Best egg production and meat bird

[below_gravity]

TJ's Na-Na :

So, am wondering if anyone can tell me what I'm missing that
the New Hampshire Red is not a more widely used bird.

Have a good one !

....Im interested in the answer to the question!! I am ready to order my first set of chicks and was all set of RIR until I read some of the posts here. Im still thinking about them but the BOs seem like a good choice too. Im looking for a strong dual purpose breed...and the plans are the probably use them for meat after two years.

For a starter chicken (this will be my first flock since i was a little girl) is either breed preferable over the other?​

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Brahmas have fantastic personalities - and lay well, but they are slower to mature - Delawares have just as fantastic personalities, hatchery dels are bred for more eggs, and their size isn't as good as a nice breeder stock Delaware, but good enough (imo) for home farm use.

Plus, Delawares are an endangered breed - so the more the merrier.

meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
....Im interested in the answer to the question!! I am ready to order my first set of chicks and was all set of RIR until I read some of the posts here. Im still thinking about them but the BOs seem like a good choice too. Im looking for a strong dual purpose breed...and the plans are the probably use them for meat after two years.

For a starter chicken (this will be my first flock since i was a little girl) is either breed preferable over the other?

It may just be personal preference - or it may be that the roos often are just plain nasty creatures.

I had some NH Reds - will NEVER have them again.

In my experience, red chickens are just weird in the head. The roos are especially aggressive - the hens aren't so bad, but the ones I had here tended to pick other chickens bloody more often than not.

I know other folks around me LOVE their RIR and NH Reds. The ones I've had were from different places, too - so it wasn't just one persons bad stock.

I have two red chickens left, and they are going to auction this friday - one is just plain evil to everyone else, and the other is a crowing hen (with spurs, to boot) who doesn't lay well, anyway. They are both aggressive and not worth the feed to keep them.

meri

 

[Chicken Paradise]

I believe our current batch of cornish will be our last. They are just smelly mutants, I don't care if I have to feed another chicken for a few more weeks.
I am sure that I have a roo amongst my EE pullets, he has a pointy tail feather already at 2 weeks old and is relatively ginormous in relation to the others I got at the same time, almost as big as the cornish! We will eat him when the time comes and plan to do so with any other unexpected roos.