are Buff Orps reasonable dual-purpose?

[patandchickens]

Thinking about next spring. I want to try doing some meat birds but am not entirely sold on the Cornish X thing, and also want to get some Buff Orpingtons to see how I get along with them as layers and possibly to breed... so I was thinking...

1)Would surplus and cull BO's be reasonable eating? (like, any better than any other basically layer breed)

2)With respect to #1, would this depend on where I got stock from (are there some lines of BOs bred more for large body as opposed to show or laying?)

3)Does this sound like a reasonable idea, or not so much?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[chickenjohn]

To tell you the truth I hunt, fish, and grow about 50 percent of what my family eats but I don't think I could kill my BOs for meat. They are just too sweet. I do think they would make decent meat bird but nothing great. As for being layers though they are great They will lay straight through winter and are very very sweet.

 

[crystal94040]

I have 2 BO's and I'm a first timer....but my BO's really stand out as the sweetie's in the bunch...They are a bit larger than the other chickens though so I think they'd be good for dual purpose as long as you don't get too attached. Still haven't tasted one yet though.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I have never processed any of mine either but I do hear they are a great bird for the table....

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

Try this site it might help you some..

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

and according to McMurray Hatchery BO are good dual purpose.. actually they give pretty decent descriptions of alot of birds..


Good Luck... Renae

 

[Windy Ridge]

Someone on here said they had very nice thighs and were good to eat. Personally, I think if you eat chicken, my opinion is it's kind of nice to order straight run (or hatch) and eat the slower growing dual-purpose birds. I think birds taste better that grow more slowly... they have more flavor. Plus, for a backyard flock, you have time to pick out the BEST rooster or roosters to keep for your flock to breed... the ones with a sweet personality, the ones who look out for the girls and are gentle with them. It's good flock management. If you just order a single rooster from a hatchery, you get what you get: sometimes wonderful, sometimes not.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Sure, I know what the lists and catalogs and such all say... what I was wondering about was peoples' actual experiences with them as table birds. I mean, practically everything that weighs more than a Leghorn gets described as dual purpose

I realize there is the 'getting attached to the sweet chickens' problem that several have warned about. I'm not really into the Dinner As Vengeance thing though

, so I suspect I would have this problem with pretty much any chicken. Personally I'd rather not eat much meat but my husband is a dyed in the wool carnivore so if we're going to eat chicken I'd rather it be ones that had a happy (if short) life, you know? I'm just not sure whether to go with the Cornish X or try to have some *actual* dual purpose chickens.

Still taking advice,

Pat

 

[Windy Ridge]

What's your (or his) favorite part of the chicken? If it's breast, you probably do want a broad-breasted bird like a Cornish, or maybe a Freedom Ranger (they don't die so much from heart attacks!)

If you do like thighs or legs, you might enjoy a dual purpose bird. They don't look anything like the chicken you get at the store; in comparison, their breasts are SKINNY!

Some other nice dual purpose birds are Sussex. Very nice birds, and mine are little fatties. The roosters (I have three) are so polite that I haven't had to get rid of any, yet, though, so I can't personally talk about table qualities. However, they used to be THE table bird in Britain.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Personally I like dark more than light meat; my husband, not so much so, but if he's not the one growing the chickens and cooking them then he doesn't get as much of a vote

Freedom Rangers sound good except that I had understood them to be Wisconsin based and I am in Canada. Even if they ship to Canada at all then the vet papers for the border would still be a killer, price-wise.

Thanks for the various suggestions,

Pat

 

[Siddonzo]

I got 14 straight run Buff Orps in April. I ended up with 7 pullets, 7 roosters. I had 6 of the roosters processed at 19 weeks (along with 6 silver laced wyandotte roosters - same age). The BO's were bigger than the SLW after processing. I cooked one in the crockpot and it turned out wonderful - laid a few slices of onion and chunks of carrots and celery on the bottom of the crock, added 1/2 a cup of water and put the bird (breast side down) on top. Cooked for 8 hours (2 hrs on high, 6 on low) and had a very tender bird - much better than roasting in the oven. There is not much breast meat, but the birds are bigger than the little 3 pounders in the grocery store.

I would order BO's again in a minute. The girls lay large beautiful brown eggs - the first one started at 22 weeks. They are great birds with great personality. It was very hard to bring the boys in (I was charged $20 for 12 birds - picked them up 4 hours later bagged & whole) and I cried a lot that day. It is hard not to get attached, even though I had planned all along to eat the extra roosters.