Dual purpose breed choice

[630004]

Hello all,

New to the forum, and am looking for some ideas for a dual purpose breed. I am interested in eggs more than meat, but would like a breed that has reasonable potential as a meat bird. I hope to raise some chicks to sell, add to the flock, and butcher. I will be moving to the family farm this spring, and will have about 3-4 acres of farmyard that I can work with. I plan to use poultry netting and a mobile coop, at least in the summer, maybe with a permanent stationary coop for the winter. I am pretty new, and have been reading a lot, so I want to put out a few ideas I have, and welcome any critique of my ideas, or suggestions you may have for me.

A few breeds I have some interest in, and thoughts I have about them:

1. Bielfelder. There is a breeder about two hours from me that says they have Bielfelders that are laying 300+ eggs per year, which would be great. The chicks are autosexing, and the males get big, so they have some potential for meat. But I have read they take quite a while to fill out.

2. Delaware. They were originally meant to be decent layers and grow a little faster for roasters. I would probably need to find a decent breeder to get these qualities. I could have a Delaware rooster and just raise Delawares, or I could keep a New Hampshire rooster with Delaware hens to get red sex link chicks, and hopefully keep decent growth and laying in the offspring.

3. American Bresse. While I am not interested in all the fru-fru feeding routines to produce the finest meat in the world I read about, these seem like they are a decent layer, grow quickly, and are good foragers. That checks boxes for me, and I am sure they still would be good eating even if they don't get the fancy finishing before butchering.

4. Barred Rocks. This would be the cheapest option, as I could probably get decent layers from a hatchery and Rocks shouldn't be the most terrible meat birds. I could keep an Australorp or New Hampshire rooster to give the offspring a little more size, and they would have black sex link chicks. I am guessing they would be a little slower to fill out, however.

Just a few of my initial thoughts. Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
-pg

Really interested to hear what people have to say as we were in the same position. We startted with a 50/50 mix of Black Austrolop and Rhode Island Red. Both are suposed to be pretty good layers.

Put simply the Austrolops have been a nightmare. We free range over a pretty large area and the Austrolops are slackers. They dont really forage much compared to the Rhode Island Reds. They do lay slighly more when they are laying, but each one has gone broody multiple times. I have yet to have a Rhode Island Red go broody.

With that being said the Austrolops I think are slighly bigger than our Rhode Island Reds and do taste delicious. Still I am not sure I would have Austrolops for meat. I think there are better options there.

We love the Rhode Island Reds. Like I said none of them have gone broody. The roosters we have raised and eaten were delicious and a fair size. The hens dont seem to go broody and thye are very scrappy. They are constantly foraging

Our new "oops"chickens are Austrolop cross Rhode Island Red (our roo is Rhode Island Red). So far the hens (we call them the Darth-Gingers") seem pretty scrappy but its still early days....

My go to chicken at the moment for our setup are Rhode Island Red.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I love my New Hampshire from Freedom Ranger hatchery…but I’m not 100% sure how they lay…they’re 3 hens in a flock of approximately 30, majority of whom are brown egg layers so no way to really know which eggs are theirs. I do typically see at least one in the nest box each day, so I’d assume it’s safe to say we are getting at least 1-2 eggs from the 3 of them each day.

That being said, supposedly they are prone to going broody (one of the reasons among many I chose them, as my goal is a sustainable meat bird flock where hens do the hard work of raising chicks for me) so not sure how many eggs they lay a year…Freedom Rangers website says 200/year.

 

[bigz1983]

I think you should just get barred rocks and breed for the traits you want.

 

[David61]

I picked up my new laying hens today to inspect there vents and look at their feet. The RIRs meaty, heavy, good looking bird and is laying large-x-large eggs. Same with my barred rocks. My buff O's are a bit smaller but not the eggs. I'm getting a double yoke out of one of them. The golden laced Wyandottes are laying a much smaller , lighter colored brown egg. they are smaller than the Ameraucana egg. my ameraucana egg was more green than blue but getting bluer and bigger now.

 

[CNJ]

Hello all,

New to the forum, and am looking for some ideas for a dual purpose breed. I am interested in eggs more than meat, but would like a breed that has reasonable potential as a meat bird. I hope to raise some chicks to sell, add to the flock, and butcher. I will be moving to the family farm this spring, and will have about 3-4 acres of farmyard that I can work with. I plan to use poultry netting and a mobile coop, at least in the summer, maybe with a permanent stationary coop for the winter. I am pretty new, and have been reading a lot, so I want to put out a few ideas I have, and welcome any critique of my ideas, or suggestions you may have for me.

A few breeds I have some interest in, and thoughts I have about them:

1. Bielfelder. There is a breeder about two hours from me that says they have Bielfelders that are laying 300+ eggs per year, which would be great. The chicks are autosexing, and the males get big, so they have some potential for meat. But I have read they take quite a while to fill out.

2. Delaware. They were originally meant to be decent layers and grow a little faster for roasters. I would probably need to find a decent breeder to get these qualities. I could have a Delaware rooster and just raise Delawares, or I could keep a New Hampshire rooster with Delaware hens to get red sex link chicks, and hopefully keep decent growth and laying in the offspring.

3. American Bresse. While I am not interested in all the fru-fru feeding routines to produce the finest meat in the world I read about, these seem like they are a decent layer, grow quickly, and are good foragers. That checks boxes for me, and I am sure they still would be good eating even if they don't get the fancy finishing before butchering.

4. Barred Rocks. This would be the cheapest option, as I could probably get decent layers from a hatchery and Rocks shouldn't be the most terrible meat birds. I could keep an Australorp or New Hampshire rooster to give the offspring a little more size, and they would have black sex link chicks. I am guessing they would be a little slower to fill out, however.

Just a few of my initial thoughts. Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
-pg

You are missing Black Maran chickens on your list. They lay very dark brown eggs that fill a niche market need. In addition, I didn't see Henry Knoll's New Hampshire chickens on your list either? New Hampshire chickens are good layers and mature faster than other dual purpose breeds. They were fine tuned for meat........
https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/shop/product/new-hampshire-gmo-free-chicken/

I think Breese chickens are over rated and flaunted as the best tasting chicken in the world, but that's not true, its a promotional gimmick. I have a freezer full full of Breese chickens and they taste like chicken to me..........

However, the Barbeziuex chicken is another story, to me its the best tasting chicken in the world. There is no comparison, its hands down the best. The meat is like a cross between a duck and chicken. The down side is they take over a year to reach mature weight..........

 

[puddleglumWI]

How are the New Hampshire roosters? Do they have the same reputation as RIR for being more prone to being human agressive than some other breeds?

 

[imacowgirl2]

How are the New Hampshire roosters? Do they have the same reputation as RIR for being more prone to being human agressive than some other breeds?

My Freedom Ranger NH roosters are some of the most laid back roosters in my flock. I have leghorn, australorp, buff Orpington roosters in addition to my NH Roos - when they were all in the same bachelor pad, the NH were lowest on the totem pole until they got bigger than everyone - now they are middle of the pecking order - they are above the buff Orpington and I’ve seen them go after him occasionally. As far as I can tell the australorp and leghorns are 1,2,3 in the pecking order but pretty much leave the NH alone and the NH leave them alone.

One of our NH had to be doctored in a crate for over a month — he pecked me once during that time but it was when I had been reading my arm right in front of him multiple times to refill containers.

The only time I thought one of my NH might come at me was right after I had put him in with hens, and I slipped on some mud and started falling, causing my foot to quickly come towards him as I caught my balance (he was standing only a couple feet away at the time)…he jumped like he might attack but didn’t and quickly went back to minding his own business.

That being said…it all depends on the individual. Australorp are supposed to be pretty good, and mine is such a jerk to people that he is headed to freezer camp soon because he will attack you any chance he gets.