Buckeye Roo over Delaware Hens Meat-Type Cross Project

[tagra123]

Buckeyes are not just a dark meat bird. They can easily dress out at 3.75 pound in 20 weeks free ranging. They have a wide decent breast 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch. Our strain is making a great meat bird all by itself. My experience with the two breeds is that the Buckeyes and White Rocks get to a usable age for meat faster then the Delaware's I had.

Not sure the benefit of crossing but try it and see.

 

[cubalaya]

the whitmore delawares are ready to butcher at 12 weeks making them a better choice than buckeyes or white rocks at 20 weeks. i have australorps ready to butcher at 16 to 18 weeks.

 

[Jared77]

the whitmore delawares are ready to butcher at 12 weeks making them a better choice than buckeyes or white rocks at 20 weeks.

Do you have any of these birds yourself? What are the dressed weights your getting?

i have australorps ready to butcher at 16 to 18 weeks.

Where did you get these? They your own strain your working on?​

 

[wingsofglory]

I'm wondering the same questions as Jared77.

Where can one get some of these Whitmore Delawares? And the Australorps?

Any pics?

 

[cubalaya]

will whitmore in maryland has the delawares. i am still working on the australorps . tried to create a meat bird using cubalaya cocks over true rhode island reds hens and barred rock hens. they were very tasty, very hardy and very good layers of light brown eggs. just real variable in the next couple of generations. also pretty slow to grow out. i decided to improve my australorps and get a few heritage delawares. planning on crossing some whitmore dels into my dels.

 

[Arielle]

I'm reading your posts with great interest. MOst of the dual purpose breeds are a bit light in the meaty dept compared to the typical store bought birds; this cross breeding looks like a good solution.Hybrid vigor in f1 and f2 generations and breeding in meatier birds, too. YUM!

 

[phasianidae]

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
Buckeyes should reach market weight at 16 weeks. Whitmore Delawares have gone under the ALBC improving production pdfs created for the buckeye project. You could process a buckeye at 12 weeks, but they would not be as big as at 16 like the Delaware. This should be an interesting project. Good luck!
Edit: To correct you, his name is Will Morrow.

 

[Jared77]

So the Whitmore Dels are the real deal at 12 weeks? I haven't heard anybody using them for meat thats why I'm wondering

 

[cubalaya]

sorry i got the name wrong. there is another guy with buckeyes (don shrider) that is using the same albc method of selective breeding