Dual Purpose

[punky rooster]

Quote:
If I may ask, where did you get these birds? If you have gotten them from a hatchery, let me say this: Hatchery birds don't usually produce to their original purpose too well (depending on breed). Many breeds (especially R.I. Reds & Australorps) have been bred for extra egg production. While that is great, you lose meat qualities & broodiness; an important trait in many "heritage" breeds. Same for disposition; many people say R.I Reds (for example) are an aggressive breed, I haven't heard of an aggressive standard-bred R.I. Red. Same can be said for standard-bred birds; some people don't select for fats growth, better egg laying ect. and I would consider this a poor strain.

Depending on strain, Plymouth Rocks, Buckeyes, Orpingtons ect. can be 6+lbs live weight at 16 weeks. Now, they will never surpass these Cornish X, but I consider them to be a healthier, tasty choice.

New Hampshires & Delawares were bred to be better broilers, making them a better choice.

Will try to post more later.....

 

[AlbionWood]

Mine were from Privett Hatchery. I get what you are saying about the difference, but there seem to be very few sources out West for heritage breeds. We are now raising the first generation of our own crosses, a Delaware over various hens, so we'll see if we can develop our own strain of DP birds. Interesting to see how these grow, especially as we are also raising a batch of CX at the same time!

Nevertheless, I think my conclusions are still valid: NH and Delaware are great dual-purpose birds, because the hens are good layers, the cockerels put on a lot of meat, and they are great foragers with good dispositions. You don't even have to find a specialty breeder to get good results with these.

I don't doubt that some lines of Plymouth Rock, Orpington, or Buckeye, if you can get them, may be equal or superior to hatchery Dels or NH. I will say that my NH and Del cockerels were 4+ lbs dressed at 18 weeks, which seemed pretty good to me. The NH cockerel gave me 1.25 lbs of boneless skinless breast filet... and man was it good!!

 

[punky rooster]

Quote:
I agree, I think your conclusion for the New Hampshires & Delawares are true. It was the other breeds I wanted to defend.

If you are looking for Standard-bred birds, the best place to check with is your breed's club. Send your District Director a message asking if there are any breeders in your area.

Mitch
(sorry for getting a little off-topic)

 

[triplepurpose]

Quote:
I love these too. Having no ready access to heritage breeders unfortunately, mine came from McMurray. And I love them. Big, hardy, with delicious dark meat with huge breasts and legs, decent layers. Out of half a dozen hens I've gotten two FABULOUS broodies who set about twice a year and are really good mothers. My current mixed flock has a lot of those traits in it still because I like them so much. My only complaint is that they are so active that they are sometimes very flightly, and I've had a couple of aggressive roosters (although the aggression seems to have disappeared in just two generations of zero-tolerance breeding). A great dual purpose breed, I agree!

 

[goatranch]

I also am curious about the best bird for DP. I am a hatchaholic and am wanting to raise my birds for meat as well as eggs. I am trying to keep my flock small, but my next hatch I am going to try keeping them in a pasture and close them at night. I got some dark cornish from the hatchery and also hatched some eggs. I love how they have grown to be solid birds in just a short amount of time. My roo is finally old enough to take over as my hen house. Most of my hens are Del/RIR cross and some Barred rock. I am curious to see the results. I am finding the cross birds to be much easier to keep than the pure breeds. It is very hard to find pure birds that are not hatchery unless you order eggs. I am going to try the cross birds and see what happens. Good luck to everyone trying for a sustainable flock.