Finishing heritage meat chickens

[U_Stormcrow]

Helpful - I used a CornishX as one of my hens, hoping that at least a few of the offspring would be unusually sized, with hopes of then breeding the dominant white out. As expected, its 50/50 for size first generation, but I have culled males over 5.# live weight between 14 and 18 weeks who have some of the other traits I wanted. I've also used Dark Brahma (because they get huge, eventually) to throw some hatchlings, but they are so slow to mature, it will be a while before I see the results of crossings with that generation - will have to speed their maturity significantly along the way - its their pattern I want (plus red).

This is the mutt I'm now using as Sire, he's a First Gen from the original rooster (now sausage). He was 3# at nine weeks (47.5 oz), and similar in weight to two siblings I culled at 18 weeks, both over 5.5# - I'm guessing he is pretty close to that, but haven't weighed him recently.

The next hatch is a few days from now), but the parentage will be highly suspect for a host of reasons.

and to tie this back to the original post - even starting with mutts (or hybrids, like the sex links) - there's no reason you can't get decent egg production, raise replacements, and selectively cull towards a meatier end goal down the road. But definitely consider Mosey's input - if the black isn't an issue for your ground and climate, its MUCH easier to start with larger birds and refine than to start with small birds and try to engineer big changes.

 

[LilRedmamma]

Good news. All of those are early maturing to very early maturing birds.

Bad news. None of those birds get huge. The Sex Links were likely selected for prodigious laying, and large eggs relative to body size, but they tend to stay small. The Delawares and Wyandotte have decent laying and good size eggs (tending towards the light shell color end of the scale too, which makes candling easier), but are only moderate size.

You will have a lot of selective breeding ahead of you to make those meat birds, and will end up culling a lot of males along the way at limited yield/bird. But at least with early maturing birds, you can do so quickly - a sexually mature generation in 4-5 months is much faster to advance a breed project with than a sexually mature generation every 6-7 months. You won't get the breast/thigh ratio of a CornishX, ever. If you like dark meat, that's just fine.

Cross your fingers and hope you win the genetic lottery with a Delaware over one of your Sex-links, throwing a large body cross, then use that bird as the basis for the next generation. Or bring in a Roo who has huge body size and doesn't set your other goals back too far - a large Orp or Plymouth Rock, for instance.

Most people abandon breed projects after a very short while.

I have one of my own, in the early stages, and my initial record keeping has already fallen by the way side. To do it seriously is a part time job. Real life rarely cooperates. But if you are interested, "Making Lemonade".

/edit and not having time to keep good records, I definitely don't have time to caponize. I process unwanted males as soon as they start showing interest in the hens, so usually 16-20 week range. Current focus is size and pattern (both), which sometimes means I keep the second largest bird for the next generation. If I had more laser focus, I might show better progress, but I'm asking a lot of my end goal.

Your edit/butchering roo's age really helped me decide when to cull my young roo. Thx