Breeding a broiler chicken

I have a small hatchery. I hatch out and sell about 1200 Bourbon Red turkey poults every year.
I want to breed a broiler type chicken.
I am going to try a Cornish cross.
I have red laced Cornish and white Plymouth Rock pullets and cockerels that I am going to breed next year. Has anyone out there tried this and do you have any info for me?
Also I breed Sicilian Buttercups. I have a problem with them soiling the eggs with feces. Anyone else had this problem. I have raised many breeds of chickens and have never had eggs this dirty. I suspect there is one girl with a problem.
How great to find this forum!

what great looking turkeys!!!

i kno wnothing, i mean NOTHING about raising broilers....

but eggs i know a little! whoever is taking too long to lay her egg is soiling the others. spend a little time in there when you can, and band the one you think it is. eventaully you should give her to a nice home. or maybe just isolate her and see if she has a health problem you can solve.

buttercups, oh YUMM-Y!

welcome to this forum...
tf

yer welcome u will love it and i am sure tamara will be able to get u some chickens she good at that

I see Red Bourbon Turkeys in tf's future--her's and about a dozen of her closest friend's:0)

My Buttercup is a lovely hen! I don't think it's a breed issue.

My Buttercup is a Buff Orpington--I think I am losing track here.....

Someone needs coffee : )

i just needc to stay awake. didn't dusty start a chat thread so we wouldn't be wandering all over the forum etc...

red bourbons were on my list to get in 2007. i had a baby instead. his nickname is turkey!

tf

I want a baby!!! Can't I just order one from a hatchery instead of going through the hassle of labour and delivery? Oh well, My kids say no more! My oldest doesn't want to babysit another and my youngest wants to stay the baby of the family. Can't say my kids aren't smart!

you can come and sit with mine any day. guaranteed to cure you.

NO, just make it worse. Trust me, all my friends are having little ones right now ; ) Sigh.....(SLAP)!

you relaize i am up this late becasue HE is...

well maybe u should go with the flow patchouli and hav another one lol
or u can get som chicks lol

hvfarm7, what a fantastic picture! We have only 4 bourbon red turkey poults right now, but it is a start. I love that you asked the question about breeding the cornish with the plymouth white rocks to get the cornish cross. We are wanting to do the exact same thing and are getting our chicks this year so we can do the breeding next year. I wish we had already gotten a start at it though, I would have a lot more advice for you. Like you, I wonder how it would work out, but we were figuring on doing it and seeing. We were going to have the cornish pullets to be bred with plymouth rock roos. I have read somewhere that the red laced cornish will dress out with red pin marks on the skin, but wonder if the offspring of the cross would? I was thinking that breeding the buff cornish with the plymouth rock would provide a cleaner finished look on the skin? Like I said, we are just starting too but it should for sure be interesting to see what all the results will be!

Christy

Now on the baby thing....oh my! My DD is 5 now and my youngest and I have had to fight the baby fever ever since. I have had to make myself not pick up babies, cause I think it will be a deal breaker and I will for sure be having another one and right quick! With DD going to school full time though, my DS is 7, I am seeing a little 'freedom' in my future and I when the feeling strikes I talk myself down by saying, do I REALLY want to go through all that again and start all over? Ok, I fess up.....yeah, I kind of do, but then I don't........(hope the baby fever don't hold on forever!)

Christy

yeah Patch, I know where you are at....sigh (SLAP!)

SLAP-SLAP!

ha ha ha ha......

OUCH!!!

hvfarm7.......its seems like everything I have looked up to this point has stated that to get the Cornish Cross, you use a Cornish Hen and a White Plymouth Rock rooster. In looking at a hatchery on line, they advertise their Cornish Cross as using the White Plymouth Rock hen and a Cornish rooster.....I'm more confused than ever. I'm wondering if it can be done both ways and which is the better way to do it?

Christy

Can you just dip my feet in cold water or spray me with a hose like someone on DG did with the broody silkies? Will it work for people too? : )

cold showers work wonders for all kinds of ailments... but if you want to come down here , i will PAY you to keep my children...

Only one thing I have to say...GRANNY DON'T BABY SIT!!!

he he he I hear ya granny.

WOW them birds are just beautiful...............I WANT, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (slap)

I sure hope I am doing this right(replying). I am new to forums and chat rooms. Thanks for the replies! I had figured it was one buttercup hen having the problem. Maybe I will be able to figure out who it is. She sure makes a mess.
My boys do look lovely in that winter picture(before breeding season). You should see them when breeding season is over. Whoa. Bad. They do most of the feather damage while they pace the fence of their pen.Only one guy can be in with the girls at a time or they would kill each other. You would think they could count all of those girls (60) and reason that there are plenty to go around. Silly boys.
As for the Cornish cross, I guess I will try it both ways. Hens and roosters of both combination and see if it makes a difference.
As for babies........thankfully those days are behind me.
Joanne.

Joanne, since I am a great-grandma, those days are so far in the past I don't even remember them.

The only babies I have now are my birds, cats and DH.

GG
^_^

Granny i am with you there just 1 generation behind ya, I have the grandkids and the birds, dogs, cats, and can not forget DH he is my biggest baby. Oh gosh forgot the 2 ponys. they are my moms but tell them that, they stay at my house.

Yep Joanne, you sure are doing it right. I know exactly how you feel....I was new a month and a half ago and this was my first first time on a forum as well. I didn't even really know what one was to tell you the truth! lol You will love it here....everyone is so helpful whenever someone has a question....goodness I have asked a ton of them and everyone is so friendly as well.

We had figured we would do the same thing with the Cornish.....breed both ways and see which seems to turn out the best. I figured with ordering straight run we would have both anyway.

That's really good to know about the tom turkey's, I didn't know that and I probably should if we are going to breed them next year. I told my DH all about your first post and he was so excited about it. Right now we have jumbo white turkey's.....the toms we will butcher but the hens he is wanting to breed to the bourbon red toms and see what that cross produces. Have you ever done this or do you know if it would be successful? We have the hens separated out from the toms and have them on a different feed so they don't fill out and grow as fast.

Welcome to Dave's Garden!

Christy

Good morning everyone.
Yes, Christy ,don't put more then one tom in at a time. If they don't kill each other they still spend the entire time fighting and obsessing about what the other guy is doing. They get nothing done.
The only problem I see with your plan would be that the white turkey hens used for breeding come from a lighter strain then the one for growing out for the market which is probably the one you have. Just depends on if you can keep them from growing themselves to death.
It will make a great Thanksgiving turkey if you can make it work! I have been tempted myself to try a little cross breeding.I'll be interested in knowing how it works out.
Off to work I go.
Joanne.

I was telling my DH about only using one tom at a time and why, or letting them take turns. He believes it from someone who has large numbers and knows what they are talking about, just wondered why we had two toms out together and they never fought. Of course what he didn't say but I know is that they were two different breeds, which I don't know if that makes any difference what so ever but one of the toms never even acted like a tom. He was a royal palm and had us guessing for the longest if he was a he or a she. He wouldn't puff up or strut or anything and they were the same age. He seemed more than happy to let the Black Spanish do his thing....maybe that's why they didn't fight? It wasn't until the BS was killed by dogs that the Royal Palm started acting like a tom and we have 12 of his baby poults now. I can't wait to see what they end up looking like...they are a Black Spanish/Royal Palm cross and I think they may be sex links.....9 are yellow and 3 are two shades of gray and black....they are so cute.

With the Jumbo White hens my thinking is pretty much....how could it work? We are raising cornish cross chickens and butchering them out now, and the thought of taking some of the hens and trying to slow down the rapid growth and get them to an age so they can breed seems about impossible. I was really thinking that doing the same with the turkey hens might be the same. My DH is horribly excited it about it, so we are going to see if it works. I figure how else are we going to know if it would work? And like you said......if it doesn't, they out to make fantastic Thanksgiving birds!

Christy

how old do you butcher them at is lik 12 weeks or sumthin

Your Royal palm obviously knew his place and wasn't interested in pushing the issue. Out of my 6 toms this year, 1 of them was a complete pacifist,2 were somewhat interested in fighting,2 of them were definitely fighters, and 1 was the worst I've ever seen. He and I did not get along. You might get by with putting toms together but a lot more gets done if you don't. They need to save their energy for the girls.
Speaking of buttercups... has anyone ever had an aggressive rooster? I have 3 here and they are the most non-confrontational birds I have ever seen. They carry on noise wise but never come near us.

so adorable!

Yes, I had an agressive rooster. He was a Buff Orpington. I use to have to take a stick (broomhandle) with me when I went to get eggs. He would attack me even though I had hit him with the stick in the head and blinded him in one eye. He had been doing this for over a year. The final straw was when he decided to try that with my DH. He went to camp freezer the next day.

I might have another one in the hatch I did this year. This one is a Black Australorp, and they seem to be the most docile chickens I have ever seen. But not him. Of course he is destined for camp freezer this fall.

GG

cool pic

Joanne--did you ever figure out which hen was dirtying the eggs and why? I've notice a couple dirty eggs, both times they were the dark brown ones, so either the Marans or the Welsummer. If there is a way to prevent it short of hovering over them all day--I would love to know it:0)

it is likely whoever is laying AFTER the marans or welsummer that is sitting too long and dirtying the eggs. she may think she is gonna lay when she just needs to poo...

Nope, that won't work---the Marans and the Welsummmer always share the nest and no one else. They and the Orpington Buttercup all go in sometime between 8 and 10 and each lay an egg. Buttercup uses one part of the nestbox and the other two the other side. Delphine and Colby lay out in the yard somewhere. It is a mystery.

i get a dirty egg about once a week

i say its buttercup, in the community nest, with a...

so u gotta catch her in the act so to speak