are barred rocks meat birds?

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Where's South Mountian? (Is that a typo, is it supposed to be Mountain?)

Would you be willing to sell any fertile eggs for hatching? Since the original stock is from 1920, I'd say they are the real McCoy, undiluted by layer stock, which is a problem with hatchery birds.

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Where's South Mountian? (Is that a typo, is it supposed to be Mountain?)

Would you be willing to sell any fertile eggs for hatching? Since the original stock is from 1920, I'd say they are the real McCoy, undiluted by layer stock, which is a problem with hatchery birds.

Sorry family only!

You can breed your own and select for size in any breed, just like his grandma did. Each year your stock will get bigger and better. But you have to hatch a lot of chicks to choose from and be very selective with your breeder stock, keep only the best of the best for breeders.

Remember the guy that had 100 top chickens or so he thought and when the professional chicken judge came in and went through his flock, he ended up with 1 trio. Save your best breeders in the numbers that you need for laying the numbers that you want or can incubate and have room for.

They have the whole family contributing breeder stock. You can do the same with family or friends or neighbors. Pick the top 10 percent of each hatch and then of each years hatch if space is limited. You should hatch at least 30 eggs from each breeder hen each year. Choose 3 of each hens chicks. Those are your breeders for the next year. If you are limited on space of the 3 of each hen, keep 10% of the years best hatched pullets. A good breeder hen should not be replaced on a yearly basis if you are also selecting for longevity and vigor. If you choose well, each years selection will be better than the previous years. Don't forget to choose the best Roos, not just pullets.

This is what chicken breeding flock management is really all about. How to choose your Roos and How to choose your Hens. Choose your breeders from hen eggs, not pullet eggs.

This is what I am doing with my Buttercups that I;m just getting started on last year. I already saw improvement last fall and again with this springs chicks. At the same time I'm paying attention to their breed standard, which I printed out and put in the front of my Poultry Book that I keep as a reminder when I'm selecting for breeders.

This is what is so enjoyable. Hatching chicks, raising them up, and seeing your flock improve each year. This is what raising chickens is all about to me. It's not just about how pretty they are or how good they are to eat, or how many eggs I get or what color they are. To me its also about how fast they grow out and how tender they are at an older age and that they live to an older age. Its about how hardy they are to my area that we live in. I don't want a oversized overbred unhealthy CX that grows out in the least amount of time. I want a chicken that is good to eat when ever I get around to harvesting it. Because here I need my chickens on their feet not in my freezer. We're in Hurricane country and when the electricity goes off, I still get hungry.

Sorry to go on, but that's why I raise my chickens, these chickens for food. And right now there's another Hurrican coming in the Gulf. Looks like we're going to be on the dirty side again and there goes the electricity, again.

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I don't do BR but other dual purpose birds, Sussex among them. Sussex eggs are brown, not white. You might want to change your chart.

I don't weight my birds when I process them, but I am sure I am not achieving the heavier weights. I am not feeding them the high-powered meat bird diet. Since I want some of them to be layers, I use the recommended layer development diet with about 15% to 16% protein. They free range too, which means they are not eating only the higher powered feeds but are partially filling up on grass and other less high protein foods. How you feed them does make a big difference in weight gain.

Not all birds of a breed are the same. Different parentage will develop birds with different characteristics. Some BR (or any other) lines will grow bigger and faster than others. Both how you feed them and parentage plays into how fast they grow. If your goal is meat birds, then you might want to look into their diet, but if you want dual purpose birds, you might want a dual purpose diet.

To be exact sussex eggs are cream not brown or white.

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Buttercup
This is a great post and you will not believe how true, my grandma pretty much said the same to me.
I've been raising rock x for years sending them to freezer camp as soon as 4 weeks and latest 10 weeks!
My family made me an outcast!! I had freezers full of birds and sold many to friends and such.

I'm no longer doing this but raising them now for what its really about, I'm just blessed to not have to go through the development of me stock!!

Thanks for posting this and I believe you are right!!

We will keep your area in our prayers!

Blessings,
Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy, quess your prayers worked, we're just going to get a bunch of rain and maybe a tornado or two. Normal summer so far, but still glad my chickens are on their feet and not to many are in the freezer.

To answer the OP, yes Barred Rocks can be meat chickens. But it depends on you, are you going to breed for meat and dual purpose or just grow out some chickens for the table. If you are going to continue ordering hatchery chickens or get some from the farmer down the lane, then chances are your growing out chickens. But if you get those same chickens and start breeding by selection, then you will be raising bigger and better meat birds or dual purpose birds by selection.

Once you get them to your standards for what you need in your area of the world, then its a matter of maintaining them and not overbreeding them. Chickens are tropical birds, they shouldn't have to be pampered when its hot and humid. They should be protected from the cold in other areas, though. I have seen people here loose their entire flocks from the heat, that is so sad and avoidable by proper breeding for vitality.

Please breed them for vitality because its getting hotter and they are a very import food source. I really don't think the chicken factories will be able to save the CX at the current levels of production and low prices. They were developed to feed the masses, but under very different living conditions than today.

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Good post, good advice for any looking to breed up a particular breed. I'm doing something different, I'm doing deliberate cross breeds to create my own breed. So I don't really want to start out with, for example, crappy hatchery stock of any breed, spend 10 years getting them where I want, then crossing with others after spending 10 years, etc. I'm not a spring chicken myself, and hope to attain my goals before I die. I don't want spend 10-20 years just getting started. So I'm looking for decent breeder stock to begin with. I have some, I'm gradually getting the others. I don't currently have any rocks, of any color, because the hatchery ones I've seen were not so good. I may add some later, if I can get some good stock. Since Jeremy isn't willing to sell some fertile eggs, I won't be adding rocks to the mix, until I do find a good source.

In my situation, I'm pretty much on my own. I don't have other people to breed the same birds I'm working on. I have very little family left. None are anywhere near me, and none of them farm or raise chickens. My neighbors don't raise chickens, except one guy I don't like much, who thinks he's going to be the king of fighting cocks, a thing I want nothing to do with. I have a good friend who raises poultry and other farm critters, but his choice of breeds are different than mine. He's got very nice birds, too, they just aren't the ones I want.

So good advice, entirely accurate, but not something that everybody can really do! Good breeder stock takes time to locate, and they aren't cheap, but you can save several years of breeding time.

It sounds like Jeremy's birds are a good example of what dual purpose birds used to be.

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seriously... report that scum bag to the proper authorities.

(maybe you have, i dunno...it is just a little disturbing that something of that nature is mentioned so casually in a public forum.)

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seriously... report that scum bag to the proper authorities.

(maybe you have, i dunno...it is just a little disturbing that something of that nature is mentioned so casually in a public forum.)

I didn't intend to open this other topic, I was just using this person as an example of not really having family and neighbors to join in with me on a breed improvement project.

This particular guy is unlikely to accomplish more than wasting his own time and his family's resources. His wife will get tired of it soon enough and make him stop. The only thing evident at his house (that I know of) is that he's keeping roosters. That's not illegal. There's no evidence of anything illegal. If I did try to "report" him, what could I report? He's keeping roosters? He said something suspicious? It would be my word, (an outsider) against his, (a good 'ol local boy). It's a very small community, we have no local police, and no animal control.

I've been here about 12 years, he's been here his entire life. As have any of the "local authorities', such as they are. I live here, and would rather not become a target for local malice. I don't know the location or identity of any of the people he deals with. What do you imagine I might be able to do about this?

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seriously... report that scum bag to the proper authorities.

(maybe you have, i dunno...it is just a little disturbing that something of that nature is mentioned so casually in a public forum.)

I didn't intend to open this other topic, I was just using this person as an example of not really having family and neighbors to join in with me on a breed improvement project.

This particular guy is unlikely to accomplish more than wasting his own time and his family's resources. His wife will get tired of it soon enough and make him stop. The only thing evident at his house (that I know of) is that he's keeping roosters. That's not illegal. There's no evidence of anything illegal. If I did try to "report" him, what could I report? He's keeping roosters? He said something suspicious? It would be my word, (an outsider) against his, (a good 'ol local boy). It's a very small community, we have no local police, and no animal control.

I've been here about 12 years, he's been here his entire life. As have any of the "local authorities', such as they are. I live here, and would rather not become a target for local malice. I don't know the location or identity of any of the people he deals with. What do you imagine I might be able to do about this?

i didn't really mean to open this can of worms either... it just kinda caught me off guard. having had much experience in animal rescue it is a bit of a sensitive spot.

sorry guys, for the OT post.

dancingbear - i am PMing you a response.. sorry if it seemed like i was attacking you in any way.. that wasn't my intention.