This is a very exciting time for me. I have just bought five acres and am putting the finishing up the final touches on my new 12x8 chicken coop. I have had chickens for the past three years or so. Mostly just 4-6 assorted brown egg laying hens. I just got married around a month ago. My wife is my high school sweetheart. She loves to hunt deer and fish and working in the garden with me. Being able to be self reliable and provide all of our own food is important to both of us. It seems the majority of people have completely lost touch with where their food comes from. Now that I finally have the space and means, I am very interested in breeding a dual purpose homestead bird that lays decent, is halfway cold and heat tolerant (Oklahoma), and makes a decent sized meat bird for the freezer.
Now I think it is important to set expectations from the get go. A dual purpose bird is not going to lay like a leghorn and dress out like a Cornish and to think so would be unrealistic. However, I think that a good balanced mix is not impossible with careful breeding.
I grew up on a commercial cattle ranch. There was always more thought and care put into breeding than anything else. My dad would look at what good traits were already there and what was lacking. If he was planing on keeping the heifer calves from the mating he would look at breeds with strong maternal traits and milking ability. If he was planning on selling the entire calf crop he would look to breed a bull with good meat quality such as muscle and marbling. But he always tried to keep a balance of the two and only bred to the most productive, quality cattle he could find. The result was a productive mother with outstanding meat quality. The very best cattle were the 4 way crosses. My dad would take a more maternal breed such as the Simmental cattle and cross with a meat breed like Angus. Then do the same thing with two different breeds like Maine and Hereford. Then cross the two mixes which ended in a 1/4 Simmental, Angus, Maine, Hereford mix. Best looking most productive cattle I have ever seen were 4 ways. The would far out produce the 2 way crosses. Because of hybrid vigor they retained the good traits of every breed. Why not apply the same thing to chickens to try to make the best dual purpose bird possible.
My thoughts are to try to take a Rhode Island Red/Barred Rock cross (black sex link) and breed with a Australorp/Delaware cross. I would like to set standards for culling. Weights to help with the meat side and laying records for egg production. I know each one of these breeds is considered dual purpose already, but why not try to maximize hybrid vigor and take the best traits each one of these breeds has to offer and try to produce something great. This is just a experiment I wanted to try myself and thought someone may have input or someone may just want to follow along. I don't claim to be a chicken expert, nor a cattle expert. These are just things I have observed over a few years and thought would be a rewarding experiment. Any input and suggestions would be greatly appreciated
-A
Now I think it is important to set expectations from the get go. A dual purpose bird is not going to lay like a leghorn and dress out like a Cornish and to think so would be unrealistic. However, I think that a good balanced mix is not impossible with careful breeding.
I grew up on a commercial cattle ranch. There was always more thought and care put into breeding than anything else. My dad would look at what good traits were already there and what was lacking. If he was planing on keeping the heifer calves from the mating he would look at breeds with strong maternal traits and milking ability. If he was planning on selling the entire calf crop he would look to breed a bull with good meat quality such as muscle and marbling. But he always tried to keep a balance of the two and only bred to the most productive, quality cattle he could find. The result was a productive mother with outstanding meat quality. The very best cattle were the 4 way crosses. My dad would take a more maternal breed such as the Simmental cattle and cross with a meat breed like Angus. Then do the same thing with two different breeds like Maine and Hereford. Then cross the two mixes which ended in a 1/4 Simmental, Angus, Maine, Hereford mix. Best looking most productive cattle I have ever seen were 4 ways. The would far out produce the 2 way crosses. Because of hybrid vigor they retained the good traits of every breed. Why not apply the same thing to chickens to try to make the best dual purpose bird possible.
My thoughts are to try to take a Rhode Island Red/Barred Rock cross (black sex link) and breed with a Australorp/Delaware cross. I would like to set standards for culling. Weights to help with the meat side and laying records for egg production. I know each one of these breeds is considered dual purpose already, but why not try to maximize hybrid vigor and take the best traits each one of these breeds has to offer and try to produce something great. This is just a experiment I wanted to try myself and thought someone may have input or someone may just want to follow along. I don't claim to be a chicken expert, nor a cattle expert. These are just things I have observed over a few years and thought would be a rewarding experiment. Any input and suggestions would be greatly appreciated
-A