Has anyone hatched eggs from a meat bird?

[Morrigan]

A Dorking/CX has the potential to be an awesome meat bird. I've bred a lot of slow broiler meat birds to a Naked Neck rooster (wish I had a dorking rooster!), and have been satisfied with the results in terms of healthy birds, that are solid egg layers and make reasonably sized meat birds -- nothing compared to a true CX, but a huge step up from hatchery "dual purpose" breeds. Their appearance varied between almost all white, to ones with a lot of brown mixed in -- either that's from the rooster, or from some new hampshire red mixed in to the broiler line for fast maturity.

If one of your chicks is a rooster, and you are interested in home-brew meat birds, I would consider keeping it.

 

[linsybird]

A Dorking/CX has the potential to be an awesome meat bird. I've bred a lot of slow broiler meat birds to a Naked Neck rooster (wish I had a dorking rooster!), and have been satisfied with the results in terms of healthy birds, that are solid egg layers and make reasonably sized meat birds -- nothing compared to a true CX, but a huge step up from hatchery "dual purpose" breeds. Their appearance varied between almost all white, to ones with a lot of brown mixed in -- either that's from the rooster, or from some new hampshire red mixed in to the broiler line for fast maturity.

If one of your chicks is a rooster, and you are interested in home-brew meat birds, I would consider keeping it.

That’s awesome, thanks! He’s by far the biggest rooster I’ve had. He looks just like a red dorking, but with feathered feet.

According to the man I got him from, he was a very rare breed, and he won a competition 10 or so years ago

He was free, so I didn’t argue
He was also kept by himself, in a coop with no windows for A YEAR, after he was the only survivor of a raccoon attack. So having a yard hens is heaven to him.

Anyways, I’ll definitely be keeping a rooster if any if the chicks turn out to be male.

 

[linsybird]

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.

View attachment 3173291

He is a good looking rooster!