and pointed to something? If I ever find myself doing breeding trials (like I would quite like to :-) it is apparent that for me, record keeping would be important. For sure she has dk cornish and probably buff orpington or buff orpington mix with? Apologies for not being 100% certain before putting the pics up. At least I should have said "suspected" parentage.

I think Buff Orpington would make more genetic sense for her.

Magdelan wrote: Heda or Karaandblue (or anyone who had the experience) can you comment on flavor?  did you try pure dk cornish as well as dk cornish x?  If so, what would you say about difference in meat and texture etc.  Something Tara said way back (now relying on memory) about the difference between meat that took time to develop and meat that was quick to grow from a cross breed kind of blend and grew fast.

Magdelan - I ate one just the other day. He was approximately 4 lbs. I think the meat seems a bit tighter muscled but that could be all in my head. It is delicious I will tell you that. It is very similar in flavor to my free range Cornish x birds that I keep - but much easier for me to finish an entire bird by myself. Lol. I always feel as though I'm wasting the Cornish x. One thing I noticed was the breast meat was tender and not dry, and it seemed to peel in layers up and down vs side to side (if that makes any sense to anyone but me I'm not sure! 
I have also eaten the Marans x am roos - they are not as fleshed out but are equally as yummy.

Does that help or hinder?

Here is a pic of one of my girls. I apologize for the links - my iPad won't let me insert the actual pics.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/64/03/46/image21.jpg

https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/64/03/46/image22.jpg

Yours has far more patterning than mine.

Here is one more behind my blue OE.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f57/18/64/03/46/image23.jpg

My, I have been away from the forum for a while. Sue has become a celebrity!

Heda, perhaps we are related. Shetland sheep, Toulouse geese, and now Cornish! Are you sure you don't have a little Schipperke tucked away there?

Karaandblue wrote:

Magdelan wrote: Heda or Karaandblue (or anyone who had the experience) can you comment on flavor?  did you try pure dk cornish as well as dk cornish x?  If so, what would you say about difference in meat and texture etc.  Something Tara said way back (now relying on memory) about the difference between meat that took time to develop and meat that was quick to grow from a cross breed kind of blend and grew fast.

Magdelan - I ate one just the other day. He was approximately 4 lbs. I think the meat seems a bit tighter muscled but that could be all in my head. It is delicious I will tell you that. It is very similar in flavor to my free range Cornish x birds that I keep - but much easier for me to finish an entire bird by myself. Lol. I always feel as though I'm wasting the Cornish x. One thing I noticed was the breast meat was tender and not dry, and it seemed to peel in layers up and down vs side to side (if that makes any sense to anyone but me I'm not sure! 
I have also eaten the Marans x am roos - they are not as fleshed out but are equally as yummy.

Does that help or hinder?

Here is a pic of one of my girls. I apologize for the links - my iPad won't let me insert the actual pics.





Yours has far more patterning than mine.

Here is one more behind my blue OE.

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[img]picture link[/img]<--------do this to have the pictures show "UP" in your post.

I thinks so too Coopslave, buff orpington makes sense but I just don't want to get in to trouble saying it is so and then find I was wrong later.  

Oh thank you Karaandblue, good news on the breast meat.  I'm a fan of legs because they tend to be moister than the breast.  Most of my family love the breast though.  At this point I have very little idea of what 4lb looks like.  Really looking forward to finding out what is what when we process them in a month or so.  Going to keep track of who was what.  

I didn't put a picture of my girls up, there is one showing behind the black dk cornish cross, just her tail really.  Yours is very nice, thank you for showing.  I am fascinated by other peoples chickens!  what is that all about I wonder.  I love my own of course and it isn't competition in any shape or form, just love seeing other chickens I guess.  And coops.  other peoples coops are bewilderingly interesting.  this is beer talking.  Only had a couple of shandies (for you guys who don't know what that is, half beer and half seven up).  It is to help relax me after several changes of clothes, my hair is still itching as if I have nits  -  I went to see what lice and mites live on my chooks and folks, it is not nice at all.  nope.  poor girls.  blood blisters where they've been trying to get rid of the pesky things.  CynthiaM has given them a whole new name but I can't say it on here.  oops.  hijack.  time to go.


Ya! ABNS is a celeb :-).