Has anyone ever tried heavy dual purpose meat birds?

[Erin80]

We are going to order 25 Cornish cross for the fall, but I was thinking of ordering 10 of the heavy dual purpose birds too. I know they will dress out much smaller, but I think it would be interesting to try. They take 15-20 weeks to grow out, which is fine. We are in Ontario and order our birds from Frey's.....I have zero experience as this is our first time doing meat birds of any kind.....but does anyone have any idea what breed these "slow growth heavy dual purpose" birds would be? The females are red, males are white.

 

[Redhead Rae]

They sound like they are red sex-links bred for meat, not egg production. That way you can tell the males from the females at hatch.

If you want to be sustainable going forward. I wouldn't get sex-links for meat, but order a straight run of a good DP bird to breed forward.

Two of my DP cockerels (I have New Hampshire, Delaware, Buffs) grown out to 20 weeks makes a meal plus a enough meat for soup the next day and bones for broth for 5 adults and a picky toddler. However, these birds have very little breast meat and are more bone than meat. The meat is tasty and flavorful, but more tender if harvested at 14-16 weeks than 20 or more. To mitigate the toughness, we simmer our birds, remove the meat from the bone and chop it up across the grain. This makes it much more edible in dishes like soup, chicken gravy, chicken salad. I will keep eating my DP cockerels but they aren't as nice and tender as store bought birds.

I now have a trio of Dark Cornish that I'm breeding for meat. We'll see how their offspring taste.

 

[Erin80]

What about Jersey Giants? Anyone ever tried these for meat?

 

[Erin80]

They sound like they are red sex-links bred for meat, not egg production. That way you can tell the males from the females at hatch.

If you want to be sustainable going forward. I wouldn't get sex-links for meat, but order a straight run of a good DP bird to breed forward.

Two of my DP cockerels (I have New Hampshire, Delaware, Buffs) grown out to 20 weeks makes a meal plus a enough meat for soup the next day and bones for broth for 5 adults and a picky toddler. However, these birds have very little breast meat and are more bone than meat. The meat is tasty and flavorful, but more tender if harvested at 14-16 weeks than 20 or more. To mitigate the toughness, we simmer our birds, remove the meat from the bone and chop it up across the grain. This makes it much more edible in dishes like soup, chicken gravy, chicken salad. I will keep eating my DP cockerels but they aren't as nice and tender as store bought birds.

I now have a trio of Dark Cornish that I'm breeding for meat. We'll see how their offspring taste.

Thanks! I haven't ordered any....thankfully....was just curious as to what breed they might be. I'm not looking to breed/hatch eggs....just wanted to try something other than cornish cross.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

I own a BJG... Not for meat, mind you. They were originally bred to replace the turkey as a Thanksgiving Day Bird.... That said, my hatchery BJG is pretty large, and they say that they take longer to get to the point of butcher.

That's what I have to say on that...

 

[Molpet]

What about Jersey Giants? Anyone ever tried these for meat?

at 7 months they were still fill out the frame, but dressed at 7-9 lbs..

 

[SunHwaKwon]

That's what I've heard, too - they grow out very slowly. I would assume they be rather tough but I never notice my birds to be tough. I skin and then slow cook them in a stock pot until the meat falls off and use it in recipes. I don't buy anything in particular- they are just whatever extra males I happen to buy or hatch.

 

[Molpet]

a guy did a study on some hatchery DP
https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

 

[eatwhatyougrow]

a guy did a study on some hatchery DP
https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/ATTACH=full]1284671[/ATTACH]

https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

That was an interesting read. I think there are several factors that could be used to refine practice of raising. But overall I think it was not bad. I think one factor that would influence this aspect of chicken raising would be the breeding. Most of the dial purpose breeds have been bred more for production these last few decades and so I think to get the breeds back to a place of real good dual purpose will take several years of really intense breeding for those meat characteristics. It is what I am looking at doing for myself the next few years. Of course I think using some of the Ranger Blood or some of the slower growing meatballs in your genetics will quicken the project I have several projects on the board that I am considering beginning..... I just need to get a 6,000$ grant to help it along! Haha.
I have a brick building about 20x80 foot that sits on a couple acres. This is the building I am planning to retrofit for my projects. I am thinking I can get 10 pens each will have an outdoor run as well as an indoor run/ coop area. And still have area for building in a incubation hatching room.
Part of my breeding is something I am working on for a mission project I am doing with some village pastors in Uganda to help them feed more protein to the villagers as well as have a profitable business to supplement his income as he serves his people.....anyway I digress


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[Molpet]

That was an interesting read. I think there are several factors that could be used to refine practice of raising. But overall I think it was not bad. I think one factor that would influence this aspect of chicken raising would be the breeding. Most of the dial purpose breeds have been bred more for production these last few decades and so I think to get the breeds back to a place of real good dual purpose will take several years of really intense breeding for those meat characteristics. It is what I am looking at doing for myself the next few years. Of course I think using some of the Ranger Blood or some of the slower growing meatballs in your genetics will quicken the project I have several projects on the board that I am considering beginning..... I just need to get a 6,000$ grant to help it along! Haha.
I have a brick building about 20x80 foot that sits on a couple acres. This is the building I am planning to retrofit for my projects. I am thinking I can get 10 pens each will have an outdoor run as well as an indoor run/ coop area. And still have area for building in a incubation hatching room.
Part of my breeding is something I am working on for a mission project I am doing with some village pastors in Uganda to help them feed more protein to the villagers as well as have a profitable business to supplement his income as he serves his people.....anyway I digress


[

yeah I kept a cx hen and have been using her 3 sons... they produced heavier sons than my other roo... about 1/2lb in the breast