Dual Purpose breeds?

[TNBEARCHICK]

Our Coronation Sussex are the largest we have, but we have yet to process any of them.

 

[Beekissed]

How is their laying?

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

They usually lay every other day if they are not broody.

 

[RedRidge]

"Meaty enough to sell" Good luck with that. I think that will be tough to do. My first flock last year was supposedly dual purpose birds, they came from a hatchery and the carcass quality was poor. they weren't meaty enough for me and certainly not good enough to sell. Take your time an get to know a breeders product, before you buy and good luck. I still have not given up on a true dual prupose breed, but in the mean time, I am going to raise meat hybrids, starting next year.

hatchery birds and heritage birds are two very different things.
My heritage RIR have wonderful breasts that would rival any Cornish cross I have raised.
That said... I don't slaughter each year until fall so they are 6-8 months old when I do.
I haven't slaughtered and eaten another bird that I like as well.
They do not lay as heavily as my production RIR, but they aren't flash in the pan and lay for many years longer.
They will lay between 150-180 eggs a year.

 

[Fentress]

This year I got some RIR from Sand Hill Preservation Center. I can tell that they are not the same quality in terms of the SOP as the reds on the HRIR thread, but they are not production reds either, so I may keep them, at least for awhile, especially if the roosters are not people aggressive. I will be posting picutres in a few more weeks, including some processed cockerels. I would appreciate your comments regarding the carcass quality of my birds as compared to yours. What line of reds do you have?

thanks,

Mark

 

[RedRidge]

Mine are Underwood birds. For the most knowledgeable posts about HRIR you might want to check out that thread here.

 

[ttrammell]

Mine are Underwood birds. For the most knowledgeable posts about HRIR you might want to check out that thread here.

Do you have a link to the post?

 

[tadkerson]

Nothing will be as big as the cornish cross. If you are looking to sell meat and eggs, I would raise broilers and layers if I were you.
But, if you have customers looking for dual purpose meat, and know that the meat they buy will be tiny compared to what they could get at the store or from a cornish cross, some good breeds would be buff orp.s, RIRs, barred rocks, austrolaps, and so on...

I agree with conner. The key to raising cornish cross is to feed restrict the chicks. A friend of mine had a high mortality with his first group and after talking to me his mortality fell drastically. Cornish cross require much more attention especially if the weather is hot.

Tim

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/407294/the-heritage-rhode-island-red-site

 

[RedRidge]

Quote:
I have heard this a lot but I am going to respectively question this.... only because of my past experience.
I'd love to be able to analyze why there is purported to be high mortality in Cornish crosses, but I haven't had that problem.
I find raising Cornish crosses almost effortless... but... that said I do NOT like the fact that they are not sustainable, so I don't raise them annually like I used to.
Once I discovered my HRIR I simply found it unnecessary.
I don't know that there are any "tricks" but I have tell you that the last time I raised them I raised a group of 40 and didn't loose one.
I free fed the entire time... a dry, cracked grain based feed that I mixed myself which was about 20% protein.
I'd have to look up that old ration... it apparently worked quite well... I know the base was corn, field peas and oats, not sure what else what added, probably nutribalancer, fish meal, and alfalfa meal... maybe some kelp.
I normally ferment my grains but mixed this and fed it dry instead... cut down on labor a lot that way since I knew I would be feeding often if I fermented.

I fill the feeders only once every other day.
I had 2 slow growers, 1 who developed leg problems, 0 mortality.
I received the chicks the first week of Sept and slaughtered at 9 weeks.

I spent more time keeping water in front of them than feed. My large PVC waterer with 6 chicken nipples only hold about 4 gallons.
My waterer had to be filled twice daily toward the end.
I used 2 large hanging feeders and raised them in a 12x14 stall with outside access during the day of about 5x15.
They liked to hang out in the "door way" to the run but didn't venture outside a lot because I didn't force them to.
I made sure the hanging feeders were at the opposite side of the stall from where the waterer hung... to encourage movement.... otherwise they would be too lazy to go further than their next meal and drink.

They slaughtered beautifully and easily... especially compared to the old layers I slaughter each year at the same time... I slaughter all my production layers who turn 4 yrs old in the fall each year... along with any heritage cockerels I am culling and any production cockerels I hatched.

Now... some of my theory about free feeding goes back to my days raising bottle lambs.
I owned a sheep dairy and raised about 300 bottle lambs each year.
I never once lost a lamb to bloat and my theory is that it was because I free fed room temperature milk replacer.
Which means sometimes the milk replacer was only 40 degrees.
Feeding at intervals encourages gorging... and feeding candy instead of meat and potatoes does the same thing.
So... feed meat and potatoes, always have it available... the animals don't feel the need to gorge or fight for a place at the table that way.
Just my thoughts...