Breeding your own meat birds
- Thread starter Ariel301
- Start date
Don't overlook the dependable white rock. No crossing necessary. We have some variety from different farmers & some from the hatchery.
We hatch our own eggs and cull the cockerel between 16,18 or 20 weeks depending on weight and if we really need them.
Good taste -- the breasts aren't as big as the crosses, but the extra flavor makes up for it to me.
We hatch our own eggs and cull the cockerel between 16,18 or 20 weeks depending on weight and if we really need them.
Good taste -- the breasts aren't as big as the crosses, but the extra flavor makes up for it to me.
I'm just waiting to get my Dark cornish and white plymouth rocks to get old enuff to lay. I've got both breed about to start laying and I'm going to be doing this strickly as a meat project to make the cornishX's. I got dad these birds cuz we've got so many peopple wanting fresh chickens. I do sell the coturnix I have for meat and eggs but it takes a few birds for one person to eat and I wanna feed a family with these birds. I've been doing hours of research on how to do this properly I guess its going to be like everything else TRIAL BY ERROR. These birds we have are 4 months old and I don't know when i need to seperate them and put them in their breeding pens. any help will be greatly appreciated. I've got 15 dark cornish pullets and roosters so i can pick out the very best ones for both my pure breed flocks and my meat project. I've got some nice roosters I'll be selling shortly. I thank you for your time. TexasAMquaileggs
Quote:
If you have been doing lots of research, then you realize that you can't get the equivalent of the commercial Cornish Cross by crossing Dark Cornish and Plymouth Rocks. The commercial Cornish Crosses are the result of the crossing of four lines that have been developed for decades.
This is not to suggest you should experiment.
If you have been doing lots of research, then you realize that you can't get the equivalent of the commercial Cornish Cross by crossing Dark Cornish and Plymouth Rocks. The commercial Cornish Crosses are the result of the crossing of four lines that have been developed for decades.
This is not to suggest you should experiment.
Well I completely understand.
I bled 5 partially starved birds 2 days ago and we just ate 2 of them......very good. But they were RIR and araucana and although a decent size and tender enough, I would have wanted just a bit more meat.
I often seriously consider creating my own cornish crosses, because I do not care to have to continue ordering baby chicks all the time. Its like I am defeating my purpose.
I am only a bit hesitant because I already have so many chickens and I would want a special place for any special project I have going.....in other words, more work. Then I have geese, chickens and now a guinea project going, so one more meat bird, although more profitable, wouldn't be necessary. I mean, no matter how you look at it, everytime I give a hen some eggs to cover, half of them are going to be roosters/males that I need to tend to.
I sometimes think about thinning out my flock and if I do, you can bet I will try to come up with a big meat bird. So what if it takes me 2 or 3 weeks more to get my crosses to the size of the commercial breeds. At least I will have a sustainable flock.
The chickens I killed 2 days ago were over 3 months old. Sorry, but if I can kill in about 2 months, I will. I know I might not get the size and shape of the store boughts, but if/when I go ahead and try, I am sure I will get something way bigger than a RIR.
Not to say I won't consider going with pure cornish or other pure meat bird.
I bled 5 partially starved birds 2 days ago and we just ate 2 of them......very good. But they were RIR and araucana and although a decent size and tender enough, I would have wanted just a bit more meat.
I often seriously consider creating my own cornish crosses, because I do not care to have to continue ordering baby chicks all the time. Its like I am defeating my purpose.
I am only a bit hesitant because I already have so many chickens and I would want a special place for any special project I have going.....in other words, more work. Then I have geese, chickens and now a guinea project going, so one more meat bird, although more profitable, wouldn't be necessary. I mean, no matter how you look at it, everytime I give a hen some eggs to cover, half of them are going to be roosters/males that I need to tend to.
I sometimes think about thinning out my flock and if I do, you can bet I will try to come up with a big meat bird. So what if it takes me 2 or 3 weeks more to get my crosses to the size of the commercial breeds. At least I will have a sustainable flock.
The chickens I killed 2 days ago were over 3 months old. Sorry, but if I can kill in about 2 months, I will. I know I might not get the size and shape of the store boughts, but if/when I go ahead and try, I am sure I will get something way bigger than a RIR.
Not to say I won't consider going with pure cornish or other pure meat bird.
The condensed version of what I'm trying: I decided on one breed for the roo, Dark Cornish. I have hens of various breeds and cross breeds, and I'll be getting some more pure bred hens of various breeds at some point. The standard Cornish has been used with pretty good results as the terminal sire in meat crosses before, that's why I went with Cornish.
This way I don't have 2 flocks, I let all of them run around together. When I want to hatch eggs from certain hens, I can isolate those hens and collect the eggs until I get enough. I can single a hen, take her off the roost at night, and put her in the isolation pen, until she lays her egg the next day, then go ahead and let her out to free-range with the rest. That way they don't get all stir crazy being penned up, and i still get to choose who's eggs I'm hatching.
My target hen breeds are Brahma, Buckeye, Orpington, Dorking, and crosses of these, (that's mostly what I already have, the crosses are mostly with either Brahma or Cornish, plus some odd birds here and there, EE's and what-have-you) and I want to add more Dorkings, some more dark Cornish hens, Salmon Faverolles, and maybe some Marans. I'm open to other hens as well, really anything that's a decent meat bird, that I can find good quality ones from a breeder. I don't want any hatchery birds if I can help it.
My goal is a bird that will be big enough (3.5 lbs? 5 lbs? Bigger's nice, but even a 3 lb. bird would be fine) in less than 18 weeks. I've let plenty go 20-25 weeks, and they're big, and really tasty, but younger gives more cooking options in order to have tender meat. I love my crock pot chickens, but I also like fried, baked, and roasted. These hens are mostly good layers, too. Not record breakers, but certainly enough eggs for us. Right now I have way too many eggs, more than I can use and sell.
The rangers, and also red broilers, sound like they'd work out pretty well, too. They can breed naturally. They won't breed true, so the offspring won't all be big and meaty like the parents, but enough of them would be, you'd have a fair number of nice fat ones, and some smaller ones, that you could either let stick around to gain some more weight, or butcher them small and have some mini-chickens for dinner.
As I've mentioned before, I think the mostly overlooked concept of enough deserves revisiting. These days we tend to want bigger/faster/stronger/more/more/more of everything. We don't need most of it, and would be perfectly happy with enough, if we let ourselves.
This way I don't have 2 flocks, I let all of them run around together. When I want to hatch eggs from certain hens, I can isolate those hens and collect the eggs until I get enough. I can single a hen, take her off the roost at night, and put her in the isolation pen, until she lays her egg the next day, then go ahead and let her out to free-range with the rest. That way they don't get all stir crazy being penned up, and i still get to choose who's eggs I'm hatching.
My target hen breeds are Brahma, Buckeye, Orpington, Dorking, and crosses of these, (that's mostly what I already have, the crosses are mostly with either Brahma or Cornish, plus some odd birds here and there, EE's and what-have-you) and I want to add more Dorkings, some more dark Cornish hens, Salmon Faverolles, and maybe some Marans. I'm open to other hens as well, really anything that's a decent meat bird, that I can find good quality ones from a breeder. I don't want any hatchery birds if I can help it.
My goal is a bird that will be big enough (3.5 lbs? 5 lbs? Bigger's nice, but even a 3 lb. bird would be fine) in less than 18 weeks. I've let plenty go 20-25 weeks, and they're big, and really tasty, but younger gives more cooking options in order to have tender meat. I love my crock pot chickens, but I also like fried, baked, and roasted. These hens are mostly good layers, too. Not record breakers, but certainly enough eggs for us. Right now I have way too many eggs, more than I can use and sell.
The rangers, and also red broilers, sound like they'd work out pretty well, too. They can breed naturally. They won't breed true, so the offspring won't all be big and meaty like the parents, but enough of them would be, you'd have a fair number of nice fat ones, and some smaller ones, that you could either let stick around to gain some more weight, or butcher them small and have some mini-chickens for dinner.
As I've mentioned before, I think the mostly overlooked concept of enough deserves revisiting. These days we tend to want bigger/faster/stronger/more/more/more of everything. We don't need most of it, and would be perfectly happy with enough, if we let ourselves.
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Jenny,
I really think I would be fine with that for myself.
I could have easily ordered the brown egg layers special or the rainbow layers or even the meat and egg special and had a combination of breeds and found a decent meat roo to have around the place because I like pretty much all the breeds for what they can do for me........eggs, meat and broodiness.
My husband liked the way a flock looked when they were all the same color and he wanted to keep things simple, so we went with RIR.
But if I wanted to fill my freezer and I had a big massive 13 LB roo, it would be nice to just collect the eggs from a cornish or BO and such and go with that in the incubator.
I really think I would be fine with that for myself.
I could have easily ordered the brown egg layers special or the rainbow layers or even the meat and egg special and had a combination of breeds and found a decent meat roo to have around the place because I like pretty much all the breeds for what they can do for me........eggs, meat and broodiness.
My husband liked the way a flock looked when they were all the same color and he wanted to keep things simple, so we went with RIR.
But if I wanted to fill my freezer and I had a big massive 13 LB roo, it would be nice to just collect the eggs from a cornish or BO and such and go with that in the incubator.
Quote:
And that's a bad thing?
"Thank goodness!" is all I can think to say.
And that's a bad thing?
"Thank goodness!" is all I can think to say.
- Dec 1, 2009
- 191
- 1
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Why not start with a couple good hens say NH or PR and cross them on a FR or a Kosher King? or better yet keep on of each chicken a NHXFR and PRXKK and then breed those two? may not get a CX but you will shorly jump start your meat program. You can buy KK for .60 Cents each all rooster if you get 100 at a time. Heck at that price why raise your own unless you just want to? You could even use a Slow CX rooster or some other slower meat bread. Yes they won't breed true to color but the meat will still be yummy!
Quote:
Speaking for myself, but I think also expressing the opinion of others: my desire to breed and raise my own meat birds is not about price. There is simply something about being able to do it yourself rather than my from a big company every year.
But, suppose that I maintain a single line of meat birds and that my hatch rate is not perfect, of the eggs I get, I only manage to get 75% to market weight. So, to get a dozen chicks I can either buy 12 at $0.60 per chick ($7.20) or collect 16 eggs and put them in the incubator. For my chicks to cost the same as the purchased chicks, I would put a value of $0.45 on each egg (16 eggs x $0.45 = the same $7.20) or $5.40 per dozen. I suspect most laying flocks would turn a profit if the eggs were sold for $5.40 per dozen (more than enough profit to run the incubator). Anyway, I don't think that maintaining a single line of meat birds will necessarily cost you more than buying chicks. The problem comes when you don't use all the eggs for chicks and can't sell fresh eggs for $5.40 per dozen.
As far as the breeding true: no it doesn't really matter whether the birds breed true. But, one of the things that will vary is the size and growth rate. These things I would like to be rather consistent so it seems to me like a good idea to work towards something rather uniform, that is something that breeds reasonably true.
Speaking for myself, but I think also expressing the opinion of others: my desire to breed and raise my own meat birds is not about price. There is simply something about being able to do it yourself rather than my from a big company every year.
But, suppose that I maintain a single line of meat birds and that my hatch rate is not perfect, of the eggs I get, I only manage to get 75% to market weight. So, to get a dozen chicks I can either buy 12 at $0.60 per chick ($7.20) or collect 16 eggs and put them in the incubator. For my chicks to cost the same as the purchased chicks, I would put a value of $0.45 on each egg (16 eggs x $0.45 = the same $7.20) or $5.40 per dozen. I suspect most laying flocks would turn a profit if the eggs were sold for $5.40 per dozen (more than enough profit to run the incubator). Anyway, I don't think that maintaining a single line of meat birds will necessarily cost you more than buying chicks. The problem comes when you don't use all the eggs for chicks and can't sell fresh eggs for $5.40 per dozen.
As far as the breeding true: no it doesn't really matter whether the birds breed true. But, one of the things that will vary is the size and growth rate. These things I would like to be rather consistent so it seems to me like a good idea to work towards something rather uniform, that is something that breeds reasonably true.
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