Chicken Breed Focus - New Hampshire

[ShrekDawg]

They're dual purpose I thought? They were comparing them to solely meat birds like Cornish, Cornish Xs, and like rainbow rangers, etc. I think. NHR can be used for meat and probably often are but they're not "meat birds" I think is what they mean, especially when the meaties it's usually 8-12 weeks and dual purpose or heritage ones usually take longer to mature so I think they were surprised

 

[ShrekDawg]

But it's gotta be a mistake because they said they agreed with your 5 month thing but 4 weeks is only one month

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm sure that was a typo. I can believe 4 to 6 months to come to table for a NH, that would be 16 to 24 weeks.

Lines, care, environment, and feed choices all factor in to how well a bird does for meat.

Only (at least to my knowledge) the commercial meat birds come to table in 8 weeks or less.

I raised a batch of Buckeyes which are more meat type than egg type but still dual purpose and had the roos good enough for small carcass by 16 weeks but 20 to 22 weeks would have been better (I had to butcher early due to family events).

I could have had better carcass performance with the Bucks had I raised the protein more (I had them on 18 to 20%) but had to raise them with another breed for grow out so I kept them on more of a dual ration than meat ration (22 to 24%) which affected growth.

It is good for me to think about revisiting the NH as I know from my experience it was a better layer than the Bucks and it to is a good size bird. My ideal breed would have hens that lay good and roos come to table around 18 to 20 weeks so I don't have to pour so much grain in them and can get them processed before they have too much time to be noisy.

LofMc
Edited for spelling

 

[Ifish]

My New Hampshire Cockerels averaged around 7lbs @ 20 weeks. I would imagine they'd make good broilers at 20 weeks, and if someone pushed them, probably fryers at 12 weeks and broilers by 16. Not a cornish X speed, but a very acceptable time table for commercial reasons, and a heritage breed at that. Not to mention the extra flavor of an older bird.


These birds are at 20 weeks in this pic.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

That is impressive meat ability for a bird I know lays well....not at commercial layer intensity, but very well for a dual purpose bird. Better than my Orps, and better than the Bucks (and much easier to find in my area)

Yes, indeed, I like the sound of a well bred NH.

LofMc

 

[Ifish]

That is impressive meat ability for a bird I know lays well....not at commercial layer intensity, but very well for a dual purpose bird. Better than my Orps, and better than the Bucks (and much easier to find in my area)

Yes, indeed, I like the sound of a well bred NH.

LofMc

It is an impressive breed of fowl imo, and my chosen breed. Reading about the "Chicken of Tomorrow Contests" really adds to my love of this breed. It's taken some very awesome and dedicated people to get the NH's back to respectability in the USA. I'm thankfully benefiting from their work.

While specialized hybrids do specific production better (cornish x/sexlinks), those wanting a heritage breed can't go wrong with the NH's. Just check out the lines if you prefer eggs over meat and vise versa.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Anyone have a breeders listing for the USA to post?

That would be a nice touch to this thread.

LofMc

 

[Ifish]

A list would be nice, but I am not aware of one.

My birds came from Luanne aka cpartist. Also dheltzel had some nice birds. Not sure if he is still working with/selling them or not. May be others on this site, I just can't think of who is actually selling them at this point.

 

[mymilliefleur]

Sorry for the confusion, I meant 4-6 MONTHS not 4-6 WEEKS

(which would be early even for a cornish X).

@Ifish , Nice looking birds! I would love to get some breeder quality NH's at some point, they are so much better looking than the hatchery NH's.
I had some a few years ago that were from Ideal if I remember correctly, and the roosters were only 5-7 lbs, pitiful!

 

[Toddlertree]

Here's photos of our coop and New Hampshire hens. They are about 16 weeks old. They love the chicken feed and will eat dandelions, but have not liked kitchen scraps. Is this unusual?