Barred rocks vs New Hampshire red

[yikyak]

Hi guys! It's that time of the year for Spring chicks. I need to get more chicks since my flock got taken by coyotes. I've narrowed what I should get to the barred rocks or New Hampshire reds. I have a few questions about which one lays more eggs, which one yields more meat and which one is more hardy? Also, which ones are better foragers?

I am also wondering if I can put my chicks together with my two light sussex who survived the attack? Will they get along together and will the hens act motherly? Thanks for your help.

 

[QueenMisha]

Honestly... laying ability, meat qualities, personality, foraging ability... production strains of either breed are pretty much equal. Other than color and slight body shape differences they have very similar qualities. Hardiness has seemed equal as well. Have you considered both? If you are interested in having a rooster and breeding your own birds you can get a NH cock and BR hens... you'll get Black Sex Links from the offspring. Very productive hardy birds and quite pretty.

Note that hatchery stock birds will never make "good" meat fowl. They are bred for egg production and are strongly bred down in body type to reach egg production quotas. If you want a TRUE Dual-Purpose fowl you will need to purchase from a breeder.

If you put young chicks in with non-broody hens they will kill them. It's not an if - they will kill them. If they by some miracle don't kill them, they will ignore them and the chicks will freeze to death. Chicks should not be placed with adults until at least 8 weeks of age and preferably 10. You will need to raise them in a brooder for the first several weeks, then place them outside in a run within or alongside your existing run for at least two weeks. After that you can wait until nightfall and remove barriers, placing the new juveniles with the adults.

 

[yikyak]

I'm getting my birds from a university, they are supposed to be original lines. So if both birds are the same in production which personality do you like better, the BR or NHR? I kind of want to keep my birds purebred, so cross breeding is out of question. Thanks for all your help!

 

[QueenMisha]

Ah, so you're working with standardbred lines?

I personally am a little more fond of the New Hampshires personalities. They seem a tad more docile than most Rocks I've encountered (including both hatchery BRs and some standardbred Silver Penciled Rocks).

I think their meat qualities will be about the same too. Heck, my hatchery New Hampshire is easily as heavy as my standardbred SPPRs, though a bit longer in body; standard weights are the same. Of course that generalization would exclude White Rocks - when those things come from breeder stock they get HUGE. But I'd bet all that meat drags their egg production down quite a bit.