Hello everybody. My name is Greg and my wife's name is Melanie. Three years ago, we started talking about homesteading and how we liked the idea of it. I believe it was, and still is because of the nostalgia of it; to provide for our family by hard work and the sweat of our brow. We already had four horses when we started talking about getting chickens, goats, and starting a garden. Shortly after discussing it our son called us from Wal-Mart, where he worked, and asked if we could have a chicken. Needless to say, we said yes! That happened literally three days after we had talked about it, and we knew we wanted to start by getting chickens, so our answer was not just yes, but an emphatic, "HECK YEAH!" We still do not know what she is, she is slender with tail feathers that point up like a sash paint brush, all black, and I think it is called a pea comb, and she lays white eggs; I will post a pic tonight. Shortly after that, we built this little box with a couple perches and fenced in a run. Then we talked to a friend about getting a chicken or two from him. He gave us three chickens that we thought was a white rock cross rooster, a white rock cross hen and a red star hen. We found out that we had to white bar or rock roosters and a red star hen. We got rid of the smaller rooster and then had the black hen (Scoot-A-Loo), the red hen (Big Red), and the white rooster (Rocky). I will post all the picks tonight. Not too long after that I built a 4X8' coop and we went to the feed store for eight Rhode Island Reds. Now we have 12 hens, 6 big white Cornish broilers (they are not big like Cornish X, and we think they may be healthy enough to keep for layers), 6 small Cornish Xs, two goats and a nice vegetable garden. We have raised about 18 broilers I think, and would like to breed a good meaty bird. From looking on BYC, I have determined that it is basically not possible to breed Cornish X the way you get them from breeders, but we want to find something that is comparable with quality. We know we may not get the same size birds, or it may take longer for the chicks to get to size, but we would rather raise our own throughout the year. We think that our big White Rock roo might breed well with our Cornish girls, but they are not laying yet, likely because we do not have a box in there yet, but plan on putting one in this week. Again, once I send picks, maybe this community could offer some of their experiences. Experiences speak louder to me than everyone's opinion, but both are welcome. We look forward to getting to know everybody and growing and learning with each other. Sincerely, Greg Petree
Hi Greg and welcome to BYC - glad that you have joined us. You may wish to consider looking at dual-purpose birds - i.e. good for meat and eggs - that way, although the growth rates will never be comparable to a commercial meat bird, you can establish a system of production whereby you get a few months laying from each bird before culling. I do this, since raising a non-broiler takes so long that the costs of feed etc do not make them economical (here in Kenya, at least). I raise dual purpose birds, let them lay for around 6 months, then cull when i wish - that way they have paid for themselves in terms of egg production (I sell mine to DW's colleagues) before culling. You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center, and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads. You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you. All the best CT Just came across this thread that might be useful https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1076131/sustainable-meat-standard-bred-dual-purpose-bird-thread
Welcome to BYC I think you many find this article on raising meaties interesting as well: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/raising-large-table-birds Enjoy the site!
