11/04/2024
I am going to do a chicken rant again. The chicken industry has been fibbing to the public for decades. I spent a little while on some chicken groups today and it was full of bad information repeated over and over, like always. It is exhausting trying to go against propaganda machines that have been pushing their messages for longer than I have been alive.
On my academic journey to improve my flock I have made many discoveries that are very contrary to the rules of "meat birds". I have met some people along the way who have figured out the same thing, usually by accident, proving it is not just a one off or my delusions.
I have my own strain of "meat birds", Cajun CornishX, Bayou Broilers, or Legendary ORCs as I have named them. They are customized NOT for industry/commercial use, but families, farms, and homesteads. Ways my chickens are better:
-They get just as big as CornishX (ross308 and cobb500)
-They forage instinctively and do not want to sit in front of feed tray 24/7, perfect for raising in a yard/pasture.
-They are healthy/hardy. This is likely due to how they are raised, but they have better instincts.
-They lay large eggs more often. CornishX lay XL eggs every 3rd day on average, for the first year and then slow down even more.
-They breed MOSTLY true. I am still working on this part. With 1 roo and 2 hens you can create a perpetual meat machine hatching generations of your own. This is not profitable for me, but unlike Tyson and corporations, I am not in this for money.
What I did:
Created my own CornishX using Dark Cornish Roo and White Plymouth Rock Hens.
Took the best of those hens and mated them with a Majestic Lavender Orpington Rooster.
Took those and raised them, selecting the best roosters and backcrossing them to my CornishX hens, then doing that again.
That started 3 years ago. I am starting the whole process over again as the first go round was a lot of theoretical guesswork, and this time I am going to replicate the results to prove my theory in adding Orpington (a heritage breed) to help stabilize the hybrid.
Pictured is a 1 yr old ORC (Orpington, Rock, Cornish) and he is a a heavy bodied warrior. Though he is very heavy, he is still very agile compared to a Ross308 strain which has a slightly wider body. I will weigh him once I catch him again.
