I was thinking about ra
I was thinking raising meat & layers/dual purpose together might help me overcome the harvest issues. My reasoning is that as the meat birds mature, I'll see how difficult their lives become compared to the layers & I can rationalize harvesting as a "mercy kill" vs taking the life of a healthy & vibrant layer/dually.
Forgive this probably dumb question but what did you do with the two birds you had that had heart attacks & dropped over dead & the one with the prolapse? Can you still process & eat them?
So, a couple things - I'd recommend checking out the Meat Bird forum and reading any posts you find interesting. I've learned so much by doing that.
Second thing - there are a number of types of meat birds. Best to research the different types and see what might work best for you. Some meat birds, like Cornish Cross, usually need to be kept separate from the eggers due to growth and feed requirements, and differences in temperament, and other meat birds are designed to interact better with eggers. However, the difference between the CX and my eggers were drastically apparent even without mixing flocks.
Cornish Cross, the ones I just raised and processed, are hands-down the fastest growing, most cost effective meat bird out there. But you have to buy chicks every time, since the parent flocks are proprietary and commercially kept. Plus side is they're generally super cheap and you can often find sales, and even when folks run out of eggers (like this spring) you can often still find meat birds. My CX (Cornish Rock Cross) came from Welp Hatchery and I was super pleased with the activity and health of the chicks. A number of hatcheries sell them, and each provides birds that may have slight differences depending on the parent strain. Feed stores sell them too. There are a few strains of CX (2-3 main ones). If you're wanting to raise a bird that appears to be approaching the end of its life when processing day arrives, I'd recommend CX. You can raise them strictly for meat, which is what I did (free feed for first 5 days with the light on 24/7, then feed for 12 hours every day until processing, 22% protein meat bird food), or there are other feeding and management methods that get different health/weight results.
I'd recommend checking out meat bird options at Freedom Ranger hatchery (Rainbow Rangers, New Hampshires from them), the Ginger Broilers and Delaware Broilers at Murray McMurray, just to get you started.
For any bird, when you harvest them determines the tenderness of the meat (not just the amount) and the cooking methods that can be used successfully. [Note: you'll want to let most meat rest in the fridge for at least 3 days after processing to let rigor pass prior to freezing it.]
If you select for optimum meat production and don't mind buying chicks, CX is best. If you want high meat production with less health challenges or a chicken that is less management intensive, a slower growing meat bird is what you'd pick. A dual-purpose bird is middle-of-the-road on both meat and egg production (eggs every 2-3 days or so). An egger bird (White Leghorn is best example of an egger - egg production can't be beat, but it's flighty and generally not personable.) is best at egg production - high feed to egg conversion ratio means they eat less than other types of bird and put all their energy into egg production instead of growing meat. They are generally lightweight (4 lbs or so).
What your goals are for your flock(s) and your homestead should determine what type(s) of birds you choose. Getting a few of each breed you think you might like and then seeing how they grow out for a year or so before investing in a large flock is generally a great plan - many a chicken keeper has been surprised at which turned out to be favorites.
The ones that dropped dead, and the one with prolapse, I unfortunately wasn't able to use - if I'd been present when they died I would have processed them immediately and ate them. But since I didn't know exactly when they died, and it wasn't super cold then, I didn't know how much bacterial load those birds had when I found them, and didn't want to risk my family's health. The one whose legs gave out I was able to process and use - I put it in an isolation pen right next to both the food and water, and was able to keep it alive for a day or so until I had time to process it. Poor thing, it literally couldn't walk, and I couldn't process it immediately. But it had food and water, so was at least content.
