Best breedings for homemade meat birds

[redandalusian]

I am looking to make my own meatbird The chickens i have are 1 pair of Minorcas, a trio of Copper marans, 1 easter egger hen, 1 bantam RI x large EE, and 2 mutt Pullets.

 

[Bossroo]

If one wants to breed a true meat bird similar to the CornishX or Freedom Ranger from this starter stock... ummm... ain't going to happen, however one can always eat the results.

 

[redandalusian]

im not looking for a fast grower like the CX I just want a slow growing meat bird that will grow faster than the pure breeds i have

 

[redandalusian]

i just want to know what the best Cockeral to use is. My minorca cockeral is about 12 pounds and a year old and my marans is about 7 pounds and about 5 months old. My minorca hen is about 7 pounds, The easter egger is about 4 or 5 pounds and the mutts are 4 to 6 pounds.(I also have a bantam cornish cock and bantam rocks and RI.

 

[jessicayarno]

Your maran is a good size for being only 5 months old. You could start with him. My best advice i can give is if you want them to grow fast and big and be nice and tender, high protein and pin them up. Good luck..

 

[WalkingWolf1]

FYI

I have family in England who leave a Dark Cornish (called Indian Game) in with their hens. Whenever they fancy a crop of meat birds, they simply collect the eggs and incubate. They keep Marans, Dorkings and Light Sussex. So essentially a Cornish X Anything will conceivably work.

 

[speedy2020]

Your maran is a good size for being only 5 months old. You could start with him. My best advice i can give is if you want them to grow fast and big and be nice and tender, high protein and pin them up. Good luck..

"pin them up". Do you mean limit their space?

 

[jessicayarno]

Sorry, yes I meant pen them up as in not letting them roam free..The more they run around, the more calories they burn which in turn means more time to gain weight.

 

[bluere11e]

i just want to know what the best Cockeral to use is. My minorca cockeral is about 12 pounds and a year old and my marans is about 7 pounds and about 5 months old. My minorca hen is about 7 pounds, The easter egger is about 4 or 5 pounds and the mutts are 4 to 6 pounds.(I also have a bantam cornish cock and bantam rocks and RI.

This year, I am buying a group of straight run WLR Standard Cornish to go with my White Orpingtons.. I will be incubating my own and seeing how they turn out,. My hope is at about 20 weeks, they will have a good developed breast and good size, but still be active and not in dire need of being processed due to size..

 

[SarniaTricia]

I got a couple of Freedom Ranger chicks with the hope of breeding these for next year's batch of meat bird... do I understand from a previous post that I am wrong in the thought that Freedom Rangers don't breed true?
Don't mean to hijack, but I was hoping to breed the Freedom ranger Roo to some of my production reds and EEs... similar to what Speedy2020 is asking.
Thanks
Patricia