Homemade Meat Birds

[lisathenorth]

My husband and I are trying to come up with our very own strain of meat bird. Does anyone have any suggestion as to the foundation breeds we should use. We have one meat bird hen that I have gotten quite a few chicks from. The chicks are huge and slow like their mother, but some of the chicks have some black feathering. The father is a RIR. The mother is purewhite. Any ideas out there?

 

[ninjascrub69]

Quote:
Hmmm, Cornish? Orpington? Jersey Giant

? If you use these they might take longer to mature, but it's hard to tell since they would have some RIR in them because that could make them mature a lil faster

 

[ninjascrub69]

c'mon, theres gotta be more people with suggestions.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

The SEARCH function is your best friend.

This topic has been hashed, rehased, hashed, and rehashed again, and again, and again.

There are several here that are working hard on crosses to produce meaty chickens without depending on commercial hatcheries.

Jim

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

here's a thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=316007

and another:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=301996

and another:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=396516

and another:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=389901

good luck!

 

[SteveH]

Wondering why you haven't used one of your Coronation Sussex over the CX hen ; I'm thinking for a big , meaty , calm , white bird that cross would be great one . Personally , I wouldn't mind one bit if the colombian and coronation birds started showing up later generations of my meaties

.

 

[EricH]

are you asking what breed to use? or why does your meatie chicks have black on them? if the first - there are a zillion posts asking the same thing. if the second - there must be something black bred into one of your parent birds. i'd say probably the meatie has some kind of black gene - who knows what combo was used to make franken-chicken.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
c'mon, this is discussed all the time. Just do a little search.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

steve has a really good point there!
I didn't realize how new you were so first, WELCOME!!!!
Secondly, do read through the threads I linked to you, we go off topic quite a bit in them and do a lot of discussing what we are using, after asking ourselves the same question as yours.
Third, to answer your question frist le me ask how many chicks do you have out of your meat bird and are they male or female? Do you want white meat birds or colored, fast growing white meat or slower growing dark? What skin color do you want? etc . . .

 

[lisathenorth]

Well, just to let you know that I am not exactly new to BYC. I like to listen, and to read what others are saying. I have bought some amazing birds from this suite. For some strange reason, I have missed alot of the posts written about crossing different kinds of chickens together to get meat birds. I just ordered some white laced cornish hen eggs. I want to use these birds as well in my meat bird project. I was going to use Delaware, and White-Rocks to breed with these new little meat birds I have been producing. I found that using a pure breed meat bird to breed with is not a good way to go. My big chubby bird that is producing all these chicks has leg problems, and she is picked on by the other birds. She had a rough time in the summer heat. However, I do have people asking me for meat bird chicks every year. So, I thought I would give it a try. Also, I get alot of rquest for processed birds. There is a strong trend to know where your meat is coming from these days. I like the idea that someone wrote about experimenting with the Coronation Sussex. I was disappointed to learn that there is alot of inbreeding going on with Coronation Sussex. I was kind of looking for an alternative use for my over priced Coronations

Lisa