Dual purpose bird quandry...

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Kim,
I don't agree. With the Cornish cross you have to keep buying them. Sure they grow quick and are a quick in and out. If you want to fill your freezer in a short time they are the way to go. With a dual purpose breed you have a never ending supply of eggs and meat. Taste wise when we raised the cross they taste was better than store bought but didn't compare with a heritage breed.

Steve in NC

 

[Kim_NC]

Quote:
Kim,
I don't agree. With the Cornish cross you have to keep buying them. Sure they grow quick and are a quick in and out. If you want to fill your freezer in a short time they are the way to go. With a dual purpose breed you have a never ending supply of eggs and meat. Taste wise when we raised the cross they taste was better than store bought but didn't compare with a heritage breed.

Steve in NC

That's understandable. But we sell broiler/roasters...and Cornish X works better for that.

It's really a matter of personal preference.

 

[skeeter]

I agree if the cornishX is grown too quickly they tend to be watery and flavorless,yuck,the best birds weve eaten is the ones weve raised we crossed some buff orps to RIR and red sexlinks they were very good,big legs and thighs but not much breast meat

 

[Beekissed]

To me it comes down to flavor and the duality of it. My heavy layers are so very much more tastey than are the Cornish X! Plus...they provide big, brown eggs. If you just want quantity, I would go with broilers, if you want a true dual purpose, great tasting meat, try a heavy breed layer!

 

[AtRendeAcres]

My choice (still do cornish for freezer)


I love the Brahma the lights lay well
kid friendly
& at 5 months bit bigger than your Rock!
9 months even better just soak in brine solution for 48 hours

put them with any faster growing chicken (rock, NH ...)
will get bigger faster!

they don't seem to get into
feather picking another nice thing you
keep a few Roos in flock without fighting!
you don't have keep them all in freezer (process Wednesday for Sunday dinner)

Joanne

 

[BirdBrain]

I'm tending toward Sussex, Dorking and Orpington with a couple of Dark Cornish roos...and maybe a couple of DK Cornish hens.

 

[BirdBrain]

Okay, so I love the Brahmas too. Do the Buff Brahmas lay well also?

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
We have DC's and they are a very nice table bird with a great flavor.

Steve in NC

 

[Ridgerunner]

The way I understand it, you want to raise some birds for meat and some for eggs and to raise your own replacement hens and maybe roosters. If you have a small flock, it will be real hard to keep the genetics from getting messy. You'd need to bring in new roosters on a regular basis due to inbreeding.

I would think you would want to eat all the cornish-heavy breed crosses and only keep someof the purebred layers or cornish as replacements. I'd suggest the appropriate number of dark cornish roosters for your sized flock, a few dark cornish hens if you are trying to raise your own replacement roosters but watch out for inbreeding, and an appropriate number of roosters and hens of a dual-purpose breed, Delaware come to mind but a bufff, white or Columbian bird such as Rock or Wyandotte could work. This way you could tell by the coloring of the offspring which were pure breeds and which were crosses.

I would not try this as my goals are different from yours. I'm just going with dual purpose birds. We all have different goals and reasons for raising chickens. That doesn't make mine right and yours wrong, it just makes them individual. And I admire you for trying to help your mother.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I have to admit that our Dorkings were quite delicious. And those were the roos, supposedly the tougher meat. I chose them as dual purpose, and out of 4 pullets I'm getting 4 medium sized eggs a day. The size is slowly increasing, and the roosters are nice dense heavy birds.