Comments on: Frey’s vs White Rock

By: Rabbi Pinchus Presworsky

Rabbi Pinchus Presworsky — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:55:50 +0000

DEAR CHECKEN EXPERT:
IF YOU HAVE NICE PICTURES OF THE ROCK-CORNISH CHICKEN, PLEASE E-MAIL THEM TO ME WITH PERMISSION TO USE IN A BOOK
THANK YOU:
presworsky@hotmail.com

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:24:05 +0000

That was my experience exactly with my second White Rocks. Their feed was measured daily, and after they’d polished it off in a feeding frenzy, they headed out. A few weeks in, and they were bursting out the chickenhouse door in the morning, couldn’t wait to get out and about. I saw them running – lumber-running – around with worms in their beaks. I think the exercise helped a lot, because I didn’t lose any this time, compared to a dozen or more out of 40 in the first round. With foraging, they weighed around 7 lbs at 10 weeks or so, about a pound less than when they were all-feed, but since none died, that turned out net better. And it was just a lot more satisfying to raise them, they seemed happier – happy – instead of just freakishly expanding Frankenbirds. :)

By: Ginger

Ginger — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:32:31 +0000

I raised Cornish Rock X this year as well. I found that if I pull the feed for an hour or two in the mornings after moving their “tractor”, they forage a bit better and get more exercise. Does this help them? I don’t know; but I feel like I am encouraging them to be more chicken-like. At 10 weeks our chickens were 6 – 7 1/2 pounds, dressed! Great taste, very tender, even the thighs are “whiter” than commercial chickens.
We called them Franken-chickens!!
My husband keeps reminding me – they are bred for this purpose. :-/

By: Esther

Esther — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:36:57 +0000

I have noticed on a couple of my white cornish roosters that the crop is sagging. Whats up with that?

By: elizabeth pugliese

elizabeth pugliese — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:57:58 +0000

i to, have raised the dreaded hybred, jumbo cornish X. the last batch i did was a night mare…..the worst case senario……with over 40 chicks in my shipment, come butchering time, i had only 21 survivors. the batch before that was a 100% success, and the first batch only 3 deaths. next week i will recieve 25 dark cornish, and i cant wait. after that i would like to try perhaps, white rocks, maybe some freedom rangers, perhaps some new hampshire reds, or red or black broilers. so many choices out there if you look around. i agree, the cornish Xs just seem like a cruel joke. ya cant help but feel sorry for em.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:36:10 +0000

I thought the exact same thing! They’re monsters… I felt bad raising them since they had no vigour. They seemed to get tired just walking around and would flop down to the ground.

Now remember, these are the cross-bred chickens. A ‘plain’ white rock is a great meat bird. But these Cornish X Rock blends are just wrong. Nice feed to meat ratio, but I felt like I was losing the raised humanely aspect.

By: Behaving like chickens! | How to make a Vegetable Garden

Behaving like chickens! | How to make a Vegetable Garden — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:50:00 +0000

[...] White Rocks, bred over decades for insatiable appetites and rapid growth, and likely to just eat, drink and SIT [...]

By: Velz Hendrickson

Velz Hendrickson — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:23:29 +0000

I have 5white rocks n 5black rocks this year
mainly as thats what the feed store had
they do seem to gain fast however I did buy for eggs layers so hopefully they don’t poof off too fast I don’t eat my chickens lol so dang if they die fast will try a diff breed next year, they do go out and often spend the night ou in their safe pen, have had only 1 possum attack brusing one bird but she seems to be recovering slowly the rest are pretty spritely, the blacks seem much smaller I bought the run and hoped for a rooster n bought 5 sure hens in the white lol looks like the blacks are all hens and 2 roosters in the white sheesh

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:23:33 +0000

Kelly: Thanks for the ideas. That’s something I’ll almost surely try. The efficiency of the White Rocks is hard to forget, but so is their unsettling lumbering around and unchicken-like behavior. I also want to try getting White Rocks outside from an early age, instead of just constantly feeding them.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:01:27 +0000

I have been there on the cornish/rocks. They can’t be beat for feed conversion and length of time to raise them. If you want the qualities, why not just get a Cornish rooster and a few white rock hens. White rock hens are a nice bird and bred with a rooster produce really nice meat birds.

That way you would have real chickens, meat birds, and plymouth rocks lay quite well. It does involve a small incubator but I have built incubators and it is quite a simple task to build an incubator. Some aren’t even that expensive. Hatching chicks is awesome for kids too.