Delaware Meat Bird Attempt

[Bookworm007]

Alrighty folks making an attempt at doing Delawares as a meat bird! I sourced a couple dozen hatching eggs from Deer Run Farm and they hatched 1.5 weeks ago, within a day I also received 10 day old cockerels from Murray Hatchery. My intent is to raise the day old hatchery chicks on meat bird feed until they reach a good butcher weight and raise the Deer Run Delawares on regular chick starter and attempt to select for a heritage flock out of the 20 chicks that hatched. Deer Run advertises their Delawares as being bred back to the old standard of reaching butcher weight in 14 weeks, so I am excited to see what they do! I am going to start weighing them at 2 weeks and see how both groups progress! I have included pictures of both groups at 1.5 weeks, it is hard to tell from the pictures but the Deer Run chicks are developing a bit faster so far!!!

Deer Run Delawares

Murray Delawares Cockerels

 

[imacowgirl2]

Watching this with interest…I’ve thought of using Delaware to cross with my NH for a sex link meat chick but have been hesitant because if I go that route I want something that will be ready at 13-14 weeks— my NH are butcher weight at 13-14 weeks; after that they just eat too much lol

 

[imacowgirl2]

Are you by chance going to be keeping track of feed consumption? That’s another interest of mine…I feel like I’m going through a ton of feed right now (granted, I have 15 that are at 14 weeks right now) and if introduction of Delaware could slow that down some, I’d be all for that!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

 

[Bookworm007]

Watching this with interest…I’ve thought of using Delaware to cross with my NH for a sex link meat chick but have been hesitant because if I go that route I want something that will be ready at 13-14 weeks— my NH are butcher weight at 13-14 weeks; after that they just eat too much lol

That is one of the things I have also considered! My other chicken crazy friend has some beautiful NH reds that I have thought about crossing or maybe introducing Dark Cornish for a more meat centric sex link.

 

[Bookworm007]

Are you by chance going to be keeping track of feed consumption? That’s another interest of mine…I feel like I’m going through a ton of feed right now (granted, I have 15 that are at 14 weeks right now) and if introduction of Delaware could slow that down some, I’d be all for that!

I hadn't thought about it, but since they are on different feed than our laying flock I can keep track of that pretty easily! It likely won't be a daily rate but how long a standard 40 lb bag lasts.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I hadn't thought about it, but since they are on different feed than our laying flock I can keep track of that pretty easily! It likely won't be a daily rate but how long a standard 40 lb bag lasts.

That would be awesome. I had every intention of tracking feed with this batch of meat birds — then daughter accidentally fed the meat birds some of her all flock for almost a week, then as a result had to feed some of the meat bird feed to her birds for a few days; after that , there was no saving that math lol

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Are the second ones these?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I sourced a couple dozen hatching eggs from Deer Run Farm and they hatched 1.5 weeks ago, within a day I also received 10 day old cockerels from Murray Hatchery.

Some of the hatched chicks will be pullets, which will grow slower than the cockerels. That might introduce some apples to oranges in some of your comparisons. You are using a different feeding regimen for the two groups anyway so it won't be a "true" comparison.

I will be following this with interest.

 

[FunClucks]

If you want to do a true comparison, I'd recommend you use the same feed and feeding regime for both sets of chicks. And only compare cockerels to cockerels and hens to hens. Tracking food would be an excellent thing to do so you can do a feed to processed weight comparison.

Did you purchase the regular Delawares from Murray McMurray or the Delaware Broilers? They sell both. I've had my eye on those Delaware Broilers.