Has anyone hatched eggs from a meat bird?

[linsybird]

I picked up 6 adult meat birds earlier this year. Unfortunately the weather got bad, and I wasn’t able to butcher them when planned. Long story short, they were sick, and all but one died within two weeks.

I felt bad for her, since she survived the sickness and crazy weather, so I pardoned her, and ever since then, she has been living as a part of my flock. She made it to laying age, and while very fat, is seemingly healthy.


I started up my incubator to hatch some eggs, and I know some of hers are mixed in. They started hatching last night, and I can tell for sure one is hers. It’s bright yellow, and visibly bigger than the other two who have hatched so far.


Just out of curiosity, has anyone else tried this? I’m having a hard time imagining what the chick will look like all grown up. When I googled it, I just found a bunch of stuff about people trying to make their own Cornish cross with different chicken breeds.

 

[linsybird]

For reference, here she is with another standard sized chick from the batch

 

[Smileybans]

This isn’t exactly the same but I have sagittas. Which are a cross between RIR, NR and CX. They are huge birds. I crossed these girls with my light Brahmas and got enormous chicks. The roosters at 10 weeks were twice the size of a standard chick. This could also be because I crossed them with a light Brahma but the CX definitely comes through.

The light Brahmas in this picture are the same age as the cross. He grew a lot faster and got a lot bigger. That could be due to the other breeds in the Sagitta too though. I did sell these birds shortly after so I don’t have adult pictures.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What breed is the father? He will have an influence on what that chick looks like, at least size, conformation, and growth rate. That chick will basically be white, though you might get some darker feathers showing up.

I personally have not hatched from a CX egg. There are some people on this forum that have. What you can expect is a chicken somewhat between the rooster and a CX. It will not grow as fast or get as big as a pure CX Broiler but it will grow faster and be larger than its dual purpose father. It should have nice breast meat, but probably not as high a proportion of breast meat to the rest as a pure CX.

It should make a nice meat bird if you decide to eat it. If you keep it you will still have some of the growth issues you had with the CX but they may not be quite as bad.

 

[linsybird]

The father, I’ve been told was a dorking, but I’m not sure he’s full blood. He’s a big boy though.

We have a total of 3 chicks that are hers, I’m really excited to see how they grow!

 

[linsybird]

This isn’t exactly the same but I have sagittas. Which are a cross between RIR, NR and CX. They are huge birds. I crossed these girls with my light Brahmas and got enormous chicks. The roosters at 10 weeks were twice the size of a standard chick. This could also be because I crossed them with a light Brahma but the CX definitely comes through.
View attachment 3172053

The light Brahmas in this picture are the same age as the cross. He grew a lot faster and got a lot bigger. That could be due to the other breeds in the Sagitta too though. I did sell these birds shortly after so I don’t have adult pictures.
View attachment 3172056

that’s big!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had a white meat hen one time, she only lived to be a year old, she did lay a few eggs.

 

[Smileybans]

that’s big!

That’s what the person buying them said. Lol. Then they asked if I had any more.

 

[CNJ]

These chicks are from a Father/Daughter breeding group. The daughters come from a Breese Rooster/Cornish X hen cross. I was thinking about selecting blue legged chicks to line breed from, but haven't decided yet.

These 2nd generation chicks are vigorous and are acting like hybrids. I hope they don't turn out like Cornish X because I already ate the pure Breese Rooster and won't be able to replicate it.

They got moved out from their brooder with in 2 weeks. I normally wait a month.

 

[CNJ]

This is my foundation line (Pearl White Butterball) that I am working on. This rooster came from a Breese/Cornish X cross. He hit 11lbs at 4 months and 12lbs at 5 months. He is grouped with 3 of his sisters, I will breed the female chicks with white legs from this group, back with him, and the daughters from that back to him and daughters from that back to him, until all the chicks have white legs and look like their father.

I will also try to purify or clone his brother with yellow legs in the same way and once they breed true. I will cross the 2 pure lines together for hybrid vigor and see what happens.