I want to hatch my own meat bird. What rooster and hen to use?

[jesirose]

I'm going to try several crosses, mostly with dual-purpose breeds which are known to be good brooders - I want everything to run itself as much as possible Right now I'm looking at using Buff Orpington hens for my first attempt.

 

[kfacres]

If using any kind of 'hatchery' bird, you'll not experience anything better than a hatchery bird. It won't matter what you cross, you'll never get anything better than a pile of feathers and bones...

 

[jesirose]

Meaning?

 

[Elke Beck]

If using any kind of 'hatchery' bird, you'll not experience anything better than a hatchery bird. It won't matter what you cross, you'll never get anything better than a pile of feathers and bones...

I don't agree. I think it depends on the breed and the hatchery. Also, every chicken we have today is the result of selective breeding, so I believe that hatchery birds can be bred to produce a decent meat bird. It may not happen on the first cross, but patient is a virtue when doing selective breeding.

 

[kfacres]

I don't agree. I think it depends on the breed and the hatchery. Also, every chicken we have today is the result of selective breeding, so I believe that hatchery birds can be bred to produce a decent meat bird. It may not happen on the first cross, but patient is a virtue when doing selective breeding.

Decent meat bird compared to what, other hatchery birds? hatchery leghorns?

I don't care how many generations you breed and genetically select mice to be bigger- you'll never get an elephant to result.

With quality foundations, sound breeding objectives, and practical expectations-- one could make carcasses that rival the modern day CX machines-- in virtually no time.

 

[Our Roost]

Most birds listed by hatcheries in brochures will distinguish birds as to wether or not they are "dual purpose". Meaning primarily that they have been bred for both meat and or egg layers. They tend to be a bit more hardy in most aspects. Generally they carry a bit more weight and have more weight on their bones. You surely don't want to cook up a skinny hen! The choice is truthfully yours! Cross breeding will not change the genetics of 2 breeds to arrive at what you call a meat bird per say. The controlling gene is inbred and generally can't be reproduced. Color change and loss of egg laying ability is about all you will arrive at in most cases. It is best for you to select one breed to your liking in taste and reproduce that. I hope I'm partially right on that.
The plymouth rock, buff orpington, golden laced wyandotte and jersey giant are all good tablefare. Hope this helps you.

 

[jesirose]

I'm sorry I'm still a little confused. What is a "hatchery" bird? What makes a buff orp I can buy from a local breeder less suitable for breeding my own meat birds than a cornish x?

If cross breeding two dual purpose breeds can't eventually give a bird more meat on it's bones, how did we ever end up with crosses that grow so much meat they can't walk and die at 8 weeks of a heart attack?

 

[bigredfeather]

Most birds listed by hatcheries in brochures will distinguish birds as to wether or not they are "dual purpose". Meaning primarily that they have been bred for both meat and or egg layers. They tend to be a bit more hardy in most aspects. Generally they carry a bit more weight and have more weight on their bones.

It's been my experience that hatchery brochures will list almost everything as DP except a leghorn (and I have seen them included on one brochure). I'm not using this to insult the OP, but the point is that hatcheries use the standard breed description of most breeds in describing their birds, even though they have bred some of the meatiness out of them for production purposes. I'm guessing it's a marketing ploy to try to sell the cockerels. I'm not saying that all hatchery birds don't make good DP birds, just saying they describe them as such regardless of their potential.

 

[jesirose]

I was reading this chart
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

To determine the breeds I was interested in. Anyone have any major disagreements about their list of dual-purpose?

 

[kfacres]

hatcheries make money based off number of chicks sold.

it's hard to hatch chicks, when you cannot get eggs laid.

Most 'true' birds of close to the SOP, are average to poor eggs layers-- yet many of the 'hatchery' sourced DP type birds, lay an egg a day, or 6 a week.

If you think that the 'hatchery' style chicken is what it is supposed to be, go buy a copy of the SOP- you'll often find qualities in those birds that is not accepted-- most noteably weight. and as we all know, weight- is pounds, pounds is muscle.

Personal experience:

My parent's buy a bunch of "DP" brown egg layers at Farm King each spring, breeds are common- barred rock, orpington, RIR, white rock, N. Hampshires Reds, EE, etc. We put the axe to 10-15 of these "DP" cockerels in December (they were April hatched). On the same day, we put the axe to a group of my 'breeder' type Cornish- and it was no comparision-- which one would expect.

Now, the real story comes to my half cornish cockerels that were also butchered that day (June- Aug hatched). Their mothers were either Show quality Ameraucanas, or hatchery silkies. Now, any common sense person knows that a true Ameraucana female isn't much bigger than Leghorn, somewhat meatier-- but the only thing that even rivels a hatchery quality silkie for a lack of carcass-- might be a production white leghorn-- and even then, I think I'll put my money to the leghorn for poundage.

Long story short, my half cornish, half silkie EMBARRASSED the Farm King DP type carcasses. Granted they are half Cornish-- but in any regard, they are also half Silkie- and on average were 2-3 months younger!