Dual-Purpose Flock Owners UNITE!

[country freedom]

Quote:
There are several large fowl breeds that have bantam analogues: the various Plymouth Rocks, RIRs, Orpingtons, and of course, Buckeyes, to name a few. Mind you, you'll never get a carcass like a Cornish Cross, but it would be interesting to experiment to see how meaty you could make some of them.

Would I be able to cross the bantam breeds I want with the bantam Cornish?
Wouldn't doing so put meat on their bones?
Cornish x Dutch
Cornish x Old English
Cornish x Modern - imagine that cross!
Cornish x other breeds

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

 

[groverlvchx]

Dual purpose self-sustaining is the goal for my new flock. I plan to learn much from you all! Thank you so much for sharing. This morning it was cold and rainy, so I came to BYC and searched whether I should let my chickens out into their yard or not. SO good to have BYC friends to help. I've had 18 chickens (15 mutts hatched early August and 3 black orps hatched in May) for about a month now. I'm SO looking forward to the orps beginning to lay! We're learning so much--and having SO MUCH FUN! I'm a little apprehensive about the butchering part, but I refuse to house geriatric chickens. I love to eat chicken. I know I can survive a butchering party. I have in the past (as a child). But both times it took months for me to be able to eat chicken again. Mostly the smell got to me. So taking a freshly butchered chicken and making it for supper will be my acid test. I plan to tackle that in January. Hopefully by then I'll be able to tell which of these mutts are roos!
Appreciate all your wisdom.
Carol
PS any recipe suggestions for our first home-grown chicken dinner?

 

[cjhubbs]

I know there hasn't been much activity on this post recently but I figured I would still post and see what happens. Like many of you I am trying to find the best dual purpose chicken breed for me. Last year I had though I had found the it when I bought 15 Golden Comet Chickens. Although they lay great, roosters get to a good size and the temperament is fine it turns out that they are hybrids and can't breed true. So now I am back to the drawing bored and am trying to find the perfect match for us that can breed true! I would like to thank everyone else whom has posted on BYC because you have all been an amazing help. So far I am leaning towards either the
Sussex, Dorking or Buckeye breeds, but can't decide. I was wondering if anyone has had experience with any of these breeds and if so how good they are at laying in the winter, how frequently do they lay , how did much did they weigh when you butchered them as well as how did the meat taste? Thanks for the help!

 

[Pathfinders]

Well, here's the thing about dual-purpose breeds - they aren't going to lay through the winter like a production Leghorn. Which is why we, with our flock of Buckeyes, still keep a couple of production White Leghorn hens for winter eggs. We buy some WL pullets ever couple of years at Tractor Supply, and they, being bred for it, lay almost year-round. So while the Buckeyes give us everything else we want, we still have eggs in the dead of winter from the WLs.

I don't think there's a perfect chicken out there. But you can make do with an almost-perfect chicken, and for me, having had 22+ different breeds of poultry and waterfowl over the past 12 years, they're the only breed we have at this stage of the game.

Buckeyes lay between 150 and 200 medium to large brown eggs per year. The males we butcher weigh between 6 and 7 pounds when we butcher them (depending on their ages at time of butcher), and the meat is delicious.

See this thread for more info on Buckeyes: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/271644/buckeye-breed-thread

 

[cjhubbs]

Thanks for the help! I will take a look at the link. That actually isn't a bad idea to have some leghorns around for eggs. I was hoping to hatch some chicks ever year which means that I would be able to tell the pure- Buckeyes chicks from the Leghorn/ Buckeye chicks, if I had both.

 

[Pathfinders]

Thanks for the help! I will take a look at the link. That actually isn't a bad idea to have some leghorns around for eggs. I was hoping to hatch some chicks ever year which means that I would be able to tell the pure- Buckeyes chicks from the Leghorn/ Buckeye chicks, if I had both.

Yep, that's the idea. Just don't ever hatch the white eggs, and that way you won't have crossbreeds.

And most feed stores will sell "sexed" WL pullets, so you don't have to worry about getting cockerels. Just keep the hens for their eggs, don't hatch them, and all you'll have are Buckeyes when you hatch the brown eggs.

 

[pmwilson3]

Hi, I am looking for a heritage dual purpose breed to start a new flock- does anyone know of any columbian wyandottes out their with good meat bird genetics?

 

[pmwilson3]

I see a lot of people doing buckeyes, but I would really like to try something else

 

[pmwilson3]

Has anyone tried breeding up Marans for egg and meat production?