Dual-Purpose Flock Owners UNITE!

[walkswithdog]

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I'm liking the Delawares (from breeder or heritage breeder) for dual purpose a LOT. Faster growth, larger animal. Since all mine are young, 27 weeks and under, I'm still watching their laying come up, the pullets are 20 and 23 weeks, and beginning to lay.

I have partridge rocks from hatchery stock, GREAT rate of lay, easy keepers, kind of small when you get to butchering them. I have a black australorp from Dawn Suiter - tremendous layer, wouldn't be a big bird for butchering.

I like colored broilers for quick meat it's true. But I'm working up the Delawares. I think there's actual potential there the birds I got from hobby and heritage breeders have the right size and growth rate, and I'm bringing in some Marans for the same reason. Okay, eye-candy AND dark eggs AND they're supposed to make a good meat bird.

I'm letting the Rocks go, though they did go broody, rear their own, and thrived on free range. I'll add in show/breeder rock stock next year. They tend larger - I have two a Black Rock and a Blue Rock from a line of BBS Rocks, they make my hatchery partridge rocks look like inbred poor step sisters... LOL.

 

[littlelemon]

Laura, I was pleased with the way my Buckeyes dressed out as well. I only had 6 to butcher, but their size was nice and at 17 weeks they were about 4 lbs dressed. I also thoroughly enjoyed my Welsummer roo. Nice, white, tender skin- I butchered him at 19 weeks and I thought he might be a bit stringy, but he was tasty. He was also about 4 lbs. I found the size of the Buckeyes and my Welsummer to be larger at butcher than the White rocks or Plymouth rocks I have butchered in the past.

 

[Pathfinders]

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I do like the way the Buckeyes have a wider breast than some other dual purpose birds I've butchered, even more so than the Marans I used to have.

 

[fjorddreamer]

Hi,

With the exception of my Silkies, all our breeds are dual purpose....buff orpington, silver laced wyandottes, speckled sussex and australorp. We butcher the excess roosters and use our silkies for incubating. Seems to be a perfect set up.

 

[Pathfinders]

The beauty of Buckeyes is that the hens will go broody, don't even need Silkies to hatch chicks!

 

[Zookeeper9000]

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Buckeyes, which are on that list, are an EXCELLENT dual (triple) purpose breed, and my personal favorites (and they also come in bantam.) I like Buckeyes so much that I recently started a fully fledged breed club for them, the American Buckeye Poultry Club:

http://www.americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com

They are a nice dual purpose bird. They lay a good amount of medium sized brown eggs. They forage very well (even hunt mice!), get along with each other and humans (not flighty, almost too friendly, underfoot a lot!), and the extra males, with their wide breasts, dress out nicely.

They are the only breed of American chicken created by a woman (yay!), and the only American breed with a pea comb, which means no frostbite in winter (unless you live in Saskatoon or someplace like that.) They tolerate heat and cold well, some will go broody (if you prefer them to raise their own babies) but are not excessively so, and are just an all around perfect farm chicken, IMO.

I have some pics of Buckeyes on my website:

http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/services

And you can see a great website devoted to the breed by a member of the ABPC here:

http://www.buckeyechickens.com

Let me know if I can answer any more questions about them.

Did I see dorking hens on your web site

 

[DawnSuiter]

Well, I've learned I don't like butchering... wish I had a butchering buddy... sure would make it better I'm sure!

But... the Orpingtons are a good sized meal at around 20 weeks and still are plenty yummy. 16 weeks was hardly worth butchering.

And that all my chickens are egg laying champs! Except for the molt which started recently, they've laid an egg every day... Orpingtons, Australorps, Wyandottes... all of them. They Wyandotte eggs are a tad smaller, so I'm pretty much done with them and have sold my breeding trio.

 

[Pathfinders]

Quote:
Buckeyes, which are on that list, are an EXCELLENT dual (triple) purpose breed, and my personal favorites (and they also come in bantam.) I like Buckeyes so much that I recently started a fully fledged breed club for them, the American Buckeye Poultry Club:

http://www.americanbuckeyepoultryclub.com

They are a nice dual purpose bird. They lay a good amount of medium sized brown eggs. They forage very well (even hunt mice!), get along with each other and humans (not flighty, almost too friendly, underfoot a lot!), and the extra males, with their wide breasts, dress out nicely.

They are the only breed of American chicken created by a woman (yay!), and the only American breed with a pea comb, which means no frostbite in winter (unless you live in Saskatoon or someplace like that.) They tolerate heat and cold well, some will go broody (if you prefer them to raise their own babies) but are not excessively so, and are just an all around perfect farm chicken, IMO.

I have some pics of Buckeyes on my website:

http://www.pathfindersfarm.com/services

And you can see a great website devoted to the breed by a member of the ABPC here:

http://www.buckeyechickens.com

Let me know if I can answer any more questions about them.

Did I see dorking hens on your web site

Hi Jean,

No, I do not breed Dorkings. I have large fowl and bantam Buckeyes, and Dutch Bantams. I also used to breed Silkies (but we're getting out of them after this fall show season), and we have Guineas. Never had Dorkings (although they look really cool.)

One of the things I am facing this fall is my oldest is a senior in high school. As such, she is moving away from the whole poultry experience. As well, next year she'll not be here to do chores!

So it will just be DD#2 and me (DH does horse chores, the only thing he does with the chickens is butcher as needed.)

So what I'm doing is making the move to go deep, rather than wide. I am cutting back on breeds - at one time or another we have bred: Marans, Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Leghorns, Kentucky Specks, (will still breed them when Matt has enough to send me some), Dominiques, Pilgrim Geese, Call Ducks, and a bunch of different hatchery breeds. But now I am looking to focus on quality and depth, and will do so just with Buckeyes and Dutch. Since I work full time (from home) it becomes a matter of doing a good job with fewer breeds, rather than a scattershot job with more breeds. And Buckeyes are the ones I've decided will work best for us that way (along with my beloved Dutch, of course.)

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

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This is sort of what I am trying to accomplish, also.

I had a lot of different breeds (I was new, got excited

all the pretty chickens, oh my!) Now I am down to three main breeds - and one of those is mainly for broodiness. I have Buff Orps and Barred Rocks, with a trio of LF Cochins for brooding and the occasional fluffy baby to play with or sell.

I would rather try to make VERY nice BR and BO than to have a lot of mediocre this/that/andeverythingelse.

I was going to go with Light Brahmas, also. I had a flock of hens, then my cockerel died, then I sold the hens (they had been in with a Delaware roo the cockerel was to go for pure bred, but that didn't work out). The girls, however, were about a year and a half old and they weighed a good 9 pounds each (they ate anything that couldn't out-run them)!! They were solid ladies, so if someone wanted to try those for dual purpose I'd be interested to hear how they dressed out when the time came. I liked the brahmas, so they are not "off the table" for good, just for right now.

I have 4 coops, and I'm trying to work within that housing situation, rather than building more coops

. This gives me an extra pen for growing out, or for some other purpose (right now it is for those "pet" chickens that don't fit anywhere, but that I can't bring myself to get rid of).

All of my BO and BR and Cochins were hatched this year, so I am hoping come spring, I'll be hatching out their babies and getting to the real work.

meri

 

[DiVon80]

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My duel purpose flock consist of: Sil.laced whyandottes, buff o.'s and silver grey dorkings. I also wanted duel birds that could breed and supply eggs and meat. The dorkings are really neat birds kinda long bodies(rectangle shape) Mine are 6 mths old and good weight, nice breast. Of course slow maturing. Plan on eating the surplus roos in the future. Also have silkies and cochins for the broodiness. For cutness Mille fleur D'Uccles, frizzeled cochins.