Breeding your own meats

[rudy6482]

What I read about the pioneers not breeding true was on the McMurray website page for pioneers. There were questions and answers posted for the breed.

 

[enola]

If I could free range, I would love to have a couple of dozen of Pioneers......

 

[Bill Matthews]

What I read about the pioneers not breeding true was on the McMurray website page for pioneers. There were questions and answers posted for the breed.

Sorry..I misunderstood...I was referring to their actual physical ability to procreate because of size and fertility issues....Would be interesting to see the results of their offspring color and type wise....These have been around for a few years; now maybe someone has tried...

 

[Arielle]

Perhaps good buckeyes, or delawares or dark Cornish that have been selected for meat by a small breeder?? ALso rangers. It took me a long time to find good stock once I realized all the birds I have that were from Meyers or Ideal or similar were not real dual purpose birds. THey have not been kept up on the meat growth. Do some digging, do lots of digging and you will find leads to good lines to try.


Good luck!!

 

[popsicle]

I agree, there is no comparison between my German New Hampshires from a breeder and a hatchery New Hampshire. However, I have no problems eating any bird--even old production leghorn hens.

 

[brummie]

12 weeks is a bit of a push and will be very difficult to achieve. 16-18 weeks you will get a better carcass and flavour.

I would be happy with 5lb live weight at 16 weeks.

Personally I want to avoid the Indian game (cornish), i just don't like them, i prefer dual purpose.

A good meaty strain of Light Sussex roo over a a good meaty strain of barred rock will give you some big birds. They are a popular cross over here in the UK (known as daisybelle, pied sussex or silver sussex). With good strains you should be able to achive 5lb at 16 weeks comfortably. You will probably be able to use the delaware instead of Light sussex in the US.

A good strain of light sussex itself can hit 4lb at 12 weeks.

Me personally though, I am willing to accept some carcass loss to have to deal with only 2 breeds that will give me decent meat and loads of eggs.

So I am thinking of trying brown leghorn over light sussex. These will give loads of eggs, and I know i can easilty hit 4lb at 16 weeks, but with good strains I can try to get to 5lb at 16 weeks. This was a popular cross in the old days.

Of course, it's all about what your happy with. If your not happy with 4-5lb at 16 weeks then these suggestions probably won't work for you. I'm also not fussed about breast meat. If it's meat i don't care what the body part. I also eat almost all the parts like heart. kidney, testies, neck etc. Heck my grandfather even used to eat the brain.

 

[Beer can]

@Blue Smoke Delawares are supposed to be the quickest growing heritage bird for meat. The hens lay good. They were the preferred choice for the broiler industry before the Cornish cross took over. I would recommend trying to find a good breeder though, they have larger meatier birds. I've read Eight Acres Farm in Florida has nice Delawares that are large and lay good. Sand Hill says they are breeding for size and egg production also.
I don't like the frakenbirds either, they look disgusting and like they are dying to me. Not very yummy looking when they are alive. I'm going with White Jersey Giants and Black Langshans. Both super large meat birds but their slow growth makes them uneconomical for most people. The Jersey Giants grow their massive bone stucture first and then put on the meat so earlier butchering of them isn't feasable. I have plans on how to cut costs on feed though and I think they will work for me.

 

[enola]

What would it take to get you to share your feed saving ideas????

 

[Beer can]

What would it take to get you to share your feed saving ideas????

A couple of beers.

 

[Beer can]

Sorry too slow, already had them Lol!
I'm going to do the same as I did last summer for a bunch of heritage roos. They averaged between 4 and 5 pounds dressed. At between 12 and 16 weeks, I don't remember and I won't blow smoke. I would have let them go longer, but I didn't like what they were doing to my pullets.
For one I am fortunate that I work at a dairy plant and have access to a lot of free cottage cheese, my biggest saver. I also fed them all the fish my kids could catch, they love fishing. It was mostly pan fish, blue gills, ground them up with a old hand grinder, heads and everything. I Also planned on free ranging as much as possible. But right now with super cold weather I'm finding my egg layers are eating less now that they are not running around. The one new thing I am going to try is making fodder for them, with any grains I can find cheap. TSC has wheat seed for deer food plots at a reasonable price, and whole corn is cheap, add some bird feesder BOSS and I plan on growing some greens such as spinach, swiss chard and kale to feed them. I also have a pond full of duckweed that is supposed to be super high in protein. With the free CCheese plus everything else I think I can afford to raise some meat birds.