Crosses you have tried for meat birds.

[bookerdog]

I am trying a Dark cornish to Maran back to White Rock. Looking forward to seeing these birds. What have you tried.

 

[redandalusian]

i am crossing minorcas and marans,marans and olive eggers and minorcas to game hens for dual purpose meatbirds

 

[Erica]

I'd love to go with old breeds, but unfortunately have had trouble sourcing MG-free ones.

Last year I bought cornish rocks (commercial meat hybrids) and raised them to laying (with difficulty). Then I crossed these hens with a leghorn rooster to get my current adult generation.

Now I'm putting these leghorn x hybrid roosters (which are still very heavy) over straight layer hens.

The chicks of this cross are currently in the brooder and growing extremely fast. I'm thinking they'll be my dual purpose birds.

So it's leghorn x meat hybrid, then cross that to commercial red layers, white layers and australorps.

Cockerels for the pot, pullets should be good to very good (but not top) layers, and I'm hoping to see no health issues.