Heritage crosses for meat birds

[Papaw-John]

I am sure this has been discussed in depth before. Has anybody crossed to established heritage chickens and got a fast growing large meat bird?
I am leaning towards just going with the Black Astrolops for our meat birds. Has anybody crossed two that is better. I want to get my stock and hatch my own meat birds. If there are links to good discussion here please point me to them. Thanks

 

[bbond]

White australorps are a leghorn and black australorp cross, mine grew fairly fast and had good meat, and the hens laid fairly early and very vigorously. Even through winter. Don’t know if this was helpful. I think the cross gave them a little extra size although iI did have a few generations, one sired by a RIR too and one by a Speckled Sussex. Ended up getting a lot of lavenders before they all were taken by a predator.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I am sure this has been discussed in depth before. Has anybody crossed to established heritage chickens and got a fast growing large meat bird?
I am leaning towards just going with the Black Astrolops for our meat birds. Has anybody crossed two that is better. I want to get my stock and hatch my own meat birds. If there are links to good discussion here please point me to them. Thanks

I love, love, love... French Black Copper Marans as a good dual purpose bird with good growth rate on the boys and great attitudes on most of them. Their demeanor is good, they are hardy, great foragers, that taste great. Bonus of selling chicks to help cover cost. By fast growing in these I mean ready to process at 16-20 weeks with much better size than Orpington or Faverolle or other slower growing heritage breeds. One other heritage bird I am often happy with growth rate is the White Rocks.

@duluthralphie Did you have some good crosses you were working with?

 

[Papaw-John]

Hummmmm... Cross a scrawny egg layer with a big fat beast..... Hummmmmm
Thanks bbond. Food for more thought

 

[JDN]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hatchery-meat-bird-mixed-layer.1242174/
A Barred Rock/Orpington might do it...Which makes sense, if you think about it, since part of a modern broiler includes Rock genetics...

 

[Treerooted]

I had looked a lot into this, unfortunately I don't have the various links for you.
Though I did copy this list of crosses one member had suggested:

Indian Game (Cornish) x Light Sussex
Indian Game (Cornish) x RIR
RIR x Light Sussex
Wyandotte x Sussex
Dorking x Sussex
Dorking x Indian Game (Cornish)

Right now I'm trying out a bunch of different dual purpose breeds and may settle on a few eventually.
I had a couple Brahmas that dressed out at 3lbs at 18 weeks which was nice. (I think I had one that big at 15 weeks as well, but I forgot to record it)

Also, I'm not sure but it seems to me that the Easter Egger chicks I have are far outgrowing my other chicks (currently at 2 weeks). So I'm going to keep a eye on that.

 

[RiverOtter]

Hummmmm... Cross a scrawny egg layer with a big fat beast..... Hummmmmm
Thanks bbond. Food for more thought

I can vouch for this. That "scrawny egg layer" grows and matures faster and has a larger proportion of breast meat. When crossed with a bird with a bigger frame, you do get a signifigantlynicer carcass than the so-called "dual purpose" breeds. And yeah, I say so-called because none of them are actually good for meat - grow to slow and stay too scrawny, they've been bred for eggs and pretty for too many chicken-generations.

A good way to choose, if you're determined to go with dual-purpose birds is to get a Fry-Pan special or two. Ask the hatchery for as much variety as they can give you. I did that and found that yeah, the Red Sex Link males (with a leghorn parent) were hands-down the best of the lot. Not that that was saying much, lol.

 

[Papaw-John]

Has anybody tried this cross?
Male White Jersey Giant &
Female White Leghorn
Would I get a fast growing big white chicken?

 

[kesrchicky16]

I just processed 6 - 17 week old - backyard mutts. 4 processed out to 2.25 and 2.5 lb whole skinless birds. Their mothers were brahma, rir (he was the biggest with the biggest testicles), and likely white rock. The dads were backyard mix of silver laced Wyandotte father and ? Mothers. I didnt notice much difference in breast size and the thighs seemed to be larger in proportion to the testicles. My Brahma X chick was the most docile and had a small testicles.

I guess long story short i didnt notice a big difference by breed at that age for "dual purpose" birds. My mature birds the brahma hens are as big as the fathers of these chicks.

Edit: I did a polish X too but he was only 1.5 lbs so probably not polish as an option. He felt heavier then his mama (3 years old) when he was still talking.

 

[Talithahorse]

My Dorking Rooster put some meat on my crosses. I am also pretty darn fond of the marans. I don't do a whole lot of processing and don't weigh or keep track of it but the marans were good eating as well as the Dorking crosses.