BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Kev]

How much variety did you want?

Thinking purely about color genetics, bielfielders would be a great choice if you like the barring as barring thrown over other colors and deliberately made not pure breeding for the barring will give you variable coloring, possibly extremely variable depending what they were crossed with.

One other way is to add silver to a line that is otherwise all gold. Perhaps a non-barred silver bird bred to biels? You'd get mixed gold, golden and silver birds and the patterns would be dazzling if you never kept a rooster pure for barring and kept some non-barred hens around for breeding.

An example could be: cross a non barred silver bird with a different pattern from biels(can be silver laced, birchen, columbian...) to a biel, then keep the silver non-barred offspring and basically do back crosses to pure biels and also to each other(keep some barreds for this) with attention towards selecting the silver and different-patterned not pure barred roosters/non barred hens for the 'back crosses'.

Have you looked at pioneers? They are supposed to be variable in coloring but are very meat-bred.

 

[dfr1973]

The Blue Laced Red Wyandottes I now have fit those criteria, but the guy who developed this line into something show-worthy (oversized with beautiful lacing and coloring) recommends waiting a year and a half for them to reach full maturity. As much as I love chicken and dumplings and coq au vin I don't want to keep all the chicks that long, so will focus on quicker maturing, standard-sized, (but still beautiful!) birds for my flock.

Blue laced Red Wyandotte's are beautiful birds, but not the multicolored aspect I'm looking for. I want two chicks from the same parents to possibly be different colors. Though now that I am typing this, I am wondering if the color genetics of the blue laced red Wyandotte's would throw several different colors and if this is what you meant?

I am almost wondering if I need to start with a breed that has two of those characteristics and line breed or crossbreed for the third.

A lot depends on the breeder. Luanne over in Alachua County, who does BLRWs, told me she breeds for fast and fleshy growth on her cockerels, and instructed me to "push them" on growth speed and size. I am tickled that I have one cockerel that is basically everything she told me to look for. As for the Blues, yes they throw blue/black/splash. It is an incomplete autosomal dominant. I am using the black phase color culls from Luanne to jumpstart my Gold-Laced flock-to-be with size and type.

 

[Our Roost]

Other than the color of their eggs, I really dont know about easter eggers. Check stats and ask around if anyone is using them for meat projects.

 

[DesertChic]

Yeah I have looked at bielefelders and malines. Bielefelders really got me thinking. I just want vary colors in each hatch. I know it's vain, but I like variety in my flock.

I didn't expect the hens to weigh as much as what I said. I thought if the rooster weighs about that much I could get a decent weight for a 12-16wk cockerel and would wait a little bit more for the hens.

I am leaning toward choosing two or three breeds and crossing them to see what happens.

I have not owned any Easter Eggers but do you think it would take as much effort simply start with some Easter Eggers and then breed toward production traits (mainly meat), since most Easter Eggers vary in color widely and, from what I have read, tend to lay eggs very well versus a cross breeding program of the three breeds you just stated? Thoughts? (from anybody for that matter)

Aaaahhh....the quest for the perfect chicken. This is yet another reason I started with hatchery birds and have been working forward from there. I've decided to focus on two separate breeds for me needs. I chose Naked Neck Turkens as my primary meat bird although I know they're purported to be very good layers as well. I know that they're an "acquired taste" aesthetically and initially I was quite put off by their appearance, but believe me, once you actually own some not only is it super easy to fall in love with their personalities, but I've also discovered a shift in my perception of them. My NNs have a lot of variation in feathering from one another and are extremely hardy, fast-growing birds.

My second focus breed is the Bielefelder. My chicks are almost 3 weeks old now and quite delightful, though admittedly very similar to one another in appearance. Lovely birds, but not much variety.

I've also been interested in the Swedish Flower and the Sulmtaler breeds. Very pretty! I hope you find your perfect birds. We all have our favorites!

(Oh, and here's a few photos of my birds, just because I can...

)

 

[Shellz]

I use this one from user @raizin
 you can find it on his user profile link  https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/8997/raizin

I think if you know some basics about excel you can tailor it to what you need.

Thanks millbrookfarm! I will check it out this weekend.

I totally understand the aesthetic factor. I would raise 6-7 different hatchery breeds per year, but I just got frustrated with the lack in meat performance.

I can get over the looks of just about any bird, if it can produce well. But hey, that's just me. Maybe English Orpingtons would be more what you're looking for? All kinds of pretty ones if you can find a breeder. I'm not sure if their size is due to more feathering, or perhaps they are pretty meaty?

 

[Shellz]

Aaaahhh....the quest for the perfect chicken. This is yet another reason I started with hatchery birds and have been working forward from there. I've decided to focus on two separate breeds for me needs. I chose Naked Neck Turkens as my primary meat bird although I know they're purported to be very good layers as well. I know that they're an "acquired taste" aesthetically and initially I was quite put off by their appearance, but believe me, once you actually own some not only is it super easy to fall in love with their personalities, but I've also discovered a shift in my perception of them. My NNs have a lot of variation in feathering from one another and are extremely hardy, fast-growing birds. My second focus breed is the Bielefelder. My chicks are almost 3 weeks old now and quite delightful, though admittedly very similar to one another in appearance. Lovely birds, but not much variety. I've also been interested in the Swedish Flower and the Sulmtaler breeds. Very pretty! I hope you find your perfect birds. We all have our favorites! (Oh, and here's a few photos of my birds, just because I can... )

Great pics! Nice variety there.

 

[hellbender]

Aaaahhh....the quest for the perfect chicken. This is yet another reason I started with hatchery birds and have been working forward from there. I've decided to focus on two separate breeds for me needs. I chose Naked Neck Turkens as my primary meat bird although I know they're purported to be very good layers as well. I know that they're an "acquired taste" aesthetically and initially I was quite put off by their appearance, but believe me, once you actually own some not only is it super easy to fall in love with their personalities, but I've also discovered a shift in my perception of them. My NNs have a lot of variation in feathering from one another and are extremely hardy, fast-growing birds.

My second focus breed is the Bielefelder. My chicks are almost 3 weeks old now and quite delightful, though admittedly very similar to one another in appearance. Lovely birds, but not much variety.

I've also been interested in the Swedish Flower and the Sulmtaler breeds. Very pretty! I hope you find your perfect birds. We all have our favorites!

(Oh, and here's a few photos of my birds, just because I can...

)

Nice babies. Those feathered feet should be fine where you live but they could be a problem here.

 

[frw1985]

I am also in search for the perfect chicken .
I want meat and eggs to boot!
Anyone know of anyone who has been working with some Wyandottes for size and eggs.
These are what I am going to try, they have been used for this purpose before.
It as looking on U Tube and saw a P Allen Smith Vid that they had **** all about SL Wyandottes. They had this group set up with a large Chicken tractor for laying. They really had some nice eggs. Birds looked of good size. I have 2 dozen eggs coming this week and another 4 dozen i three Marie weeks. Or three different color varieties. The Slvr, Gold Lace and Blue Lace Rd.
The eggs I have coming are Local and they selected nice birds from show breeders also.

 

[DesertChic]

Nice babies. Those feathered feet should be fine where you live but they could be a problem here.

I'm actually not planning to breed the ones with feathered feet. They're pretty birds, but I'm not a fan of the feathered shanks.

 

[dfr1973]

Anyone know of anyone who has been working with some Wyandottes for size and eggs.
These are what I am going to try, they have been used for this purpose before.
It as looking on U Tube and saw a P Allen Smith Vid that they had **** all about SL Wyandottes. They had this group set up with a large Chicken tractor for laying. They really had some nice eggs. Birds looked of good size. I have 2 dozen eggs coming this week and another 4 dozen i three Marie weeks. Or three different color varieties. The Slvr, Gold Lace and Blue Lace Rd.
The eggs I have coming are Local and they selected nice birds from show breeders also.

I am doing Gold-Laced Wyandottes, and Angela (neopolitancrazy) is working with Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes now. I am the crazy one combining black phase BLRWs who are very typey and large and meaty with hatchery stock GLWs for egg production and coloring. The breeder I am getting the black phase BLRs from is cpartist here on BYC and she has lovely LARGE birds.