Malay or cornish?
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 9:22 pm
So I recently acquired a trio of Dark Cornish from WLLady. I thank her again for saving them for me. On first sight they seemed a bit "tall" for dark cornish but not a big deal, they're still young and the colour looked great (and the crate was heavy: that's a good sign). I had some birds In the late 1990's that were acquired from local auctions. (If I had a time machine I'd go back to 1985 and visit the breeders who lived in Renfrew: Jim had imported birds from Britain back when it was easy to do.)
My birds at the the time were nowhere near show quality; except for one hen that was a beauty but I suspect she was older and I only had two breeding seasons from her before she expired (and her eggs were misshapen with a poor shell so not many successful offspring). She was heavy; like lifting four bricks and very tame. I would pass her around among visitors to impress them. So upon further inspection I believe these have many Malay qualities (and they are derived from Malays so not a surprise). 1. Compact body on longish legs 2. The body is more horizontal then a cornish. 3. A bit too much tail on the roo 4. cathy reported they were poor layers so far (and so far here as well) (not that cornish are great layers)
Not that I am a qualified judge or have a lot of experience.
In my opinion the feather colour and type is good (one hen is a real beauty). The comb and wattles look right (really a lack of comb and wattles.) They're fairly tame (i've had some birds go feral: they are heavy but can run and fly: one year I rounded up the birds from the shed to move to the barn and one hen took off and took two months to catch: 3/10 would go broody and are good mothers). And this rooster is definetly doing his job.
As a report card: i give them a B+, and that's pretty good for me.
My birds at the the time were nowhere near show quality; except for one hen that was a beauty but I suspect she was older and I only had two breeding seasons from her before she expired (and her eggs were misshapen with a poor shell so not many successful offspring). She was heavy; like lifting four bricks and very tame. I would pass her around among visitors to impress them. So upon further inspection I believe these have many Malay qualities (and they are derived from Malays so not a surprise). 1. Compact body on longish legs 2. The body is more horizontal then a cornish. 3. A bit too much tail on the roo 4. cathy reported they were poor layers so far (and so far here as well) (not that cornish are great layers)
Not that I am a qualified judge or have a lot of experience.
In my opinion the feather colour and type is good (one hen is a real beauty). The comb and wattles look right (really a lack of comb and wattles.) They're fairly tame (i've had some birds go feral: they are heavy but can run and fly: one year I rounded up the birds from the shed to move to the barn and one hen took off and took two months to catch: 3/10 would go broody and are good mothers). And this rooster is definetly doing his job.
As a report card: i give them a B+, and that's pretty good for me.