Dual purpose chickens?

[ROSESYDNIE1216]

Dual purpose chickens? When do they start laying eggs? How long should you let them lay eggs before you butcher them?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Dual purpose chickens? When do they start laying eggs? How long should you let them lay eggs before you butcher them?

What breeds are you looking at for dual purpose? That makes a difference as to the answers.

Dual purpose poultry by definition are those hens who lay eggs decently but have a carcass that still provides some meat. Now how much of each really depends upon the breed and you tastes.

Most dual purpose breeds take longer to mature as they aren't the super fast hybrid layers that come to lay at about 18 to 20 weeks. Expect closer to 24 weeks (6 months) to almost 8 months....and later if you got them later spring/early summer as they won't mature before shortening daylight (unless you supply lights). They may not lay until the first spring!

Most dual purpose, heritage type breeds lay less per year but tend to lay a bit longer. The commercial laying hybrids are pretty spent at 2 years of age, with hardly a morsel of meat left on them. Dual purpose and heritage will often do well up to their 3rd year and some into their 4th. (Note that all hens lay most during their first season of lay, molt, lay larger eggs but slightly fewer, molt, lay larger and fewer, then molt...until they pretty well peter out.)

Also, don't expect 2 to 3 year old hens who have begun to reduce laying to be succulent roasters like you get in the grocery store. You stew spent hens or pressure cook them or use them for bone broth. The young cocks of the breed become your roasters, which you can process at 6months of age or so (unless you get Buckeyes who can be processed at 16 to 20 weeks if you feed them for meat preparation).

My thoughts.
LofMc

 

[Perris]

hello @ROSESYDNIE1216 ! welcome to BYC
Lady of McCamley has provided you with a complete answer - and an excellent example of what wonderful help you can get on this great site!

 

[mandelyn]

We raise Marans and Bresse for dual purpose. The Bresse boys have a larger breast than the Marans, which have a larger thigh with richer dark meat. The girls are held onto for laying or sold.

From the breeder perspective, my best birds stay on for raising more. If I have a 2 year old hen, it's because she's made it through the chick/juvenile sorting, the 1 year mark, after the first big molt... and she's proven herself as being a really good bird with good laying ability. The type of hen you definitely want daughters from.

For the boys, we raise them all up separately and start inviting them to dinner at 16 weeks. By the time they're 8 months old, I only have the biggest/best left to pick from for breeding the following year.

It's become a nice system and I don't have to worry about chicken shopping. Yearly we need about 72 boys, so I have to hatch at least 140 eggs to get them. I tend to retain about 25 girls out of that. The sale of the extra girls pays for the feed for the ones who come to dinner. I split the hatches up so that I'm not raising all of them at once. You don't want to see that feed bill! Haha

Hatchery stock dual purpose birds aren't always as big as their breeder type counterpart, they're just not as selective in their breeding stock. We tried several different types before settling on the breeds we keep. The Bresse have been the best. They lay as well as any sexlink or production bird but the breast size and overall shape on the young boys has been better for the table than any other breed we've tried.

Any hen can be a stew hen... definitely not a baked or fried kind of bird, the cooking methods change based on the age of the bird. Generally speaking, if you're wanting to cycle through a laying flock and start over, that's done at around 18 months or so, before that first big molt when they quit laying for a couple/several of months.

 

[aart]

Great posts from @Lady of McCamley and @mandelyn !!

Welcome to BYC! @ROSESYDNIE1216

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree with the above - but I found that I liked the dual purpose birds for soup and casseroles, but not so much for frying or baking. I like to do a set of meat birds once a year. I have an old set up, works perfectly for that.

I agree - separate the boys out ASAP identification. And don't let them get too old. But even at less than 20 weeks, I still think better in soup or casseroles - to each their own preference.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I found the Buckeye breed excellent for roasting the young cocks (got them to table a little early as had to process early due to new grand baby speeding up my time line). Even so, they had a healthy amount of meat on the breast.

I also that year had Rhodebars which were amazingly good for laying, and the young cocks too were good for roasting. Nice thing about the Rhodebars is they are autosexing which means at hatch you can designate proper feed programs for girls vs. boys.

I agree that anything that gets beyond 6 to 8 months of age is best in the soup pot or casserole. You also won't get the proportions you expect form the Cornish Cross roasters to meat, especially breast. Though the Buckeyes come about as close.

If you want a truly dual purpose bird, I highly recommend the Buckeye. Sweet docile birds, decent layers (better if you get from a higher lay line). Boys are nice tempered and come to table earlier than most...even fast if you feed them along meat bird schedule. (But obviously no where near as fast as they hybrid Cornish Cross which comes to table by 8 weeks). I agree get birds from a breeder rather than a hatchery.

I have loved my Marans, though I have not eaten them. They are too valuable for my breeding program for egg color, carrying the dark brown genes for me. I've either sold my cocks or returned the hens to breeding program or sold them off. But they do have a heavier carcass. My Marans have been very broody. I now have only birds I've bred and raised on my property, about 3rd to 4th generation down. Every hen that has any Marans blood has been a good brooding hen.

Just some breed comments.

And yes...WELCOME to BYC....I failed to notice you are a new poster
LofMC