Dual-Purpose Flock Owners UNITE!

[thedeacon]

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[barredcountrycoop]

Barred Rocks do it all!

 

[DawnSuiter]

I vote for a rosecombed orpington... we can cross buff & white to get feather sexed chicks


oh wait

does the crossing for feather sexing cause a problem with the "breeds true" requirement?

 

[Pathfinders]

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Buckeyes pretty much fit that bill. You should see them mouse! Hysterical. Someday I want to try to catch it on video...

 

[ole red]

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i have what i consider to be close to this: crossing game, new hampshire, buff, barred rock, & brown leghorn, trying to keep atleast 1/2 game in the mix.

are they the best layers ? no
do they lay the biggest egg? no
are they the fastest growing, meatiest birds? no

but they are cool looking chickens, that lay good, set good, make good momma's, forage good, predator wary, and tatse great.

when i was younger, most all the older folks up in the hills, all had some game chicken mixed in thier flock for these qualities

 

[country freedom]

I understand that most people here are raising growing families, but, what about families who are downsizing..........children are slowly moving out..........?

I'm seriously thinking of keeping those breeds you can see in my signature line.
All Bantams.

Reasons are:
1) Most go broody - reproducing the flock naturally without using electricity
2) My henhouses can be built to house 25-50 Standards, but will house almost twice as
many Bantams (most being hens with chicks)
3) Eggs needed for cooking/baking means twice as many eggs used vrs. larger eggs,
we don't eat many eggs anyways, selling/bartering extra
4) Using twice as many birds for eating should keep numbers in check, as we eat alot
of chicken, selling/bartering extra
5) Bantam roosters will be 1 each of 4 breeds over all hens, with new blood of all breeds
in signature line being used when needed
6) COLORS!

I am also thinking of trying:
1) All the Blues Bantams - housed/bred same way
2) Bantam Meat birds - Cornish - crossed with several other Bantam breeds - housed/bred same way

But, these are still in Dream stage !

This means I need to build 3 henhouses

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

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Interesting thought, there. I, too am downsizing the family (please soon!!

one teenager left - j/k - love the kid, but it's time for him to move out and grow up).

still, I like the larger breeds, because with the kids gone, hubby and I can do more random things, and this way if I cook a big chicken then I can save the leftovers and use in another dish without using another chicken to do it. saves cook time, and work on processing, etc...

I can see, however, the advantage of doing bantams or smaller chickens for one or two person households. I guess they all eat the same, just takes more of them.

meri

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Glad to see so many that are interested in the production characteristics of chickens.

These have to remain important, breed-defining traits if the feather fanciers are not destroy breeds.

I'm not down-playing the importance of correct leg and skin color or conforming to standard, just want the poultry world to remember the production characteristics that make chickens useful to humans.

{off my soapbox}

 

[walkswithdog]

I think show fanciers do us a service.

I think done well heritage and hobby breeding has something to offer as well.

Breeding to the Standard has to help a breed even if it's to increase popularity of less common breeds or colors.

Breeding to a self sustaining type that also meets the standard also is a useful goal.

Both cannot be done but they are compatible.

I need to improve pencilling in my hatchery partridge rocks. I wouldn't have anywhere to GET really good pencilling in, if it weren't FOR show birds.

I have breeder, hatchery and heritage dels. They can't but benefit from the genes of someone's birds who has been breeding to the show standard for several years. Hatchery birds lack size, width and have often smutty or pale/poor markings. Almost any flock is still throwing off colored legs, mutant tails and odd combs. New breed, lots of work to be done. I can benefit from the work of show breeders without going to extremes.

Done right we complement each other.

LOL I didn't realise it but my not-such-an-idiot Roo could get into the scratch bin. It's been that way for at least ten days, omg yellow bird..... sigh.

I love dual purpose breeds. I am also raising guineas as tick eaters, food animals and egg layers. Triple purpose. That they also serve as predator and invader alarms is also useful.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

I am downsizing but still want to rethink in which direction our breeding plans are going. We sell our chicks in good numbers so I do want to keep my purebreds. Yet I also want a big fat chicken to eat. We have White Rocks and BOs and we like them both. We had a chick that was born blue in color but turned later to a nice golden and black....huge pullet who was a mix between our Buffs and my Jersey Giant roo. I liked that cross as she had huge breast and all around huge and not a year old. I sold her a couple of days ago because the just fell in love with her coloring. It did get me to thinking if I took our WR and crossed them w/WJG what would I get? Or the WJG over the BOs? Has anyone done this cross? I like my WRs and BOs because they will hatch out and they are pretty big... plus we free range our chickens and and they seem to do fine with it.