Crossing your own meat breed

[RBOutdoors]

Here is what I am trying to do.

I want to keep a flock of two or three different breeds to free range around my land and supply us with eggs and meat. I am looking for a breed of hen that lays a fair amount of eggs and when crossed with a (insert breed here) rooster makes a good meat bird. I am going to keep some broody hens for surrogates to raise them. Any thoughts??

 

[Barnmaradotte]

Good question. I want to hear the answers to this one.

 

[eggbuster]

I am doing this with Chantelcer, Buckeyes and Cx. I like what I am getting.

 

[draye]

I am doing this with Chantelcer, Buckeyes and Cx. I like what I am getting.

Got pictures?

 

[jamband]

I am doing this with Chantelcer, Buckeyes and Cx. I like what I am getting.

gotta be a huge amount of variance I assume using a F2 to breed?? wont be near impossible to maintain breeding stock given the CX wont live long?

 

[eggbuster]

I have a pure strain of Chantecler. I am slowly breeding and culling to improve them for size and breed type. I find the main thing that needs doing is to feed them properly using high protein from day 1 including animal protein for the breeders.

I obtained 25 buckeyes but they too were inferior and not fertile between the males and females so I assumed too much inbreeding for what was available to me. Solution: forget keeping a pure strain of buckeyes and let them breed to the chanteclers. Only 5 buckeye hens and 1 rooster survived the coyote. Got 2 keeper pullets from that cross.

I had 25 Cx which I didn't have time to butcher and 2 hens survived over the winter and mated with a buckeye rooster and a chantecler rooster. Result was 2 really big amazing roosters and 6 good sized hens (one grey the others white with a black feather or two). They are aggressive free rangers and very healthy. The 2 Cx hens are 2 years old and still going strong.

I raised another 20 Cx over this winter and ended up with 9 pullets that look like they are going to do well and survive like the original two. I will divide them between a chantecler, a buckeye, and the best hybrid rooster from last years Cx cross when they start laying. Cx tend to lay an egg a day when they start and because they lay large eggs, I take a chance on hatching them out sooner then ideal. The other Cx/chantecler rooster will be mated back to chanteclers.

My plan is to then take all of the results from the above matings and divide them up into 2 separate lines next year and keep hatching and culling until the offspring become consistant to size and egg laying. I really don't care about colouring although it looks like they have the potential to be sex-linked which is nice. ( a rust feather in the rooster and a black feather in the hen)

The Cx/buckeye rooster from last year will be my gold standard and all of the hens were just plain good. Just waiting to see how they do for egg laying. I may have to tweak that later.

I will post some pictures if I ever find my camera which is packed away in a box somewhere so no promises for pictures anytime soon as I don't have time for an involved search. Will do what I can, because that rooster is worth taking a picture of.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

sounds like you are doing a great job eggbuster!
to the OP your on a good track of thinking get a large bird that is a good layer and keep a huge roo. Lots of people will talk of F2s and variances and life expectancy etc etc etc. But people like eggbuster and many others are proving it can be done, just pick your path and go for it, not only is it fun and rewarding but you learn so much along the way.

 

[jamband]

sounds awesome......how are the CX health wise keeping them that long? So you just used the CX for your original breeding and not long term? Just to get that big bird input? I would love to hear how this works out.

 

[RBOutdoors]

Well I decided to go with Dark Cornish hens and going to cross them with s RIR roo for now. I liked to foraging ability of the Cornish for year round eggs and good mothers. Going to experiment with different roosters to see what I like best.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Cornish, Buckeye, White Rock, Delaware, New Hampshire, Jersey Giant are all large framed birds and folks use them as meat birds in various ways.
The CX is quite problematic and takes lots of extra know-how to include them in your development.

Replicating the breast meat of the CX isn't really possible, imho, nor should one particularly worry about it. If you want CX results, you'll just have to buy CX chicks in a non-sustainable program. We just accept that fact that our sustainable meat birds are more traditional in carcass, texture and flavor.