Raising heritage Breeds for meat, production on a medium size scale

[OK chicken farmer]

I was just looking for some tips or tricks. I think I have it mostly down but it any bit knowledge I can get is helpful.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

You want to start with good parent stock from a breeder that breeds for weight and quality.

 

[OK chicken farmer]

Well right now I have 50 black austerlopes roosters

 

[OK chicken farmer]

Which is a breed. I’ve had very good luck with in the past for my area.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I was just looking for some tips or tricks. I think I have it mostly down but it any bit knowledge I can get is helpful.

Hi, welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

Know your goals. What are you trying to achieve? Make your decisions based on what you want to happen. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

At what age will you butcher? You don't want a chicken that takes two years to reach its best size when you will butcher it at 5 months. Choose what fits your profile, not someone else's.

Eat your rejects and breed the ones you want to eat. You can improve the quality of your stock. I see a lot of variety in how they grow in the first generation but after just a few generations the overall quality can greatly improve if you carefully select breeders.

Are you going to butcher the girls? They don't get as big as the boys. Some people sell the pullets at Point of Lay for a nice price.

Good luck with it.

 

[OK chicken farmer]

I was shooting for 3 months butcher

 

[Ridgerunner]

3 months is about 13 weeks, most dual purpose breeds are going to be pretty small. I'd think your best bet would probably be certain lines of New Hampshire or Delaware. Hatchery birds won't be that great, you need to find a breeder specializing in breeding them for meat birds. I don't have experience with those but a few members of this forum do. Hopefully they will show up.

That would be my #1 tip, start with great stock.

 

[OK chicken farmer]

So why is there no one that has caught on to taking previously existing heritage breed chickens, and breeding them with an emphasis on meat I mean, after all, I find that they taste better when butchered at about 13 to 16 weeks then store-bought chicken. And they’re a lot tougher.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you look through this Meat Bird section you'll find a lot of threads where people have. You'll find a lot of threads where people raise crosses for meat. And you'll find where we've discussed why the older cockerels have more flavor. They do gain toughness as they get older but a lot of that can be mitigated by aging and how you cook them.