Best Meat AND Egg Breed

[austrolover1]

I was thinking somewhere on the lines of Orpingtons, Austrolorps, Giants, or Wyandottes for good meat and egg production. Please post comments...

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Why any patriotic red blooded American would want an Orp or Autral-Orp is beyond me. One must remember that the Orpington was a concerted effort of England to have an national breed that could catch up to the American Plymouth Rock. It was the standard of utility and all others were measured and found wanting. I will say that the work done in Austrailia on the original black Orpington is to be commended. Truely they made a worthy utility breed- Australorp. By no means is that effort and high quality of utility still around in today's Australorps. The same can be said of Barred Plymouth Rocks. Though there is a variety of Rock that still hold to that high value of a true dual purpose breed. That would be the White Plymouth Rock. There really is no equal for utility- eggs and fine table bird.

 

[austrolover1]

I completely forgot about Plymouth Rocks I will definitely look into those. Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[Hiltonizer]

Delawares and New Hampshires are common favorites. I was surprised how fast my NH roosters got to a good size.

 

[Blooie]

My Brahmas lay well, make nice eye candy in the yard, and have much more meat on them than my Orpington. Brahmas were used for meat in India.

 

[birds4kids]

I haven't been keeping long but ended up with one Delaware, she put on weight a lot faster than the "layer" breeds and while she has only been laying a little over 3 weeks the eggs are big and at least 5 a week.