Help, what is the best dual purpose chicken for me?

[CrazyTalk]

Are you set on dual purpose birds?

I think of dual purpose birds like SUVs - they seem like a great compromise - until you have to go to the hardware store to get a sheet of plywood, or need to drive 500 miles an realize how much that costs with the terrible gas mileage. They fit some situations, but very rarely are they the best choice - you're better off owning a passenger car and a work truck for the big jobs.

That 3 year old 7lb laying hen has eaten 2 or 3 times as much food as the same 3lb leghorn, while laying less eggs - and shes done it for a long time. Those extra 4lbs of meat are just gonna end up as soup stock anyways - because old layers aren't prime meat. That 22 week old cockerel has eaten 5 or 6 times as much food as the 10 week old cornish cross you could have eaten, and you've had to deal with him and his brothers trying to kill each other for the last 10 weeks. Raising cull cockerels for meat is not a good time.

If you want more flavorful meat - let a cornish cross live to 20 weeks - you have to restrict food a bit (not a big deal), but you'll end up with way more meat.


Dual purpose just don't make a lot of sense to me - if you only eat the occasional bird, you're wasting a ton of food keeping large bodied hens around. If you eat a lot of birds, you're wasting a ton of food growing out slow growing meat birds with poor food conversion. Wasting food, time, and money using poor tools isn't sustainable for me.

So my advice, if you've got the space, buy yourself a handful of leghorns (or some barnyard mix leghorn crosses) for eggs - they eat almost nothing and forage well. And raise meat birds for meat.

 

[Sidhe13]

@CrazyTalk
Good advice.

 

[malndobe]

Believe it or not, my most productive layer right now is a Pioneer (meat bird) hen. Don't tell her she's not supposed to be a good layer! She takes her job very seriously.

Right now, my best layer is also a Pioneer hen. She's also started to act like she's thinking about going broody, which will make her a keeper in my book.

But overall I agree with the person who said it's better to keep a flock of specialists, egg layers for eggs, meat birds for birds. It's nice if the egg layers are a breed that when they hatch their own the roosters are worth butchering, but if you'll probably still get more bang for the buck with specialists.

 

[hellbender]

I live in Virginia. I am basically looking for chickens that would be good for a survivalist/ prepper. Free range to cut down feed cost, produce eggs and meat, reproduce on their own. That is what lead me to dark Cornish. I would have chosen buff orpingtons but that aren't as good for free range. I guess it would be helpful to know what the average dress out size of DP breeds is? Most sources say what until 16-20 weeks but I didn't get a size. Freedom rangers seem good but they don't reproduce on their own

The Dark Cornish is an excellent choice but you got yours from a place that has been having 'size' problems for years. What makes an even better 'survivalist' type bird is to cover Dark Cornish hens with Buckeye cocks....Large meaty birds that are themselves 'survivalists' and can scratch out a living if they have to. Non the less...I can't imagine expecting any breed of bird to find all their food...they might have to go so far afield that someone or something else might get them...they need a reason to come home. If they don't get a reasonable meal when they come in from scrounging....they might just take up roosting elsewhere.