Do meat chickens lay eggs, too?

[lyndatu]

Chick-a-doodle


I paid a visit at the local chicken shop to see some breeds of chicks that I can put in my almost-finished coop. Here's my plan of chickens:

2 Egg Layers
3 Chickens for Meat

There is, however, one problem: They do not have egg layers! They only have meat chickens. Looks like I'm just going to have with meaty chickens. But I was thinking: Do meat chickens also lay eggs? If so, how often? Can you compare it with egg-layers?

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and they call the meat chickens "bankres" Or something....

 

[MissPrissy]

Meat chickens (not dual purpose chickens) usually do not live long enough to get to laying age. The rapid growth is too stressful on their bodies and if you don't process them they will die of stress and heart related issues.

I am raising 27 cornish cross now. They are approaching 6 weeks old and they are monster sized, some over 4 pounds now. They lumber around on huge thighs and legs and have a hard time walking due to their fats growth. We will begin processing in the next 2 weeks, maybe sooner for some of the bigger ones.

If you do manage to raise a meat chicken to laying age they won't breed true. Meat birds are a cross breed and raised for a broader breast and thicker thighs. For instanceif I managed to get one of my cornish x's to laying age her eggs would not produce the same type of chicken that she is.

Now if you want meat and eggs you can choose from many breeds of chickens that are considered 'dual purpose'. They will grow to be layers and are big enough to have a fair amount of substantial meat on their bones -but not the quantity of meat on a meat chicken.

I wouldn't advise anyone to get meat chickens in hopes of getting eggs from them. The disappointment is great.

Also, those meat chickens - they grow FAST. They stink. They are eating machines with an appetite that doesn't quit. They seem to poop even greater amounts than they eat.

My 27 birds in a 10 x 10 coop with an 8 inch deep pine shaving floor turn the shavings in a brick of poop in less than a week. It has to be shoveled out and replaced because it packs down into a solid clump like a brick and begins to decompose at a very fast rate.

As I read this I am very sorry it reads negatively in response to your questions but it is the honest truth. Look elsewhere if you want chickens that will you can raise and manage a flock for more than 8 - 12 weeks. Most meat birds don't live longer than that.

 

[lyndatu]

Thanks for the info, MissPrissy!

I think I won't like meat chickens, because I mainly want to have chickens as pets and for yummy eggs! I'll just find another chicken store where they might have one.

 

[patandchickens]

Er, if I understand correctly, lyndatu is in the Phillipines. I think it is pretty likely that whatever is being sold as "meat birds" there is NOT the Cornish X that MissPrissy is referring to (which is the usual N American meat chicken). For one thing I doubt CornishX's would survive the tropical climate

You could recognize CornishX's because they grow bizarrely fast and uglily (is that a word) and get really fat and giant by just a few months old. They're white.

It seems quite possible to me that the Phillipines meat birds might not be as, uh, pathologically bred

as the Cornish X's, and might be perfectly reasonable longer-lived egg-laying animals if not eaten first.

Honestly lyndatu I think the simplest thing would be to just ask the people selling the chickens, "if I don't eat these, will they live for a couple years and lay a reasonable number of eggs?" Also ask around, because it's quite possible that meat chickens are just more widely sold than layers are (since your average layer has a longer working lifespan than a meat bird does, if you know what I mean).

Good luck,

Pat, in Canada, around the freezing point, expecting maybe 6" of snow, and not wanting to hear about tropical climates

 

[MissPrissy]

Hahahaha! I had no idea it was another country. When the location isn't posted I have no idea.

 

[olddairyfarm]

I'm interested to see what others have to say about the following:

We brought home 40 chicks from a school hatching project. Within a few weeks, it was obvious that they were Cornish Meat Birds. We culled about 30 when they were 20 weeks, and each bird was about as big as the Jennie-O turkeys were buy at Thanksgiving! We are now left with about 10 broiler hens. They were the smallest of the flock. 4 of the 10 are regular egg layers. I suspect that some are just under-developed roos. One of the hens lays double yolks nearly every other day. Between the 4 of them, we get between 2 and 5 eggs a day. The birds are fat, and they have the cutest waddle, but I suppose that because they are free-range they get enough exercise so that their legs are still in good shape. They are now 8 months old.
VIDEO OF MY BROILER FLOCK at 3 months of age...
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14127304

 

[silkiechicken]

It is possible to do so but it is not usual. You are lucky to get the to that age, and with that said, you did only keep the smallest 25% of the population. Plus, they are not all laying and eat tons of food so wouldn't make the best laying flock.

They can live and be happy, but they won't be as prolific and chickeny as true layer birds. I have friends from there and they said they got big meat birds from the store like we have here and they were white.

 

[ksacres]

I bought some cornish rock X broilers from a hatchery a few years back for a 4-H project. I never had the heart to butcher them, and the pullets did eventually start to lay. I might add that these birds were on the restricted feed program from birth because I was terrified of them having heart attacks. They grew more slowly than they could have and were healthy birds after than birds pushed as hard as possible. They actually weren't terrible layers, a little better than the St Dark Cornish I had and a little worse the the st barred rocks I had (most broilers in this country are a White Cornish Roo crossed onto a White Rock Hen-rocks are better layers-more eggs=more chicks).

 

[lyndatu]

Yes, I don't want to kill and eat my precious chickens. I only want them because of their eggs and I want a pet. I have an aquarium, but I can't interact with the fish (but I think they can develop a relationship with their owners because in the past they have no buisness with me but now they seem to swim close to me when I'm around).

My dad was thinking of silkies, but my only "negative" to them is that they look like mutated bunnies from Chernobyl(wink, wink!).
They're fine with me, but they don't lay much eggs....there's no available silkies here also!

Yes, I think the meat chickens here are CornishX because we raised a chick once from the shop for a school project and it did grow quite fast, poops a lot and is white. Ours didn't get very fat, though.

But still, thanks for your help. I think I'll go to a faraway city where they have egg-layers or dual purpose chickens.

 

[silkiechicken]

I swear fish can recognize people! Mine swim up to the top wanting food when I show up, but when anyone else shows up, they just hide in the back!!!