Can egg layer birds produce meat birds???

[la dee da]

I have a similar desire as you, and in doing all my research I ended up trying to decide between the non hatchery Rhode Island Red and the Java. If you'd like to read my thread on it here's a link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=329058

It has great information on both breeds. Both of the breeds I've read have a unique taste, but I've heard the same thing with virtually all the duel purpose breeds so I guess it just depends

.

All in all, if you ask 100 people on the "best" breed for eggs and meat, you'll get 120 different answers. Find a breed you like the looks of, including color. Then find a good breeder that breeds for the purpose you want. Do you know the difference between hatchery duels vs. the "heritage" type?

Good luck and let us know what you decide on!

 

[Bossroo]

I have raised many different breeds of chickens ( mostly RIR, NHR, BR) over the past 6 decades, so from personal experience on my farm and research at an institution of higher education... To once again answer your question... 1. If you incubated your large hens' eggs while in the company of the roosters that you mentioned, they will in time produce good tasting chickens.

But a small chance of a meat chicken and at a higher cost!!!

2. If you incubated the bantom hen's eggs while those hens have been in the company of the roos you mentioned, you will in time produce good tasteing chickens.

But hardly a chance of a meat chicken and at a high cost !!!

Believe it or not, it's just NOT in their genes.

To have a meaningful debate, there has to be at least one party that does not state an assumtion of what the other party has said, or put a spin on what the first party has said.

 

[dancingbear]

Farm Chic, if, like most of us, you consider any bird you kill and eat to be meat, then yes, anything you raise from any of those eggs will be a meat chicken, and tasty, regardless of the size it attains or time it takes to mature. I know some will say that certain birds are good only for soup, but that's misconception. It all depends on how the chicken is cooked.

Some don't consider consider anything that doesn't grow to a large size, really fast, to be a "meat bird." As a category of chicken, that's correct, but in reality, if you eat it, it's a meat bird.

Good luck, enjoy your chickens.

 

[dancingbear]

Hey, Farm Chic, since you have all those nice heavy breed hens, if you can manage the separation part, why not try some chicks from each roo, and see which ones turn out the best? Or just let them all run around together, and see what you get.
I don't know if you already know this, but you have to have whatever hens you wanted to breed (to a specific roo) separated from the other roos for at least 3 weeks before you could be reasonably sure that most of her eggs would be fertilized by the chosen roo. I've had hens continue to lay fertile eggs for about 6 weeks after there were no roos, like once when we'd butchered all the extras, and then a fox took the roo we kept.

The easiest way I've found is to lock up the roos you don't want chicks from, for awhile. Only 2 prisoners instead a bunch. If they have a movable pen, so they can get fresh greens all the time, or if you can pick fresh greens and toss in for them, it's not too hard on them. Picking greens for chickens is a good job for a kid.

If that bantam has a good proportion of meat-to-bone, or the polish has anything going, one of them might turn out to be the best choice of the 3.

 

[l'abeille]

I would just chime in to point out (having just slaughtered and eaten my first home-raised chicken) that the "harvesting" process is something you might want to minimize. A larger bird will give you more meat for the trouble of harvesting it. Smaller birds mean you have to do more slaughtering.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Just because you raise a cornish x doesn't mean it will be a good meat bird. I am finishing up with some and they are sadly small. The key is to either buy or breed a good meat chicken and raise it up.

Typically Dual purpose are just that-dual purpose. They give meat and eggs and neither are tops. However with a little (or alot) of cross breeding you can find the right mix and get to where you would like the bird.

Too bad KatytheChickenLady found the need to leave this thread--her meat birds that she has created are incredible. I would much prefer them to the cornish x I am about to butcher tomorrow.

BossRoo--did you know that Red Beans and Rice are almost the perfect mix of nutrients? That one can survive well on them? Even cheaper than .49 cents a lb chicken.

 

[halo]

I just scanned this thread because it went sideways from the original post, but from the birds the OP has, I dont think she would be satisfied with the dual-purposeness of them. I always thought that if I was going to find a dual purpose bird, it might be a Delaware. They seem to get really good size, and are great layers.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Halo the Dels are a great dual purpose. I just weighed all the birds (getting ready for culling) The top heavyweights were the Light Sussex weighing in at 7 pounds, the Turken at 7 and the Del at 6.5

All three are great layers too.

 

[Farm Chic]

Thank You Everyone! Your advice is very helpful. I have figured out the cost and not really sure what all of the hype was with the cost of feed between a fast vs slow growing bird because it would only cost me $8 for fast grower or $12 for slow grower. And this is based on a feed cost of just giving the bird feed and no free ranging and it includes the cost of processing and ordering/shipping the bird! So my guess would be closer to $5 - $9 per bird. So based on a 5 pound bird, that would be $1.00 per pound to $1.80 per pound. Do I think it's worth spending a little more? YES I DO!!!

So again, thanks! I love this forum, it is filled with a lot of great people who have tried many things, been successful and not so successful, but all in all, everyone is happy and willing to share!

 

[dancingbear]

If my hens hatch out chicks, the chicks are basically free. I still have to feed them, that's not free, but if I bought chicks and paid shipping, I'd still have the expense of feeding them.

Even if I hatch them in my incubator, they're very cheap, because my 'bator doesn't use much juice. neither does the light bulb over the brooder. So there's a small investment in power, and of course, the feed, an expense that will be incurred no matter what. If I have broody hens available when the eggs hatch, I usually manage to slip the chicks in with various hens, so avoid the brooding part. The hens are happy to do that for me. I seldom hatch eggs when I don't have broodies, because I much prefer to let the hens raise them.

So "free" probably isn't totally accurate, but they can be pretty cheap to produce and raise. I haven't yet had any birds that don't need supplemental feeding, and I have pretty nice forage for them, nearly year round. There's only about 2 months of the year that the pickings are really thin. Not all areas are that good for forage.