Yes I have read through it seems like had some issues with some your stock I’m trying decide if this is right choice for me to try dual purpose or if I’d be better of with true layers and broilers
I keep a flock of production eggers and the New Hampshires. I tried a number of broilers and CX before I tried out the NH, and most of the bird breeds I tried worked okay for what they were, but I really wanted to have a self-sustaining flock of meat birds where I don't have to keep buying chicks. As a bonus, the NH lay eggs, and enough of them that you can hatch more and eat them. It really depends what your goals are for your flock(s).
In a perfect world, I would have a bird with the meatiness of a CX and the livability and instincts of a normal chicken that I could process at any time (not stuck to a two week window like for CX) and get nice large carcasses. I like the size of CX at around 9-10 weeks - they are monstrously huge at that point and still tender. The chickens would also reproduce reliably and create more chickens exactly like themselves. I also like getting daily eggs. So for me, having one flock of eggers (IMO almost too skinny to be worth my time processing, but others do it regularly) and one flock of these New Hampshires optimized for meat met most of my goals for the perfect chicken keeping experience. The dual purpose birds sold from most hatcheries are optimized for egg laying now, and are relatively skinny, IMO, so if I was going to make a go of having a dual purpose flock for meat, the NH has the perfect physical characteristics for me. Talk to others, and you'll get different opinions. There's no one right answer, just what's right for you.
Most of the issues I've encountered with the New Hampshires did not affect the meatiness or ability to reproduce of the birds, which were the most important criteria for me. The "angel wing", while it bothered me from a breed standard perspective, didn't get in the way of them being large and meaty or producing an adequate amount of eggs, and I could probably eventually breed it out. Compared to the rest of the broilers I've tried and the CX, the NH have had the best livability while also retaining their large and hefty stature. The occasional varus/valgus deformity, now that I know it might show up, doesn't bother me too much, as I'll just eat those birds anyway. Recall, I only had about 10 birds total to start with, so my population size is small. To get a true picture of the breed as a whole I'd probably need to buy a whole lot more of them at once, and then go from there, but I don't want to make the space for that - I've got to balance the amount of birds coming in with the amount of birds we eat and the rate at which we eat them, and my freezer space.
You could do what I did when I started out - purchase some NH, some White Rangers (3m broiler), and some of the Novagen White Leghorns or other production egger from Freedom Ranger and see what you like best. They even sell Easter Eggers and Chocolate Eggers. If the birds don't work for you, rehome or eat them and buy some more of what you think you'd like. Eventually you'll have a flock composition that works for you.
You can raise the NH and the production eggers in the same coop, if that's something you were wondering about. The NH are active enough that they interact with the smaller chickens pretty well.
