Choosing which chickens to keep and breed? (for meat mainly)

[cassmama]

This is one aspect of raising chickens for meat that i cant seem to find an answer to. We bought 15 8wk old chicks locally, mixed breed but most appear to be barred rocks with a few americaunal/rir and a few black unknowns thrown in. We will be keeping one roo and 3-4 hens for breeding the next batch. Choosing the roo will be easier i suppose, we want the best protector/provider for the hens who recognizes we are top of the pecking order. If i witness any hen acting broody she will stay for sure, i would LOVE to not incubate/brood them. As far as meatiness goes, im stumped. Are there any traits i should look for that im not already? Obviously ill be able to tell when i butcher them... but then they cant breed very well can they Any other ideas/tips for starting this adventure are very much appreciated!

 

[azelgin]

From my experience, the EE/Americans are all feathers and bones. Not worth the effort it take to process them. On the other hand, I like the hens. In 7 years, I've never had an EE go broody, but they lay during all seasons and the hatchery lines I've had are quiet.
I think rooster behavior is inherited. All the roosters we have now are great. The aggressive ones didn't last long on our farm. The ones we have now are descendants of the friendly ones.
As far as raising for meat, just pick out the heaviest.

 

[PrairieChickens]

The traits I'm going to be focusing on when breeding my meat birds is birds that grow quickly and are bigger sooner. Since the general rule of thumb is to butcher at about 6 months to get more tender meat, I'd look at who's the biggest at 6 months of age and pull them aside for breeding. Do that with each subsequent generation and you'll develop a line of birds that grow quickly (though thankfully, not as quickly as Cornish cross), and provide a lot of meat on butcher day.

I'd recommend adding some speckled sussex to the mix. My speckled sussex girls are HEFTY at just 6 months of age--I can only imagine a rooster!

Of course, the resulting offspring will be mutts no matter what, and some may come out in unique ways with traits that may not be passed on to their offspring (as happens with many hybrid varieties), but it could be fun to find out what works and what doesn't. Genetics are funny things sometimes.

 

[cassmama]

Thanks, yea we plan to keep just the rocks. We have already marked two that seem weakest, one we had to nurse back to health who i think is just a runt. Im pretty sure the reds are RIR, she called them americaunas but they are much redder than my full grown americaunas (no EE that i could tell). Im thinking the black ones are marans, i guess ill know when they start laying. Im also thinking about getting some Dark Cornish to breed with the rocks, we will see what hubby says lol. If anyone uses a scale to weigh their chickens do you have any recs?

 

[Farmer Viola]

I use a human scale and weigh myself, then myself holding a chicken

rocks crossed with dark cornish sounds cool.
I have had a 9 month old EE go broody before! She was pretty determined too.

 

[PrairieChickens]

Rocks crossed with cornish is how they get the cornish cross used in factory farms. I don't know all the details of their breeding program, so I'm not sure if crossing cornish with a rock on your own would yield the same freakish results.

 

[cassmama]

Lol yea i prefer non-freakish chickens. They seem so unnatural, it turned us off to them immediately. But from what im reading, the stockiness and larger breasts of the cornish mesh nicely with the growth rate and overall heftiness of the rocks so we will see!

Any other tips on traits to watch out for when selecting breeding stock?