BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[JRNash]

Lol yea!!

 

[draye]

Ron, Ralph said he put his Cx rooster over a dixie rainbow. Sounds like he had outstanding results

Does he have any pictures if the cross that can be posted? Would love to see some.

 

[JRNash]

Look for duluthralpie. He has posted pictures

 

[gjensen]

The colored broilers tend to be more reliable in these crosses. Females are easier to keep alive into the older years, but lay very very few eggs. An option could be artificially inseminating your own better layers.

 

[JRNash]

Any ideas why this would be the case?

 

[gjensen]

Any ideas why this would be the case?

Which part?

 

[JRNash]

Both actually, why colored and why females? It would seem like egg production would be a constant drain on the hens resources.I have to admit to being totally clueless here.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

OK, I've had an unexpected opportunity arise. I thought I wouldn't be able to get any Naked Necks until Fall 2016 (waitlisted at Ideal), so I had orders of two sets of Cx scheduled for this fall. However, I just got an email from Ideal that my NNs are available NOW. No way can I do both those and the CXs, and I really want to do NNs and NN crosses for meat.

Sooooo... I'm thinking I'm going to get the 15 Naked Necks and 10 New Hampshire Reds and cancel the Cx orders. I'll raise them initially as broilers/meaties in a tractor with supervised ranging (hawks!!!), but plan to keep the best looking NN rooster, a few NN hens, and a few NH hens. The plan is to then have NNs and NNxNH crosses for meat going forward. While this accelerates my plans for a larger coop, I was going to get that built by this fall anyway. (Might try some NNxCream Legbars for fun...)

Still digging my way through this thread (I have a ton of work, so I won't be able to catch up until the weekend), so forgive me if this was already covered, but any tips for simultaneously raising/feeding chicks for broilers/roasters without stunting future maturity/egg laying/fertility of those you may hold back as breeders?

- Ant Farm

 

[JRNash]

Ideal is pretty good at that. I waitlisted some birds for 2016,they called one week later.

 

[bnjrob]

OK, I've had an unexpected opportunity arise. I thought I wouldn't be able to get any Naked Necks until Fall 2016 (waitlisted at Ideal), so I had orders of two sets of Cx scheduled for this fall. However, I just got an email from Ideal that my NNs are available NOW. No way can I do both those and the CXs, and I really want to do NNs and NN crosses for meat.

Sooooo... I'm thinking I'm going to get the 15 Naked Necks and 10 New Hampshire Reds and cancel the Cx orders. I'll raise them initially as broilers/meaties in a tractor with supervised ranging (hawks!!!), but plan to keep the best looking NN rooster, a few NN hens, and a few NH hens. The plan is to then have NNs and NNxNH crosses for meat going forward. While this accelerates my plans for a larger coop, I was going to get that built by this fall anyway. (Might try some NNxCream Legbars for fun...)

Still digging my way through this thread (I have a ton of work, so I won't be able to catch up until the weekend), so forgive me if this was already covered, but any tips for simultaneously raising/feeding chicks for broilers/roasters without stunting future maturity/egg laying/fertility of those you may hold back as breeders?

- Ant Farm

For our large fowl, dual purpose birds that we breed and have for both eggs and meat, we use a 24% protein feed until 4 months old and then drop them down to a 21% protein feed. It has worked well for us and the only birds that have gotten actually fat deposits on/in them, were some cockerels kept in smaller quarters than we normally keep them in, who did not fight with each other, and were also getting a good bit of corn fed to them. Otherwise our birds are lean but still have decent amount of muscling for eating.