Choosing a rooster

[BroKen1]

I currently have a flock of Golden Comets hens, which I love. However, I want to end up with a flock that will also make good meat birds as well as good egg producers. Can anyone recommend a breed of rooster to add to my Golden Comets that will produce offspring that will still be excellent layers and still be large enough to make good meat birds?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Golden Comet doesn't tell me that much, just that they are red sex links. Some are the commercial egg laying hybrids, bodies about the size of a Leghorn and not much meat. They are designed to produce a lot of decent sized eggs and have great feed to egg ratio. With them being that small they don't need much feed for body maintenance.

Others are actual crosses between dual purpose breeds. These are basically dual purpose birds. Do you know which hatchery yours came from? We might be able to tell which ones you have by looking at their website.

The commercial egg-laying hybrids are not likely to give you good meat birds no mater what rooster you use. The dual purpose crosses will give you much better results.

If you read through the posts in this section you'll see that we all have out favorites for our own reasons. Some like the Naked Neck or other breeds that don't feather in thickly, fewer feathers to pluck. Some like the true Cornish (not the Cornish Cross) because it increases the amount of of breast meat but they are typically poor layers. Some like a white or buff color because you get a prettier carcass when you pluck compared to a dark colored bird. Some like certain breeds because they feel they give a better texture. Some try to incorporate Cornish Cross or Rangers, the true meat birds, but those typically require a lot of work and aren't always successful. Rangers are easier than the Cornish Cross.

To me there are a lot of different qualities that might make a good meat bird. I don't know what qualities you are looking for. My main suggestion is when you decide which breed you want to try, get a bunch of them, especially if you are getting them from a hatchery. 20 is not a bad number. You'll find that some are much better quality than others, the more you have to choose from the better rooster you are likely to wind up with. Eat the ones you don't want to eat and breed the one you most want to eat.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
RR offers excellent advice, as usual. Also, your location matters. Breeds that will do well in hot weather aren't always good in snow country, and the opposite is also true. In general, dual purpose heritage breeds are meant for this. Realize that excellent egg production tends to go with small bodied leghorn type birds, and excellent meat means bigger birds who won't lay as well as leghorns. Either balance these qualities, or have super laying hens, and bigger meaty types in separate individuals.
Look at Henderson's poultry chart for inspiration!
Mary

 

[BroKen1]

Golden Comet doesn't tell me that much, just that they are red sex links. Some are the commercial egg laying hybrids, bodies about the size of a Leghorn and not much meat. They are designed to produce a lot of decent sized eggs and have great feed to egg ratio. With them being that small they don't need much feed for body maintenance.

Others are actual crosses between dual purpose breeds. These are basically dual purpose birds. Do you know which hatchery yours came from? We might be able to tell which ones you have by looking at their website.

The commercial egg-laying hybrids are not likely to give you good meat birds no mater what rooster you use. The dual purpose crosses will give you much better results.

If you read through the posts in this section you'll see that we all have out favorites for our own reasons. Some like the Naked Neck or other breeds that don't feather in thickly, fewer feathers to pluck. Some like the true Cornish (not the Cornish Cross) because it increases the amount of of breast meat but they are typically poor layers. Some like a white or buff color because you get a prettier carcass when you pluck compared to a dark colored bird. Some like certain breeds because they feel they give a better texture. Some try to incorporate Cornish Cross or Rangers, the true meat birds, but those typically require a lot of work and aren't always successful. Rangers are easier than the Cornish Cross.

To me there are a lot of different qualities that might make a good meat bird. I don't know what qualities you are looking for. My main suggestion is when you decide which breed you want to try, get a bunch of them, especially if you are getting them from a hatchery. 20 is not a bad number. You'll find that some are much better quality than others, the more you have to choose from the better rooster you are likely to wind up with. Eat the ones you don't want to eat and breed the one you most want to eat.

All I can tell you about mine is that I have 23 hens that came from TSC.

 

[BroKen1]

Welcome!
RR offers excellent advice, as usual. Also, your location matters. Breeds that will do well in hot weather aren't always good in snow country, and the opposite is also true. In general, dual purpose heritage breeds are meant for this. Realize that excellent egg production tends to go with small bodied leghorn type birds, and excellent meat means bigger birds who won't lay as well as leghorns. Either balance these qualities, or have super laying hens, and bigger meaty types in separate individuals.
Look at Henderson's poultry chart for inspiration!
Mary

Thank you very much. I’m in Mississippi, so it’s probably warmer than most places. However, we have a saying here. If you don’t like the weather in Mississippi, just wait 10 minutes. It will change.

 

[Folly's place]

That's Michigan! Today sunshine and 70F, then freezing and maybe snow.. BUT no hurricanes!!!
Mary

 

[BroKen1]

That's Michigan! Today sunshine and 70F, then freezing and maybe snow.. BUT no hurricanes!!!
Mary

I’m in North Mississippi, about an hour south of Memphis, so we don’t have to worry about the hurricanes. Tornadoes, however, are a much different story. Tornadoes are so common that we go sit on the porch and watch for them to go by.

 

[FortCluck]

I have Deathlayer/Golden Comet Crosses that I just hatched. I do know that most roosters that you get will create a good meat bird. I wouldn't choose a breed like a Jersey Giant or Brahma though. I mixed both of those with my Red Sex Links and I would have to wait over 6 months for meat. That to me is way to long of a wait. I would choose honestly any of the breeds that are not too large or too small.

Also you might want to choose a white rooster because plucking black feathers or dark feathers off a carcass looks sometimes awful. I have to skin all the black and barred birds we get out of our crosses because they do not look good plucked no matter what you do.

 

[BroKen1]

Waiting is not a big issue for me, as I’m MOSTLY interested in eggs and wouldn’t slaughter any until their egg production slowed down anyway. They would probably be around 2 years when I slaughtered them. I’m considering crossing them with a RIR rooster.

 

[Torinik]

I can attest to what's being said above about the brahma rooster. A few years back I happened to have the space in my incubator and put 4 isa brown eggs in from the one I had cooped up with my brahma's. The 4 hatched and turned out to be 3 cockerels and 1 hen. I still have the hen and she keeps on laying very well, she's also quite a chunky chicken, meaty that is. The 3 cockerels on the other hand turned out tall, narrow and skinny. 2 were just under 1kg dressed and 1 just over 1kg at 6 months when I processed them. I would have kept one even longer to see what it would develop into and what would come out bred to the rest of my flock, but their characters were just too, well, horrible. These were the nastiest cockerels I've had so far. They did grow very fast compared to the brahma chicks, at three weeks they were double the size of the brahma chicks. So, that looked promising at the start but they never put on enough meat to process at let's say 16 or 20 weeks.