Delawares for meat? Any suggestions?

[bluere11e]

Hello there

I love your blog too! I'm actually engaged to be married to my partner of nearly 8 years. It's always nice to see someone living the same lifestyle as I do. Not too often I see same sex couples who also are into the farm life.
I have a delaware from a breeder, but I wouldn't really want to use this breed for meat. I'd rather use Buff Orpington (breeder stock), as even my 7 month old girl outweighs my 2 year old Delaware hen. She actually outweighed her at 4 months old.
If I was going to have a breed to use for meat (idealistically) I would choose the BO. I plan to cross her to my barred rock rooster (as right now I don't have any BO male) and use the extra males for meat and the girls for eggs.

Love your blog too!!

 

[cubalaya]

Thank you for reading my blog!! Let me ask you though... Where am I to get eggs? Nobody around here is offering Delaware eggs, or anything of that sort. All the feed stores get their chicks from the hatcherys, and I have no idea how to start a new flock without getting them from hatcherys? I guess people do sell the eggs on here, I just have to get an incubator ready, and try to make a deal with someone. Are there any reputable people here on the forum who breed true delawares?

try beth holmes (joletabey). she is president of the delaware breeders club and sell hatching eggs.

 

[LegendsCreek]

I thinki will go with the white rocks. I will try mt. Healthy!

 

[SowdersHomestead]

Mt Healthy Hatchery has a line of White Rocks that are notable for their size. If you feel like you're gonna run out of time in securing Delaware this spring and need to continue the hunt for quality, heritage Delaware, at least you could get started in a few weeks with quality dual purpose birds. Just offering a suggestion.

http://www.mthealthy.com/product/WR-sr

I just picked up 50 CX and 25 RIR from Mt Healthy as I was passing through Cincinnati. Only 1 death. Last year we mail ordered from another hatchery and lost 25% of the chicks. I guess I'm a fan of hand delivery now. Plus I got to listen to chirping for 6 hrs. While I was in their office waiting for the chicks they had a lot of newspaper clippings from the local county fairs about their chickens winning grand champion year in and year out. By that, I would guess they have a pretty quality of breeding stock.

Good Luck

 

[LegendsCreek]

I was just reading their website and I'm trying to make sense of something.. It says they have specials where you can get 100 meat chicks for 25 cents each? How is that possible? Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[SowdersHomestead]

I was just reading their website and I'm trying to make sense of something.. It says they have specials where you can get 100 meat chicks for 25 cents each? How is that possible? Does anyone have experience with this?

Those are usually all males. That what our 25 RIR were. I ordered 50 CX and got 25 males free. We sell them between $.50 and $1.00 ea. this helps recoop the cost.

 

[naillikwj82]

I agree, nice blog. washington state is now an enlightened state!

If only for meat cockeral specials could all be caponed for less noise, less fighting, larger birds with delicious meat. You can stagger processing so as not to take up too much freezer space. Capons are the gourmet's delight too!

 

[cubalaya]

I thinki will go with the white rocks. I will try mt. Healthy!

so you went with a hatchery over a respectable breeder on here? whatever dude

 

[LegendsCreek]

Actually I didn't go with anybody or any hatchery yet! No need to be rude to me, I am still learning this.

I called mthealthy about their surplus chicks and was told that it basically will be a bunch of mixed breeds with different slaughter times. Not really what I am looking for. Ideally I would like 50 meat birds ready at 8 - 12 weeks, and I would like to pay 50 cents a chick. I just sent my life's savings buying this farm and don't have a lot of cash to how around so I need to start with what fits my budget. Any suggestions?

 

[jgervais]

I've been looking for the same thing and everyone has their own experience and opinions.
I went with Dorkings as my dual purpose, sustainable meat bird. I have yet to hatch the eggs, but spring is approaching soon.
http://simplelifeainteasy.blogspot.com/2011/11/slow-food-dorking-chickens.html
I like Dorkings because they are an ancient heritage breed, make good mothers and have really tasty meat. They are slower to mature. And that is a problem when you have 50 birds.
In my research however, I did not find a heritage bird that would reach to a size-able weight in just 8 - 12 weeks. 12 - 14 weeks I think you would have better luck. This is why everyone is so in love with the cornish x - you can have a 5lb bird in the freezer at about 6 weeks.

Again, everyone has their own opinion, but I'm much more fond of a sustainable flock from a heritage line.

I would like to try Delawares as well. It looks promising, but I think the others are right, just because it looks good on paper doesn't mean you will get a fast growing, large bird from just any breeder.

My advice is to start with 2 or 3 different breeds, or different lines from different breeders and go from there. See which you like best and cross breed to make them better.