Heritage Meat Birds

[Mosey2003]

If you segregate Barred Rock hens after they're bred by a Buff Orpington (so you can mark their eggs), you can tell the sex of the chicks when they hatch (they're black sexlinks).

If you want to continue doing this, I highly recommend finding someone that is focusing on breeding with carcass quality in mind. My breeder birds dress out much nicer and larger than hatchery have.

 

[Doc7]

In my signature is a link to a guy that did a study on a few heritage hatchery.
I process at 16 weeks. Rest a couple days. Hatchery dress 3 1/2 to 4 lbs
I kept a CX pullet restricted diet and exercise long enough to get a few eggs. Used her cockerels to breed to my mixed flock. F3 generation cockerels dress out 5 to 7 LBS

what a good idea,
Making your own custom dual purpose birds meatier. What was the weight of your cockerels before the gene influx? 5-7 sounds like it could describe many dual purpose Without CX genes.

 

[Molpet]

what a good idea,
Making your own custom dual purpose birds meatier. What was the weight of your cockerels before the gene influx? 5-7 sounds like it could describe many dual purpose Without CX genes.

They were from hatchery stock 3 to 4lbs.

 

[Parront]

They were from hatchery stock 3 to 4lbs.

X's 2 on the size of hatchery bred rooster, my Orpingtons were about that.

 

[TheRealCliffordWilliams]

Thanks for all the great info!

There is one Delaware rooster who has started crowing before his brothers, so he just signed his death note!

The delawares definitely seem to be getting bigger faster than the barred rock or orpingtons...I may actually wind up keeping a delaware roo instead of an orpington roo to breed with.?..All the hens are orpingtons (and the one barred rock) so that's that...

So I am planning on slaughtering the Delaware this Tuesday - so exciting, first bird of the season! I will let it rest for a couple of days in the fridge, cut it into pieces, do a buttermilk soak (bacterial enzymes shortening proteins etc) then bread it and deep fry it served alongside taters and slaw.

Pics shortly !!!! If anyone wants to see pictures of the birds they're on instagram - @ therealcliffordwilliams

 

[Molpet]

Thanks for all the great info!

There is one Delaware rooster who has started crowing before his brothers and sisters, so he just signed his death note!

The delawares definitely seem to be getting bigger faster than the barred rock or orpingtons...I may actually wind up keeping a delaware roo instead of an orpington roo to breed with.?..All the hens are orpingtons (and the one barred rock) so that's that...

So I am planning on slaughtering the Delaware this Tuesday - so exciting, first bird of the season! I will let it rest for a couple of days in the fridge, cut it into pieces, do a buttermilk soak (bacterial enzymes shortening proteins etc) then bread it and deep fry it served alongside taters and slaw.

Pics shortly !!!! If anyone wants to see pictures of the birds they're on instagram - @ therealcliffordwilliams

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks for all the great info!

There is one Delaware rooster who has started crowing before his brothers, so he just signed his death note!

The delawares definitely seem to be getting bigger faster than the barred rock or orpingtons...I may actually wind up keeping a delaware roo instead of an orpington roo to breed with.?.....

If you value early maturity you might want to keep the crower instead of one of his later-maturing brothers -- assuming his size and other factors are good.

 

[Mosey2003]

If you value early maturity you might want to keep the crower instead of one of his later-maturing brothers -- assuming his size and other factors are good.

I was just going to say this. Unless he's scrawny, you want to use the earlier ones for breeding if early size is your goal.

 

[Parront]

Well, I now have some heritage meat birds of my own. I got a box of 25 st. run Barred Hollands from @rjohns39 this week -- hatched Wed June 24. They are an uncommon breed, barred like a rock but lay a white egg. They were developed by Rutger's University in the 30's to be a dual-purpose bird for small farms to compete in the white egg market, which was the preferred color at the time. Although it seems to be a shame to eat such rare boys, that is what they were bred for. A larger, calmer (than a Leghorn) white egg laying bird that will fit in with today's backyard flock better would seem to me to be a good thing, but I guess the fad is for colored eggs right now.I like white eggs, and they make all the other colors look better when mixed together.

Very nice chicks, all 25 survived the P.O. and are stuffing themselves. They are very friendly and come right up to your hand for the clump of grass & dirt. Those are my version of "pro-biotics"!

 

[Mosey2003]

Chunky little things!