Breeding meat chickens

[daddykirbs]

I have 30 CX growing out right now. They are about 4 weeks old here in this video.


I, too, would like to be more self sustainable... but for now early in the learning curve these are doing fine.

 

[Caseyvdb]

I maybe green to all the shortcuts but what are the meanings of all these,
EEs,CX,DP,BR,BCM

 

[Ratchnick]

This thread is pretty old. Those are acronyms. Cx is cornish cross
Dp is dual purpose
Br is bard rock (i think? )
Ee is easter eggers (i think)

I'm more of a duck and quail person.

 

[Carson213]

ok then, given your clarifications I would go with your gut and get a nice big meatie roo to cross with your girls. Free range the chicks and eat the spares. the perfect back yard set up in my opinion. With that goal in mind I would suggest perhaps getting some freedom ranger chicks and keeping a roo out of there for breeding.

i just bought a bunch of white bresse dual purpose. i plan to caponize cockerels at 6 weeks then harvest all but 9 pullets and one cockerel at 4.5 months. this is all new to me.

 

[JeniferBehm]

Chicken breed	Processing time	Approximate weight	Eggs per year

Cornish cross	6 weeks	12 pounds	Not go broody
Jersey Giants	16 to 21 weeks	13 pounds	150-200
Freedom Rangers	9 to 11 weeks	6 pounds	150-200
Bresse	16 to 20 weeks	7 pounds	250 eggs
Orpington	18 to 24 weeks	10 pounds	200 eggs
Buckeye	16 to 21 weeks	9 pounds	175 – 240
Brown Leghorn	16 to 21 weeks	6 pounds	300+ eggs
Egyptian Fayoumi	14 to 18 weeks	5 pounds	150 small eggs
Turken	10 to 15 weeks	6 to 9 pounds	120-150
Chantecler	11 to 16 weeks	9 pounds	200 eggs
Deleware	12 weeks	8.5 pounds	200 to 280
Croad Langshan	14 to 18 weeks	9 pounds	140-150
Dorking	16 weeks	9 pounds	150 to 200
Kosher King	12 weeks	5 pounds	Not applicable
New Hampshire red	8 to 10 weeks	8.5 pounds	200-250

Best CHICKEN BREEDS for Meat​

 

[CNJ]

Hello, I know this is an old thread, but I just saw an old video about breeding broiler parents and it kind of changed my thinking. In this video they are breeding high quality male standard Cornish and shipping them out to be crossed with female Plymouth Rocks, so that means they are mating two sets of Cornish male and white Rock females and then crossing the babies together to make the broilers. I was thinking they used a female Cornish in the pairing, but maybe they only used males.

 

[cassie]

Thank you for the replies. I am not trying to improve on the meat birds already out there (although more power to those of you who are!!!

). The CX sound very interesting to me, but I don't want to buy new chicks every year. (I will be trying them in the spring for sure.) But I'd like to save some money and hatch my own meaties. So that's why I'm wondering if I should just get some more DP chicks. Or do I just try to find a nice meaty rooster for my current girls and hope they hatch good layers and good meaty roos?

DH is a biology major, so I could interest him in the whole gene and breeding thing...

There may be good reasons to breed and hatch your own meaties, but saving money is definitely NOT one of them. It will take more time and a lot more feed to get your home bred chickens to butcher weight than it will for the Cornish X.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am going to bring up the texture. I like dual purpose hens - I started with them, and the idea of making my own meat. But truthfully, I really like eggs, and good quality eggs with thick whites.

Dual purpose cockerels, especially those allowed to free range are much tougher by the time they are big enough. Good flavor - but in my opinion good for soup only.

I have moved to getting egg layers - with a few DP, cause I love a broody, and raising meat birds for my table. I get good food to feed my family.

Everyone needs to do this hobby to suit themselves. Just one point of view.

Mrs K

 

[CNJ]

I know the ones I have now are considered dual purpose, but I want good layers and good meat. Does that mean I should put up another coop and try to breed toward each end on it's own? Or is it possible to get both good laying and good meat from the same flock?

Bresse chickens has good meat and are good layers, but the roosters crow a lot.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hello, I know this is an old thread, but I just saw an old video about breeding broiler parents and it kind of changed my thinking. In this video they are breeding high quality male standard Cornish and shipping them out to be crossed with female Plymouth Rocks, so that means they are mating two sets of Cornish male and white Rock females and then crossing the babies together to make the broilers. I was thinking they used a female Cornish in the pairing, but maybe they only used males.

The classic CX is a hybrid, yes. Not a true breed. Like the various named Red Sex Link crosses - hybrids for specific purpose (egg laying, in that case). Part of why its not remotely economical to try to hatch CX on your own - you have to maintain multiple flocks of good breeders to produce the ones you plan on eating. But you can't begin to approach the economies of scale that Tyson Foods or ConAgra reaches pumping them out for their own use - or a commercial hatchery selling to farm stores around the nation by the thousands.

I like Dual purpose birds. I hatch and raise my own, I'm working on improving the stock (what else am I going to do - I'm already breeding, already hatching, and already eating - I may as well put the culling to purpose, too!). I also free range extensively (my flock is in my Sig, below -they have about 4.5 acres, 1/3 gloriously mixed pasture, 1/3 under brushed "forest", 1/3 natural FL highland hammock) and, living in FL, I have the benefit of a very long growing season. It saves just 20-30% on my feed bill.

Much prefer the flavor and texture - to a point. At 11 weeks, its the best bird I've had in years. By 18 weeks, I'm thinking stewing or sausage is the best cooking method. By 6 months, stewing start to give way to stock, though sausage always works (except for the very young - flavor too mild for my sausage spices).

Enough eggs I can sell or donate 8 dozen a week (more, once I have additional hens at laying age), and I can take a cockerel or two a week for my own dinner and laying hens whose production is falling for sausage/burgers. But it means I give up a lot of breast meat, and am culling birds at live weights roughly 60% the size of what some claim CornishX can reach at the same age. I feed about 10# per day, 300# per month. You can do the math with your local pricing - I can pay for my feed costs with egg sales, and lose roughly the cost of licensing and maintaining my LLC each year, about $10/wk on the deal. and I'll never recoup the initial investments in the birds, coops, runs, electric fencing, etc.

If I had more business, I could easily break even, but many neighbors have backyard flocks and its an economically depressed area - limited opportunity for growth. Any smaller an operation, and I'd lose my shirt. This size is where I start to hit my first economies of scale - cash purchases of 10 bags of feed at a time or more, other bulk buys.

But I'm in good company - can walk "down the block" (about 3 mi - its a country "block"!) and take photos of the abandoned commercial poultry operation. and dozens more just like it in the surrounding counties (and States - I'm near to the State lines).