Good dual purpose breeds for meat?

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
I have to second this. For me a dual purpose must lay, forage and go broody to replenish the flock. Our extra cockerels produce an incredible amount of meat. As a plus, I have never had a "mean" Orp roo. Hens are delish also.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I've heard the most about Heritage Delawares, Orpingtons, Buckeyes, and Wyandottes... granted these are from breeders NOT hatcheries. There are also those of us out there trying to make our own good meat-birds.

There are also Freedom Rangers, from JM hatchery which I am really enjoying right now.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

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This is exactly what I am doing. Seemed easier to me to specialize with two flocks, rather than settling somewhere in the middle with one.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Delete.

 

[LilyD]

I am creating one coop that will be exclusive to breeding Delawares and my second coop will be primarily for eggs. i will want the Dellys to produce eggs so that I can hatch them for my kitchen but I will not be relying on them for my egg laying. Looking at costs as far as I was concerned I don't want to buy hatchlings three times a year. It would be great if they all lived but the shipped birds have a difficult beginning and I think it effects them more, especially the cornish X birds. Each year I breed I plan to keep the largest ones and best examples of what I am looking for and adding them to the layers then culling the rest and adding new roos as needed. If they are free foraging they won't eat as much food so I am not too worried about feeding.

The 31 I have now take about 6 to 7 weeks to go through a bag of food.

My whole idea is to be self sustainable. If the hatchery were to fall off the face of the earth and I had to rely on just me could I make a go of it with the birds I have here. Right now I can say yes I can so other than feed and bedding my costs are 0$ and I will make something back when they are producing eggs during times I don't want to incubate.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

The Slow White Broilers from Welp laid a large brown egg every day all winter long this past year for a friend of mine. Beautiful large, healthy birds.

 

[Saltysteele]

i've got some australian blood light sussex (the australians are bigger, from my understanding). my rooster's around 10-12 pounds, the hens aren't too much smaller.

the hens lay a medium-sized light brown egg every day, and easily go broody.

their chicks (i brought them in and brooded them myself, as i have zero losses that way) are quick growers whose crops are always full and they're always looking for food. nice, wide breasted birds, every at 4 weeks old. i've got several that i need to figure out how to weigh, to see where they're at. i'm probably going to use them as meat chickens next year, too. they're skin isn't very yellow, but i don't care, it's not a factor for me.

i know i sound like a rep from the company, the way i promote these things, but our freedom rangers have been awesome. we've got 9 that we didn't process at 12 weeks of age, due to time constraints. they're about 16 weeks now, and are still able to fly over a 4 foot gait and are now laying eggs. we really need to get these things done, they're getting huge. our smallest FR's at 12 weeks dressed out at over 5-1/2 pounds.

the gal i got them from had several freedom ranger roosters from last years batch walking around acting like normal chickens, just bigger

they may take a couple weeks longer, but they'll free range and live longer and without the problems of CX's.

we'll see how my light sussex do. even if they do well, i still may get more FR's next year. they are really nice meat birds

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I was just looking st the slow white broilers from Mcmurray's, and the slow reds from Ideal. Wondering what people thought of them.

 

[GhostRider65]

Well lets see, I ordered all dual purpose birds from P.P I picked
Speckled Sussex
Delawares
White Rocks got by accident in first order instead of BR
Barred Rocks
Buff Orpingtons
Assorted Wyandottes
EE's Not sure if these are dual or not? grabbed them @ TSC cuz they were cute. LOL
Black Sexlink hens also came from TSC with the EE's.
Of all the babies now 9 weeks old the best filled out are the Del's and the BR which I think are even heavier than the Delawares
among my older flock the White rocks appear to be the best weight and most filled out these are all 19 weeks and I got my first egg today I think from Suzi 1 of the BSL
next to them I would say the Wyandottes are next. my buffs have reached their full adult size but are scrawny, still gonna butcher this weekend, if they are too bad I'll just make stock out of them, I have way too many roo's and my hens are suffering, so they have to go fat or no.

So if you want a good fat little bird to butcher between 14 and 19 weeks I would recommend the BR, or Delawares, even the White rocks but I have found they are quite mean to the other birds even the hens, but are mellowing out a bit now and actually seem to be taking care of the hens, but they fight amongst themselves alot still, chasing all the other roo's like crazy so if you aren't set up to house fiesty roo's I would not order WR. Will have to see how the 9 weekers do at 16 to 18 weeks will post again to let ya all know. In the mean time I was shown a great article on meat dual purpose birds today so will share it heres a link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=285788

 

[Saltysteele]

my black australorps have also filled out quite nicely, forgot to mention them. i believe they're dual purpose