Best Dual purpose birds that are easily breedable.

[HAPPLE]

I hopefully will be purchasing 30+ acres within the next year and am excitedly trying to figure out which chicken breeds would be the best for both Egg laying and Meat production. I definitely do not want to have to constantly be purchasing new chickens for my meat flock. My hope was to have a few breeds that I would be able to put hens in with roosters in order to get my replacement pullets and hens as they age. I love the Golden Comets, ISA Browns and others but they are all cross-breeds and I don't want to have to keep "Parent" Stock. What other breeds would be good for what I am looking for?

 

[A.M. Eggs]

Orpingtons, Cornish, Sussex, Giants, Austrolorps, And Turkens would work.

 

[123RedBeard]

While those cross breeds will work ... so would New Hampshire's, Plymouth Rock's, Delaware's, or Buckeye's

 

[Mrs. K]

Delaware - gives a very nice carcass, and a fair egg layer.

 

[HAPPLE]

Can you breed Delaware to Delaware to get a Delaware or do they need different parent stock?

 

[Mrs. K]

No, they are a breed, and very beautiful to me, but white birds just were to prone to predation for me on the prairie. Read the history on them, they were developed to be a nice table bird, and give eggs, but just shortly afterwards, they came out with the cornish cross birds, and the growth rate there was unmatchable.

I have tried numerous dual purpose breeds, and this is the only one, I felt produced a reasonably nice carcass. And according to research about 200-280 eggs.