Hatching Our Own

Over the years we have tried many breeding combinations in an attempt to breed our own chickens for meat. Once again I am experimenting. I know that there is no way to compete with the efficiency of the CornishX, but it would be nice to be able to breed something that comes close.

In the past we have used the Cornish X rooster with a RIR hen. The outcome was a 0% hatch rate. A few of the eggs were fertile (very few); but none of the embryos developed to hatching. This time we are trying to hatch some CornishX eggs fertilized by our RIR/Americana rooster. As of today we have 4 eggs in the incubator, and will add eggs every 5 days or so. I'll candle the eggs in a few days to see if it looks like we're going to have any success. If we could raise 2 per week we could keep our family in chicken without buying any.

I also plan to hatch out some chicks to keep as layers for next year, but I won't start that project until later in the fall. In the past we have had a 98% hatch rate with our RIR's. We use an old styrofoam incubator....I aquired this one through a trade nearly 20 years ago. We bought a new one a few years ago, but it doesn't work nearly as well. We use the newer one as a hatcher....we move the eggs to it 2 days before their hatch date. We also never use a turner. I hand turn each egg 3 times a day.