Brahma crosses for meat?

[gatrapper]

The crosses or the brahmas themselves...I knew the brahmas are slow...wasn’t sure how it would go if crossed over a faster growing hen

I crossed my brahmas with a mix of australorps, barred rocks, and orpingtons.

Brahmas themselves grow painfully slow.

I let them free range and got tons of free food scraps from work so they didn't cost me a ton in the long run, but boy could they eat. When I fed them their crops would easily get as large as my turkeys.

 

[Jandsloch]

I crossed my brahmas with a mix of australorps, barred rocks, and orpingtons.

Ok I only had one chick from a barred rock which my mom has claimed for herself. I don’t have Australorp or orpingtons. I may have to experiment and log and see how it goes. Then next year hopefully one of these rangers we will keep and do the cross I wanted originally.

 

[gatrapper]

Ok I only had one chick from a barred rock which my mom has claimed for herself. I don’t have Australorp or orpingtons. I may have to experiment and log and see how it goes. Then next year hopefully one of these rangers we will keep and do the cross I wanted originally.

I have cross my rangers with other hertiage birds and with female rangers. Still wouldn't get a great carcass in a ideal time frame.

Went back to cornish and meat ducks. Now I only raise meat ducks. Much easier.

 

[speckledhen]

Your rooster is a big guy for sure!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have a breed project (don't we all???) in the very early stages, and put a dual-purpose Roo is mixed heritage over all my birds, including my Brahma. As others have mentioned, the size gets there **eventually** but I can't make it cost effective. They don't bulk up quickly, and a single cross with a fast growth bird doesn't make enough of a difference to really change the calculus.

I'm on F2 now, putting my second largest Roo (tl;dr:, he was actually fastest to sexual maturity, has the best coloration, and is close in size to his larger sibling - another consideration in my project) back over the original hens and a select few of his generation to see what comes of it, but at this point, where the Brahma mammas are involved, I'm more stubborn than cautiously optimistic.

My Brahma were also by way of TSC, and are larger at age 1 year, but not the monsters I've seen other posters take pictures with. They free range, with a once a day feeding (evenings) to ensure they sleep with full crops.

 

[Jandsloch]

Your rooster is a big guy for sure!

Yes he is he’s a terd too only likes my daughter

 

[Jandsloch]

I have a breed project (don't we all???) in the very early stages, and put a dual-purpose Roo is mixed heritage over all my birds, including my Brahma. As others have mentioned, the size gets there **eventually** but I can't make it cost effective. They don't bulk up quickly, and a single cross with a fast growth bird doesn't make enough of a difference to really change the calculus.

I'm on F2 now, putting my second largest Roo (tl;dr:, he was actually fastest to sexual maturity, has the best coloration, and is close in size to his larger sibling - another consideration in my project) back over the original hens and a select few of his generation to see what comes of it, but at this point, where the Brahma mammas are involved, I'm more stubborn than cautiously optimistic.

My Brahma were also by way of TSC, and are larger at age 1 year, but not the monsters I've seen other posters take pictures with. They free range, with a once a day feeding (evenings) to ensure they sleep with full crops.

Sounds like I am going to have a project as well. My rooster was from a breeder so he’s huge....at 2 years old just starting to get his spurs. My big girl I got from Mpc didnt take too long to get big....just took a week over a year to lay her first egg lol so I suppose I’ll keep a few and then next year do my original plan my big boy over a ranger and see what I like better.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sounds like I am going to have a project as well. My rooster was from a breeder so he’s huge....at 2 years old just starting to get his spurs. My big girl I got from Mpc didnt take too long to get big....just took a week over a year to lay her first egg lol so I suppose I’ll keep a few and then next year do my original plan my big boy over a ranger and see what I like better.

My Dark Brahma were laying just about 7 months (its on the calendar, maybe 7 mo+1 week or minus a week on the earliest, last was a few weeks after that). For my purposes, even that it is too long to feed a bird before I get three medium eggs every five days - and my DB hens only outweigh, at age one year, my dual purpose by a pound, my comets by a pound and a half - but their pattern disappears on my property, which is a good thing for predator protection.

At a few months, they LOOKED larger, but it was all feathers, actual weights were surprisingly low given the bulk of the bird.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Yes I knew this...i was looking to see if anyone had any info on these crosses....how long till process, what kind of meat....is it worth the weight in feed. Cornish cross process is 8-10 weeks....my rangers about 12 weeks...worth their weight in feed....but brahmas in general take way longer for process age. I don’t want to wait a year to process lol. It was either keep them for meat or give them to a woman down the road

@MysteryChicken

 

[speckledhen]

Yes he is he’s a terd too only likes my daughter

Haha, I don't keep those here. Mine have to be friendly and easygoing or they can't stay since temperament is a heritable trait. Mine is the biggest teddy bear and it's a good thing. Sure don't want that mass hitting the back of my legs!