Dual-Purpose Flock Owners UNITE!

[ThiefPouter06]

I have been thinking on this subject as well. If our economy was to crash tomorrow, my chicken flock my be the one thing that keeps my family alive. I have a BO roo, BO hen, SLW hen, and a RIR hen. I have been thinking about adding some white egg layers to the mix (perhaps SSH) but I am conserned about non broodiness dominating future generations. If the dont go broody the line will die out. Any thoughts?

 

[farm_mom]

matt y. :

I have been thinking on this subject as well. If our economy was to crash tomorrow, my chicken flock my be the one thing that keeps my family alive. I have a BO roo, BO hen, SLW hen, and a RIR hen. I have been thinking about adding some white egg layers to the mix (perhaps SSH) but I am conserned about non broodiness dominating future generations. If the dont go broody the line will die out. Any thoughts?

My best advice here is go for a heritage breed. Heritage breeds are much more likely to go broody than a standard breed, as the instinct has not been breed out of them. 2 of my 7 Silver Grey Dorking hens have gone broody already and they're only 7 months old. Good Luck.​

 

[Ugly Cowboy]

BR's and RIR's are my dual's.

 

[Becaco]

Quote:
Ok, someone please tell me what pithing is?

I have a mix. 13 Delaware pullets, just started laying and one Roo. 5 Marans and 8 Welsummer pullets with a couple of roos each. 18 BO's, one Roo. 4 Astrolorps (not sure about that spelling) 1 Roo.

4 Production Reds, 2 BR, 2 BR/Wyndotte crosses 1 golden wyndotte/BR cross.

 

[the1much]

pithing is when , instead of cutting the head off,, you poke your knife in the roof of the mouth, in the slit and kill the chicken that way. you aim your knife to the back of the eye, poke in, turn knife, and it kills the bird much quicker then other ways.

 

[Marlinchaser]

ACTUALLY .....LCRT lays it out here for you, its not for killing


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=89082

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Quote:
LCRT has his opinion and he is allowed it. As are you.

I have seen, chopping the head off, slicing the throat and I have seen pithing. Of all of these pithing is the most human in my opinion.

It renders them brain dead and so they don't feel the pain of slicing the throat to bleed them out. This is my opinion and not asking anyone to share it. Ninjapoodles explains it as well.

 

[Sappy]

Hi folks,
I've been reading BYC for a while, but only just registered to post this evening. I'm not currently raising chickens (stuck in Los Angeles, DPR Kahlifornia until my gal is out of college), but we'll be moving to Missouri next May or June, and I'll be building a coop as soon as we're packed and getting some chicks. I'll be building one at my parents' place, and another at my grandparents' place, actually.

I'm interested in having a dual purpose flock. My only previous experience with chickens is with a RIR rooster who just showed up at mom and dad's one day when I was a kid, and decided he was home. *laugh* My folks got two RIR hens to keep him company, and I took care of them. That was loooooong ago. The raccoons got into them and killed them before I had any chicks from them, unfortunately. So I've been around chickens a little bit, but am still just a beginner in reality.

I'm leaning toward barred rocks, but am also looking at RIRs as well. I plan to just get one breed and work with that. (Suggestions for a bird that is good for meat AND eggs are welcome btw, I'm still doing my homework and figuring out what I will go with).

I like what some posters are talking about doing on this thread... working to resurrect a true dual purpose bird, exchanging breeding stock, it makes a lot of sense to me. I don't want to just order from a hatchery forever, but I don't want my flock to be inbred too much either. How much work do we have to do on some of the heritage breeds we still have in order to do this?

Anyways, sorry to butt in with an intro, but I'm very interested in this thread, I'm going to be asking questions, and I figured it would be best to intro and give some details for a frame of reference.

 

[MamaDragon]

Greetings Sappy!

Read all you can find on the breeds you're interested in, both here and elsewhere. Bothe of the breeds you've chosen are Heritage Breeds, and, depending on how deep you want to get in all this, are popular enough to be able to get "local" breeder stock instead of just hatchery birds.

Nothing wrong with hatchery birds, half of our flock is from McMurray Hatchery. The hatchery birds are concentrated on egg/chick output, speed production.

I've just gotten 6 Buff Orps, and an RIR roo from a local breeder. These, hopefully, will be the foundation stock for not only my breeding stock, but feeding our family in the meantime.

Ask whatever questions you please, there's usually someone out here that has answers.

Welcome to this Very Addictive Habit!

BTW - where in LA are you? Born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, and moved from behind the Orange Curtain to Arkansas in '89. Still have family in LA County.

Kathy

 

[littlelemon]

This past spring I crossed my white rock roo with my white rock hens, BR hens, BO hen, and easter egger hens.

I sold most of the pullets, but I kept the cockerels to butcher and when butchering time came (around 16 weeks) the pure white rocks were the biggest and the best tasting. They were not huge, probably only about 2-3lbs, but the meat was nice and tender(compated to a 20 week roo we butchered the year before) and roastable. The WR/BR crosses were second best-they didn't look as good because the skin was little more yellow and had some extra fat. The WR/BO cross was scrawny, as was the WR/easter egger cross. I used them for soup as I really didn't want to waste time with plucking such a small bird, so I skinned them.

So from my very small backyard experiment, the White Rocks and Barred Rocks are a pretty good bet. Pure White Rocks would probably be best.

We finally butchered our roo and it is too bad because now I have some nice Delaware's and I would love to cross them and see how that meat turns out!

Butchering heritage breeds is a lot of time-consuming work for a little meat in return, becuase the birds are so much smaller than the cornish crosses. But if you have family or friends to help you with the plucking, it's not so bad. However, we do have to eat 2 heritage birds for supper to feed our family, verses just one cornish X. Still, I think it is the natural way, and I am thankful to have that meat on my table.