Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

[Compost King]

I am finally ready to process my last 4 birds, just completed the first of the 4. They made it to 2 says shy of 10 weeks. I have had larger birds at 10 weeks but these guys spent too much time on 18% Protein feed which is fine, I have more chicken than I usually eat in a year in the freezer so slightly smaller pieces of meat just means its easier to cook.

 

[Compost King]

the # 2 bird this evening had that rotting type of meat deep inside the breast so I had to discard some breast meat and the bone carcass. This bird was huge though so I likely had as much breast meat as I do from the other birds. 2 more birds to go and I finally processed all my birds over a span of 3 or 4 weeks. I like stretching it out so I can get different sizes of meat as well as not needing as much feed towards the end because for the last 10 days I have only been feeding 4 birds although they did eat a lot for 4 birds.

 

[aliciaplus3]

21 birds between 2.5 and 4.5 pounds dressed moved into the freezer tonight

 

[Morrigan]

Lots of great processing going on in here.

I’m doing free range quail but they were raised by a bantam chicken. They act like chicken not quail

That is fascinating. I would have loved to see that little bantam with her babies.

So fellow meat birders, I'm finding myself in a rooster dilemma. I'm torn between keeping my current rooster another cycle or replacing him, now, with one of his offspring. IN particular, I have in mind a 14 week old NN crossed with a slow white broiler cockerel. If I kept the cockerel, my plan would be to breed him to some good looking NN over Red Ranger pullets. That way, the offspring stays 50% broiler for size and has a little more genetic diversity than breeding the NN back to the his NN/RR daughters. That all sounds good on paper.

But . . . I kind of hate going thru the whole maturing cockerel gig again, especially since my current NN rooster is good, solid rooster. He's 15 months old now, and I would give him B on the rooster scale. He is totally docile and non-threatening to humans, he achieves 100% fertility rates with the hens, without being excessively randy. He has proven very heat tolerant, and most of his offspring have been born with the naked necks. He doesn't get an A, because he's weak on other rooster behavior like courting and tidbitting and showing pullets the nest boxes. And, he is only OK in size. As long as I'm breeding him with a broiler type hen, his offspring are decently sized, but his NN/NN and NN/orpington babies have not been very impressive.



I keep going back and forth.

 

[RUNuts]

Lots of great processing going on in here.



That is fascinating. I would have loved to see that little bantam with her babies.

So fellow meat birders, I'm finding myself in a rooster dilemma. I'm torn between keeping my current rooster another cycle or replacing him, now, with one of his offspring. IN particular, I have in mind a 14 week old NN crossed with a slow white broiler cockerel. If I kept the cockerel, my plan would be to breed him to some good looking NN over Red Ranger pullets. That way, the offspring stays 50% broiler for size and has a little more genetic diversity than breeding the NN back to the his NN/RR daughters. That all sounds good on paper.

But . . . I kind of hate going thru the whole maturing cockerel gig again, especially since my current NN rooster is good, solid rooster. He's 15 months old now, and I would give him B on the rooster scale. He is totally docile and non-threatening to humans, he achieves 100% fertility rates with the hens, without being excessively randy. He has proven very heat tolerant, and most of his offspring have been born with the naked necks. He doesn't get an A, because he's weak on other rooster behavior like courting and tidbitting and showing pullets the nest boxes. And, he is only OK in size. As long as I'm breeding him with a broiler type hen, his offspring are decently sized, but his NN/NN and NN/orpington babies have not been very impressive.



I keep going back and forth.

if you are not 100%, don't lose another cycle. Off with his head.

 

[Ridgerunner]

IN particular, I have in mind a 14 week old NN crossed with a slow white broiler cockerel. If I kept the cockerel, my plan would be to breed him to some good looking NN over Red Ranger pullets. That way, the offspring stays 50% broiler for size and has a little more genetic diversity than breeding the NN back to the his NN/RR daughters. That all sounds good on paper.

It sounds like size is very important to you. When you breed a cross to a cross you get a lot of genetic diversity. With those crosses you will get some really nice sized birds and some not that different from dual purpose chickens, like your NN/NN or NN/Orp crosses. More genetic diversity means you get more diversity.

If you take a long term approach and carefully select which offspring get to breed, either with him or his son, you can develop a line that is more consistent in size. I think you'll see some good results fairly quickly, depending a lot on how you chose your breeders, but it is not an overnight process. You'll still see some smaller offspring for a few generations.

When you are breeding for a specific trait you are trying to eliminate the genetic diversity associated with that trait. There are a lot of genes that affect size and growth rate. When you cross crosses you really mix those up. But in time you can work that out.

As long as I'm breeding him with a broiler type hen, his offspring are decently sized, but his NN/NN and NN/orpington babies have not been very impressive.

Exactly. Since neither he nor the hen are "crosses" there is less genetic diversity than when you are breeding crosses to crosses. Technically those broiler hens probably are crosses but you will still get more consistent results than you would crosses to crosses. It sounds like you are OK with those results. You'd have to maintain the breeding stock, you will not be breeding to improve. You get a better short term result.

Another option is to breed your cross boy to broiler type hens. You will get more larger results. Some may even grow so fast you have mortality issues but you worst results should be no worse than what you get with your NN to broiler hen crosses. If you cross him with your NN or Orp hens you'll get more diverse results. Some will probably be OK with you but some will be a disappointment.

I don't consider any choice wrong, which suits your goals and personality best?

 

[Morrigan]

You've given me a lot to think about. One one hand, it would be pretty easy to acquire of few new slower broiler type hens (red rangers, etc.), each year, and keep crossing my NN to them to supply my meat needs. But, I'm more intrigued with a long term solution. I do have to sort out my priorities as I have a lot on my wish list -- size, heat tolerance, easy temperament and solid egg laying/hatchable eggs.

I will never know for sure what's going to happen with a new cockerel until I try, so I guess I'm going to have to get comfortable with moving forward and trying things despite the unknowns.

 

[Parront]

You've given me a lot to think about. One one hand, it would be pretty easy to acquire of few new slower broiler type hens (red rangers, etc.), each year, and keep crossing my NN to them to supply my meat needs. But, I'm more intrigued with a long term solution. I do have to sort out my priorities as I have a lot on my wish list -- size, heat tolerance, easy temperament and solid egg laying/hatchable eggs.

I will never know for sure what's going to happen with a new cockerel until I try, so I guess I'm going to have to get comfortable with moving forward and trying things despite the unknowns.

You just described this bird. Except too young to know about egg-laying. Much bigger than the rest of the frock. Hoping it is a pullet. Suspicious tail feathers and wattles, though. This is the one I got from @BlueBaby -- it's descended from a "Crossing My Red Ranger's" bird & her NN cock.

 

[FortCluck]

You just described this bird. Except too young to know about egg-laying. Much bigger than the rest of the frock. Hoping it is a pullet. Suspicious tail feathers and wattles, though. This is the one I got from @BlueBaby -- it's descended from a "Crossing My Red Ranger's" bird & her NN cock.
View attachment 2315935

That definitely looks like a cockerel to me. The curved tail feathers and looks like saddle feathers as well. Are the hackle feathers pointy?

 

[FortCluck]

I just butcher any cockerel we get... I’m not picky anymore I’m more focused on the quail breeding since they’re faster growing. They also lay way better than chickens but it’s hard to make meals with their eggs