Eggs for meatbirds?

[calgal98]

Is there anyone that sells the eggs for broiler production? I'd love to incubate my own. Thanks

 

[jaku]

I think a lot of hatcheries sell broiler eggs. I've heard it's more expensive, with more loss, but if you're willing to put up with that, I'd check any of the online hatcheries.

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

Out of 13 eggs...only one hatched that came through the mail. They were packed very well. I thought I did everything right...but

I ordered day old chick after that with great success..

Best to you...

 

[calgal98]

I'm just tired of depending on the mail services and availability factors of the hatcheries. Would like to be more self sufficient. Thanks. I'll have to think on which way I want to go.

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

I hear you on the self sufficient...

However, when it comes to reproducing your own Cornish X...I beleive you may have to order from the hatcheries each time...

You could get a duel purpose bird. That will help you stay on that path of being self sufficient.

Best To You....

 

[calgal98]

Homesteading, I've been working towards the self-sufficiency goal for the last 5 years. Big garden, goats, milk, eggs, cheese, soap. I've had a gnawing feeling that life was going to get tough and have been trying to have the proverbial *ducks in a row*. Though I'm married for the last 31 years, my hubby doesn't share the same feelings nor the work load. He works hard, but its an office/business job and I ain't as young as I used to be. LOL I often wish he was more of a partner in our home lives and less of one in the office. All that said, he just doesn't understand my need to have a ready supply of food for us and our kids/gkids. I'm feeling as though I'm terribly under prepared. Thence the desire for a self sustaining chicken source. We can always eat the egg layers. Meat is meat. So its just a desire to have the lovely fat birds. Or course, then you have to have the feed for them...etc., etc.! Perhaps I should really be looking at the pastured birds! LOL

 

[pdpatch]

Mail order eggs are not always the best unless the source is close. The mear act of sending it in the mail can damage them.

So you need to get chickens that will produce your own fertile eggs.

You might want to look at a dual purpose bird, one that will lay larger eggs, The roosters will make a decent size broiler, and the can self propogate.

Generally the roo's you will need to keep around longer then the 12 to 16 weeks most people do. As that young there is not a lot of meat on them. But the birds we butcher that are one year old have been tender. A lot depends on the methods you use while butchering.

Pastured birds will reduce you feed bill a lot. Ours drops by almost 60 % during the warmer weather.

Tom

PS we don't really homestead here, I just missed the taste of home grown chicken and eggs.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
In my opinion, it doesn't really matter from a self-sufficiency standpoint whether you are buying day old chicks or fertile eggs to hatch. Either way you are dependent upon someone else for your supply.

In my search for a dual purpose bird that could also be called a roaster, I have often found my way to Buckeyes. I've been shying away from them because my reading suggests that they are slow growers. But, a lot of people swear by them for meat. They are also slow to mature, which as I understand things means that they don't produce the hormones that an earlier maturing bird would produce. And, these hormones are a factor in the tough meat of an older bird. So, it might be the case that with Buckeyes you can harvest later without encountering the toughness associated with late harvest. (I do not mean to suggest that a year old rooster won't be tough, but rather that maybe you can harvest at 6-8 months instead of 8-12 weeks.)

Anyway, something for you to look into. Please don't take my word for it.

 

[yotetrapper]

I too am looking to do something like this. My current thoughts are in trying to mate a smaller cornish X hen with a large delaware roo, in an attempt to make a meat bird that can reproduce. That said, I eat my egg birds all the time, sometimes at over a year old.

We'll I've not found a good way to take an old bird right from the freezer for a fryer, I'm learning on cooking ways. I thaw my frozen meat bird in a crockpot on low, and take it out after several hours, before the meat starts falling off the bone. At that point, the meat can be breaded and fried, or even grilled. The other day I took some meat from a rooster that was a year old out of the freezer and did that, then grilled it with BBQ sauce. It wasn't tough at all. It's all in how you prepare it.

 

[calgal98]

Thanks, all. I really hadn't planned on continuing the process of buying birds, but was hoping to find enough of a quality dual/meat purpose bird that I could raise on a continuing basis. Keep the layers eat the offspring. We as a group need to begin sharing our work towards that end to see if we can come up with one of those crosses that we can perpetuate at home! Give those big companies some home-based competition!

Yote---good suggestions for cooking. Moist heat is always a good way to tenderize less tender food.

Tim--going to have to find myself some buckeyes to play with.

Patch---waiting for my chooks to get a little older to release to the pasture. We have a resident hawk that loves the taste of young chicken too!

Thanks all for the input!

Vicki