Breeds for Meat Birds?

[trescloudy]

Ive tried all kinds of chickens and always planned to be self sustainable. What ive found are New Hampshires. Dont get these for egg layers though and get a good utility bred strain.

I personally like Henry Nolls' New Hampshires and you can get them from Freedom Ranger Ranch. These birds get freaking huge. I got several roosters over 7 lbs in 16-18 weeks. They are the closest thing to CX but these birds are self sustainable. They lay decent for utility birds.

They are nice gentle birds but have a zest for life. They breed well and their meat is fine textured and reminds me of pheasant meat.

American Bresse are being touted as the greatest meat birds lately. They are not meat birds, more dual purpose. They are somewhat meaty compared to most heritage birds but they cant shine a light to NHs.

AB are decent layers and their eggs are delicious But... they are not a stabilized breed yet.

I highly recommend Henry Nolls New Hampshire's. You will be blown away!

Here are some pictures of my biggest NH rooster. Hes in a coop with the 4 biggest NH hens. He came from my second batch. First batch was only 12 birds. Second batch i got 100 of Henry's NHs because i was so satisfied with my first batch a year prior.

I gave some away some frozen carcasses for Christmas and my friends loved them.

I dont think you will buy a better chick for self sustainable meat production!

 

[trescloudy]

Close @3KillerBs ! Delaware's and New Hampshire reds. The NHs are especially good candidates for meat.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-attempt-at-a-dual-purpose-heritage-flock.1489689/

I totally agree about New Hampshires. Incredible utility birds!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I dont think you will buy a better chick for self sustainable meat production!

Couldn't agree more. Here are some of my Henry Noll NHs.

I just hatched my first chicks from these birds. Some pure breds and some sex links (NH cock over delaware hen). I am hoping by using my largest birds I can get my sex link males xlose to the size of these NHs. Eat the boys, sell the girls. Here are some of the chicks at 3 weeks old.
Chunky NH next to one of my sex link females

Some sex link males

sex link male, NH female(?)

 

[trescloudy]

Couldn't agree more. Here are some of my Henry Noll NHs.
View attachment 3091760
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I just hatched my first chicks from these birds. Some pure breds and some sex links (NH cock over delaware hen). I am hoping by using my largest birds I can get my sex link males xlose to the size of these NHs. Eat the boys, sell the girls. Here are some of the chicks at 3 weeks old.
Chunky NH next to one of my sex link females
View attachment 3091769
Some sex link males
View attachment 3091771
sex link male, NH female(?)
View attachment 3091773

Thanks for sharing those pictures bro! Your NHs are beautiful. Im interested in watching these grow.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Thanks for sharing those pictures bro! Your NHs are beautiful. Im interested in watching these grow. Do you have a thread?

Thank you so much! https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-attempt-at-a-dual-purpose-heritage-flock.1489689/

 

[samanthaoverton]

Hey what's their max weight top out at? I was wondering because I know you can butcher before that and didn't know if you did.

Ive tried all kinds of chickens and always planned to be self sustainable. What ive found are New Hampshires. Dont get these for egg layers though and get a good utility bred strain.

I personally like Henry Nolls' New Hampshires and you can get them from Freedom Ranger Ranch. These birds get freaking huge. I got several roosters over 7 lbs in 16-18 weeks. They are the closest thing to CX but these birds are self sustainable. They lay decent for utility birds.

They are nice gentle birds but have a zest for life. They breed well and their meat is fine textured and reminds me of pheasant meat.

American Bresse are being touted as the greatest meat birds lately. They are not meat birds, more dual purpose. They are somewhat meaty compared to most heritage birds but they cant shine a light to NHs.

AB are decent layers and their eggs are delicious But... they are not a stabilized breed yet.

I highly recommend Henry Nolls New Hampshire's. You will be blown away!

Here are some pictures of my biggest NH rooster. Hes in a coop with the 4 biggest NH hens. He came from my second batch. First batch was only 12 birds. Second batch i got 100 of Henry's NHs because i was so satisfied with my first batch a year prior.

I gave some away some frozen carcasses for Christmas and my friends loved them.

I dont think you will buy a better chick for self sustainable meat production!

View attachment 3091719
View attachment 3091720
View attachment 3091721

 

[pepe1]

I have raised a batch of Dixie Rainbows from Hoover hatchery and i love them the males dressed out at 5 to 6 pounds at 13 weeks and the hens started laying at 21 weeks and lay 5 or 6 eggs a week the eggs are large to x large and i get a double yolker often, i kept the smallest rooster for fertilized eggs one hen is broody and is sitting on 15 eggs that are due to hatch May 10, the first generation is supposed to breed true so i will see soon hope this helps.

 

[trescloudy]

I have raised a batch of Dixie Rainbows from Hoover hatchery and i love them the males dressed out at 5 to 6 pounds at 13 weeks and the hens started laying at 21 weeks and lay 5 or 6 eggs a week the eggs are large to x large and i get a double yolker often, i kept the smallest rooster for fertilized eggs one hen is broody and is sitting on 15 eggs that are due to hatch May 10, the first generation is supposed to breed true so i will see soon hope this helps.

As a breeder it dont make sense that the F1 generation will make consistent F2s. Its common knowledge that the F2 generation of a hybrid is the most diverse generation of a breeding project. The F2 generation is where you find the strange genetic combinations and might get lucky to find the bird that was in your imagination when attempting the cross.

 

[LittlesNBigs]

Forgive my ignorance, but why aren't Cornish Crosses self sustainable? Couldn't one keep a set of Cornish hens and Rock Roos (or would it be the other way around) and breed them at home? Why is a commercial supplier necessary?

 

[trescloudy]

Forgive my ignorance, but why aren't Cornish Crosses self sustainable? Couldn't one keep a set of Cornish hens and Rock Roos (or would it be the other way around) and breed them at home? Why is a commercial supplier necessary?

The cornish cross is actually a 4 way hybrid. Hybrids do NOT breed true. There is way more to CX than just crossing any white rock to any white Cornish. The industry has millions (maybe billions) of dollars wrapped up in their breeding programs. You would have to raise 4 separate true breeding ass kicking varieties (grandparent lines) to accomplish what Ross etc have bred and they have been doing it for 70/80 years. Then you would need to create 2 hybrid (parent F2 hybrid).

They arent going to tell us which breeds they actually use in the process. Truth be known, they likely have true breeding varieties totally created by the industry that we have ZERO access to.

Totally not self sustainable breeding. It usually takes multiple breeding "companies" to create the chickens we buy at the grocery store.