I started with a mixed order of hatchery birds, (13-14 years ago) just to see what was what, and roamed around the area with a pal, and when we saw chickens or whatever at somebody's farm, we'd stop and ask if they were selling any, if they looked healthy.
I got all kinds of birds to try out, both heritage and mixed breeds, LF and bantam. My banties were great little brooders, and all summer we always had broodies and chicks. Extra roos go in the freezer, but I only started raising meat bids in earnest after I quit working full time, about 4 years ago. I just didn't really have the time to mess with them much, before that. So we raised a few small batches of meaties, and some BBB turkeys, and called it good. There was also the laying flock, and now that I'm not working 5-7 days a week and driving 150 miles a day to do it, I can concentrate on improving the flock, both for eggs and meat.
I free-range everything, real free-range, running around loose over the fields and woods.
So far, here's the plan:Use standard Cornish roos over several different breeds of hens, and see what works the best.
I have a dark Cornish roo now, some DC hens, Delaware hens, a few Buckeye, 1 Dorking, some light Brahmas, EE's, black Australorps, mixes of all of the above, and some buff Brahma mixes. There are also some guineas, and 1 Muscovy duck. A friend is giving me a male to keep her company, so I'm hoping for baby 'scovies this summer. When I have enough of them not to be overwhelmed with the cuteness factor, I plan to eat a few.
Before I got a DC roo, I tried Brahma roo over DC hen, because that was what I had, even though I've read it works better the other way around. That actually worked pretty well, I got some nice, big, meaty roos out of that cross. I butchered 4, at about 22-25 weeks. I lost track of the time frame, so that's a guess. 2 dressed out to over 6 lbs, the other 2 over 7 lbs. The breasts looked nice, too. Not as plump as a broiler, but not at all thin or scrawny. Very little fat, but the meat was tasty, not dry. I cooked them both in the crock pot, until the meat was starting to fall off the bones. We got 3 or 4 meals off each one.
I'm looking for some good quality Salmon Faverolles, and some more Dorkings, and I'd like some good quality rocks, I know most favor white, I'd rather have barred. Solid white birds tend to get picked off by predators, here. There's a little predation from time to time, anyway, but it's not frequent. When I free range pure white birds, they seem to get picked off a lot more often. I'm not in a huge hurry to get these other breeds, as I have more than enough birds for the time being, and I'm actually in the process of thinning the flock. I have 56 birds right now, I need to reduce that number to about 20-25 layers/brooders, plus my roo. Then I can start hatching crosses to raise for meat. I know many keep more roos for that number of hens, but my flock's fertility has been great with 1 rood per about 25 hens. My roos also have the "Highlander Syndrome". (There can be only ONE!) The remaining excess roos are now confined separately from the rest of the flock, so as not to cause problems.
My goal is to develop a bird that grows fast enough to be a reasonable table size by 14-16 weeks, that is a good forager, active, predator savvy, with hens that lay a reasonable number of eggs, and with a moderate tendency to brood. By that, I mean some of them brood, some don't. Like the Australorps I'd had, there were always a few that went broody, but they didn't all go broody, and I never had the "all broody, all the time" problem that some breeds can have. Last year, of about 25 hens, I had 9 or 10 broody all at once. That was a bit much, but it made things easier when I hatched a 'bator full of chicks, I gave them to the broodies to raise. I sometimes start a 'bator full of eggs at the same time I give broodies eggs, so I have foster moms for the chicks, and don't have to hand raise them.
But I digress. Other meat birds we've raised were the turkeys, one year we raised about 9 BBB's, another year we raised Narragansetts and Bourbon Reds. The heritage birds really did taste better, but we couldn't keep them out of the trees at night. We lost more than we put in the freezer, to night-time predators. We had kept a trio of BR's for breeding, and when the female went broody, she vanished. Eventually, she re-appeared with poults in tow, but we were unable to herd her into any kind of shelter or pen with them. She only lasted about a week with them, then both she and the poults were gone. The tom had wandered off on his own when the female went broody, we were unable to capture him. He was sighted a few times by neighbors, and my DH saw him once about 2 years later, still off on his own.
The BBB's were not quite as tasty, but they were still very good, (better than store-bought) no trouble to keep track of, since they were too heavy to fly. We let them grow out about 8 months, they were HUGE. We split them longwise, before freezing, they were so big. Some we removed the bones from the breasts and thighs and ground up for turkey burger, and roasted the remaining pieces. I'd rather have turkeys that actually end up in the freezer, than the ones that fly off and get eaten by wildlife. If I can keep a trio of BBB's lean enough to breed, I might try breeding my own, but I'm not sure I want to do that yet. I have the chicken project started, and Farmer's Market garden to do this summer, that's quite enough for now. Maybe too much! I'm no spring chicken myself.
Oh yeah, we bought 2 weaner pigs (that's w-e-a-n-e-r, meaning they're weaned piglets, not w-e-i-n-e-r like to make weiners from them. Weaner pigs can be any breed or color.) to raise, then bought 2 more from a neighbor who got his at the same time, (we bought them from a local breeder) but decided he didn't want them. So we raised 4, sold one back to the neighbor, butchered 2 ourselves, gave another guy half the meat to process the last one, as the weather was abysmal and we needed to stop feeding the pig, and let her feed us. We made many expensive mistakes, but learned a lot. Now we know more about raising pigs more economically, and we know how to butcher them, too. We also learned how to castrate them. We raised them in a good sized lot with woods and field, lots a of forage, ordinary pig grower and distiller's grain for feed. They turned out very nice, tender, juicy, good flavored. Not at all gamy. No health problems except 1 got anemic and I had to give him an iron shot.
Later in the year I should have some breeding results to share. Meanwhile, I'm butchering excess roos, but between 2 and 1/2 pigs, 3 deer, a bunch of chickens, and one undersized scrawny Royal Palm turkey, (not my breed of choice, BBB's again will be next) the freezers are pretty full, plus there's still quite a bit of produce from last year's garden. I still have lard to render and bacon to cure and smoke. It's all frozen right now, until I can get to it. Except the first batch of bacon, it turned out really good, too! I'm very pleased with the first makin' bacon experiment.
I know that was long winded Cars, but is that something like what you had in mind?
