Best heritage meat chicken?

[lazy gardener]

While your idea of WR is a good one, and I think that's what I would choose if I had your goal in mind, For myself, I'd get some Dixie Rainbows aka Pioneer, and breed them forward. They are a hybrid meat bird, grow out to good processing size by 12 weeks, forage well. Not prone to the systemic failures of the CX. The pullets make nice layers, and they breed forward "true enough" to produce multiple generations of good meaty birds. I would not put a DR roo over a standard LF layer hen b/c of the size discrepancy. The DR are huge.

 

[Ridgerunner]

While your idea of WR is a good one, and I think that's what I would choose if I had your goal in mind, For myself, I'd get some Dixie Rainbows aka Pioneer, and breed them forward. They are a hybrid meat bird, grow out to good processing size by 12 weeks, forage well. Not prone to the systemic failures of the CX. The pullets make nice layers, and they breed forward "true enough" to produce multiple generations of good meaty birds. I would not put a DR roo over a standard LF layer hen b/c of the size discrepancy. The DR are huge.

LG you could put a standard dual purpose rooster over a Dixie Rainbow hen and get essentially the same cross. That might give you a more sustainable flock. But if you can make ranger over ranger or pioneer over pioneer work you should get a pretty nice meat bird.


In my opinion strain is much more important than breed. Others have touched on that but I want to bring it out. In the early 1900’s Delaware, New Hampshire, and some strains of White Rock were the backbone of the chicken meat industry. They were bred as meat birds. I saw one advertisement dated in the 1930’s that claimed their strain of Delaware would produce a 4 pound bird at ten weeks. That was worth bragging about until the Cornish X were developed in the middle of the 1900’s. The Cornish X were so efficient people quit breeding the others for meat so they soon became no different than other dual purpose hatchery birds.

Enough of the history lesson. No hatchery breed will come close to the efficiency of the Cornish X, Rangers, or Pioneers that have been developed as specialty meat birds. If you can find a breeder that knows what they are doing and that has been developing a strain of any dual purpose bird (heritage, purebred, or a mix) for meat you will be a lot better off than any breed of hatchery bird. The trick is finding that breeder, I can’t help you with that.

Some breeders are better than others. They can have different goals, maybe some like white meat more than dark. They may target butchering at different ages. Not all these birds will be identical, but if the breeder knows what they are doing and has been at it for a while, their birds will beat the hatchery birds hands down.

There is another aspect of this. Even if you start with great stock, if you don’t take care when selecting your breeders your flock quality will quickly decline. Be pretty ruthless in not eating the best but let them breed. Eat your failures.

 

[B Redhawk]

I'm working with Black Copper Marans, they are large enough for use as a meat bird and they produce large eggs too. This coming year we should be ready to put in the wife's Turken birds which will also do dual purpose for us.

 

[lazy gardener]

LG you could put a standard dual purpose rooster over a Dixie Rainbow hen and get essentially the same cross. That might give you a more sustainable flock. But if you can make ranger over ranger or pioneer over pioneer work you should get a pretty nice meat bird.

I put my EE roo over the Pioneer. Every red pullet that I hatch is a descendant of that Pioneer gal. They are not maintaining size from generation to generation. Yes, I'm fairly confident that keeping a pair or trio of Pioneers, DR, or FR would produce nice meaties for multiple generations. And they'd avoid the systemic difficulties associated with CX.

 

[Bigshooter]

I've tried a lot of heritage meat chickens over the last 7 or 8 years trying to find something that grows a decent sized breast and will weigh at least 3 pounds dressed at 16 weeks. And the closes thing I have come up with are 3rd generation hatchery stock white rocks. You have to breed the big birds to get big birds. And it took me about 3 years to do that. They now have a really nice size breast compared to everything else I have tried. And are a really great tasting bird.

Others breeds that I like are naked necks and Dorking. The NN's have really good size but don't have the breast that white rocks have. My personal favorite to eat are the Dorking. Best tasting chicken ever! But you need to raise them for 24 - 26 weeks for them to have much meat on them. And that is only about 3 pounds dressed. They also are the most tender heritage breed I have ever ate when they are fully mature. They do get a good size breast but no where near as big as my white rocks.

I got my hands on some LF white Cornish last year but my hatching really sucked last spring and summer and didn't get many chicks. But I like what I see so far. I think I will be able to get a 4 pound dressed bird at 14 weeks old with this breed. With a really big breast. Much bigger than my white rocks breasts. Wasn't able to butcher any last year so can't say for sure. But I did get some live weights and compared them to some other breeds that I did butcher last fall and it looks good.

 

[chickens really]

Barred Rock are not Heritage but Duel purpose here in Canada..Brahma and Orpington are Heritage with good meat..Slow growers but worth waiting for..

 

[JayColli]

If you're in Canada there are excellent lines of Coucou de Malines available here, primarily in BC, Ontario and Quebec.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-maline.990483/

 

[Rye]

Barred Rock are not Heritage but Duel purpose here in Canada..Brahma and Orpington are Heritage with good meat..Slow growers but worth waiting for..

What does Heritage mean in Canada?

Why are those breeds worth waiting for? How long is the wait?

 

[JayColli]

What does Heritage mean in Canada?

Why are those breeds worth waiting for? How long is the wait?

"Heritage" and "Dual Purpose" are not mutually exclusive terms when it comes to poultry in Canada so I'm not sure what's meant by that but I can tell you that I have seen some very impressive Barred Rock lines in my part of Canada that are true to the SOP and great producers of both meaty carcasses and eggs.

It's been my experience that there is a great deal of variety in the growth rates and egg production rates within any particular breed based on the lineage of the birds you're looking at. It pays to check out several lines of the different breeds that are known for being good dual purpose breeds and choose based on what you find to be an acceptable rate of growth. For me personally, cockerels need to be ready for the butcher at approximately 24 weeks, because from that age on the Malines cockerels are starting to find their voices and I can't have two dozen cockerels competing for top-crower. At that age I want them to have a meaty carcass, of which the weight doesn't really matter, as long as it appears meaty rather than a few chicken nuggets stretched out over a huge bony frame.

Decide at what age you want to have your spare cockerels ready to butcher and then start looking at cockerels around that age to see if you can find what you're looking for locally. Don't dismiss smaller, stout-looking cockerels in favour of the tallest or heaviest as I think you'll find a 3 lb. carcass that is 3/4 meat is a much better than a 4 lb. carcass that is only 1/2 meat in terms of both resources and presentation on the table.

 

[Arielle2]

heritage large fowl-part II