Best Dual Purpose Bird?

[Backyard Bob]

What is the best Dual Purpose bird for meat? More for meat, but I would like at least 4-5 eggs a week.
I was thinking Buff Orpingtons?

 

[Elke Beck]

Bob, there is no one answer to your question. Everyone has a different opinion, and all of them are valid. If you like Buff Orpingtons, then go with it. They are beautiful birds, lay well and will produce good meat. If you are going for a sustainable flock, then keep picking the birds that have the traits that you like to be your breeders. Eventually you will have a flock of the type of chickens that you like.

 

[flockman]

I currently have White Rocks for this(not Cornish Cross). They lay about 4-5 eggs a week and after about 16-20 weeks they are decent sized. Buff orps are decent. I also have Pekin ducks for the dual purpose. Their eggs are considerably bigger and 8 weeks after hatching they are ready to butcher if I want to.

As Elke Beck stated everyone has their own opinion. Good luck!

 

[Backyard Bob]

Okay, Do you sell hatching eggs?
Thank you

 

[sandspoultry]

On the meat side of the dual purpose fence we like Dark Cornish, they aren't the best eye candy but they lay well. Also, we have Black Copper Marans and their meat has the best flavor to us, but they egg laying slows down in the heat of the summer. If you are just starting out with dual purpose try some different breeds and see what you like and what works best for you.

 

[BCMaraniac]

On the meat side of the dual purpose fence we like Dark Cornish, they aren't the best eye candy but they lay well. Also, we have Black Copper Marans and their meat has the best flavor to us, but they egg laying slows down in the heat of the summer. If you are just starting out with dual purpose try some different breeds and see what you like and what works best for you.

I am glad to hear about the meat of the Black Copper Marans, because I am going to caponize two roos this weekend or next. I have 3 BCM's laying, and my husband LOVES the eggs. They really are richer than some of the other layers, and their eggs are usually extra-large to jumbo). In fact my husband wants to breed BCM's for the eggs, so the roos will likely end up capons to get them bigger but still tender before harvesting. This will be the first summer with the hens(bought them all this past fall during molt), so good to know about the reduced laying in the heat.

 

[Backyard Bob]

On the meat side of the dual purpose fence we like Dark Cornish, they aren't the best eye candy but they lay well. Also, we have Black Copper Marans and their meat has the best flavor to us, but they egg laying slows down in the heat of the summer. If you are just starting out with dual purpose try some different breeds and see what you like and what works best for you.

As in eye candy, you are talking about looks, right? How long do your Black Copper Marans take to get to your prefered butcher size?

 

[Red Feather]

I think I'm going to try the black sex links for dual purpose birds. we eat a lot of eggs and i want to start raising my own meat. don't know what you are eating form the store anymore.

 

[LilyD]

I think I'm going to try the black sex links for dual purpose birds. we eat a lot of eggs and i want to start raising my own meat. don't know what you are eating form the store anymore.

The only problem I had with black sexlink and or red sex link is that when they grew out they had very little meat. They also don't breed true and the babies we got from hatching out sexlink eggs were smaller and tended to lay smaller eggs. I would personally use a bird like a BCM, orphington as others have said because they get larger and have more meat when they grow out. We use Light Brahma, Silver Gray Dorking, and Cochin mixes for our meat birds and they tend to have less breast meat than a Cornish X but more than some of the hybrid layer breeds. I haven't been disappointed yet.

 

[Red Feather]

OK thanks for the info