Favorite meaties???? Please give me your opinion!

[Birchwood]

I am looking to raise a line of chickens that can also lay eggs and broody. I have read about Buckeyes and they seem great. I know cornish crosses dont have a long enough life expectancy to lay and hatch. Does anyone have a fav. breed they raise and let hens raise chicks before being culled?
Thanks in advance.

 

[jaku]

Unfortunately, you'll probably be disappointed with the meat yield on ANY non-broiler, and all of the broilers are hybrids that can't be bred with predictable results. The good news is that if you're willing to eat a scrawny bird, there isn't a huge difference in meat yield for most of the layer breeds.

I say go with Cornish X's. You can't beat them for meat.

 

[Birchwood]

I just culled some 12-15 wks old roos and they were only about 4 lbs. Thanks not even a meal for 5..

 

[Birchwood]

what kind have you had for dual purpose?

 

[Chickens in Elmwood]

Just butchered our 22 week old Buff Orp Rooster and he dressed at 3.75 lbs. Legs and thighs were HUGE, breasts were puny.

We are also thinking about trying Buckeyes next year for a dual purpose breed. I am really freaked out by Cornish Xs...sorry to those of you who like them...To me, they just aren't natural.

 

[quercus21]

Here's a couple of sites that might help you decide:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/breed-chart

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

We have NHR for eggs and if have to be meat, but at the moment we have Cornish x for meat.

 

[pringle]

If you cant get jumbo cornish or whatever there called then I would suggest you get some dark cornish.They grow faster then dual purpose and are nice and heavy but compact.

 

[Pathfinders]

Here's what I posted over in the Breeds/Genetics forum, where you also asked this question. And fwiw, we have found that the Cornish ancestors in our Buckeyes makes them have nice broad breasts. I haven't weight any of the birds we had butchered this year, and didn't note exactly how old they were, but the ALBC did a huge study on them you may wish to check out.

We don't raise our Buckeyes specifically for meat, although there are many people who focus on that aspect of them. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy did a study of Buckeyes as Production birds, and have a lot of good info on their website.

Here's a comparison between Heritage birds (remember, they used Buckeyes) versus Industrial birds (Cornish Cross types):

http://www.albc-usa.org/heritagechicken/heritagevsindustrial.html

Plus they have a whole page of resources and info for those raising heritage birds (such as Buckeyes), see it here:

http://www.albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/chickens.html

And if you're interested in learning more about Buckeyes, please join the American Buckeye Poultry Club Yahoo Group here:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AmericanBuckeyePoultryClub/

We have almost 180 members and lots of good conversation about Buckeyes. We're getting a breed club together for them, and we also just had a great thread about weights and feed to use to boost production weights. Check it out.

Cheers,

 

[Buster52]

Standard Cornish was the meat bird of choice before the advent of hybrids like Cornish X and rangers. And they breed true.

I'm raising a batch right now of Dark Cornish. They may take longer than the currently popular monsters and may not get as big, but there is absolutely nothing scrawny about them.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Huh. I found the same thing about my birds.