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Really interested to hear what people have to say as we were in the same position. We startted with a 50/50 mix of Black Austrolop and Rhode Island Red. Both are suposed to be pretty good layers.Hello all,
New to the forum, and am looking for some ideas for a dual purpose breed. I am interested in eggs more than meat, but would like a breed that has reasonable potential as a meat bird. I hope to raise some chicks to sell, add to the flock, and butcher. I will be moving to the family farm this spring, and will have about 3-4 acres of farmyard that I can work with. I plan to use poultry netting and a mobile coop, at least in the summer, maybe with a permanent stationary coop for the winter. I am pretty new, and have been reading a lot, so I want to put out a few ideas I have, and welcome any critique of my ideas, or suggestions you may have for me.
A few breeds I have some interest in, and thoughts I have about them:
1. Bielfelder. There is a breeder about two hours from me that says they have Bielfelders that are laying 300+ eggs per year, which would be great. The chicks are autosexing, and the males get big, so they have some potential for meat. But I have read they take quite a while to fill out.
2. Delaware. They were originally meant to be decent layers and grow a little faster for roasters. I would probably need to find a decent breeder to get these qualities. I could have a Delaware rooster and just raise Delawares, or I could keep a New Hampshire rooster with Delaware hens to get red sex link chicks, and hopefully keep decent growth and laying in the offspring.
3. American Bresse. While I am not interested in all the fru-fru feeding routines to produce the finest meat in the world I read about, these seem like they are a decent layer, grow quickly, and are good foragers. That checks boxes for me, and I am sure they still would be good eating even if they don't get the fancy finishing before butchering.
4. Barred Rocks. This would be the cheapest option, as I could probably get decent layers from a hatchery and Rocks shouldn't be the most terrible meat birds. I could keep an Australorp or New Hampshire rooster to give the offspring a little more size, and they would have black sex link chicks. I am guessing they would be a little slower to fill out, however.
Just a few of my initial thoughts. Appreciate any feedback.
Thanks,
-pg
Put simply the Austrolops have been a nightmare. We free range over a pretty large area and the Austrolops are slackers. They dont really forage much compared to the Rhode Island Reds. They do lay slighly more when they are laying, but each one has gone broody multiple times. I have yet to have a Rhode Island Red go broody.
With that being said the Austrolops I think are slighly bigger than our Rhode Island Reds and do taste delicious. Still I am not sure I would have Austrolops for meat. I think there are better options there.
We love the Rhode Island Reds. Like I said none of them have gone broody. The roosters we have raised and eaten were delicious and a fair size. The hens dont seem to go broody and thye are very scrappy. They are constantly foraging
Our new "oops"chickens are Austrolop cross Rhode Island Red (our roo is Rhode Island Red). So far the hens (we call them the Darth-Gingers") seem pretty scrappy but its still early days....
My go to chicken at the moment for our setup are Rhode Island Red.