In your opinion…best sustainable meat breed

[Ms Biddy]

You are completely right on both statements. Any breeding project will test your patience. Especially if having to overcome inferior genetics. I have too many other irons in the fire to give it any serious attention. I am curious of what kind of table fowl. A Cornish x American Bresse cross would produce.

Bresse on it's own is a wonderful table bird and a good layer. Cornish x would make it bigger but less sustainable. I too question what people are referring to as sustainable here. In my flock it means the birds breed naturally and raise their own young year over year. On the bird's part that requires fertility, laying ability, health/vigor, longevity, broodiness and mothering ability. On the human part a lot of management and planning is involved. Inputs for a meat flock are a balance. If you want them to grow fast, they need more than they can forage. If you want them to feed themselves, they need time to grow. Our birds take time to grow but we've had a closed flock for 5 years now and there's always chicken in the freezer.

 

[Silexian]

Granted you would have to keep a couple different breeds and multiple flocks to create a hybrid cross. It would still be sustainable. If the hybrids grow a better carcass faster and on less feed than the parent stock. It would create market opportunities. You can provide yourself with the hybrids. Plus offer the hybrid chicks/hatching eggs to others. That do not have the space or time to breed their own. Also to those that do not want to be reliant on commercial hatcheries. While also offering purebred adult, chicks/hatching eggs from the parent stock. For those that want to raise their own hybrids. The parent stock can be kept in a clan mating rotation. Maintaining closed flocks.

 

[gooseapplefarms]

Muscovy ducks are my answer. They have a great quality meat, very beef like. The eat more than chickens, but they are more calorie dense. They raise their own young. They're big enough to not be bothered by hawks (at least in my area). They're practically silent. They'll lay more eggs than you want to eat.

The only downside is they're ducks, and you have to be equipped to deal with their mess (ie, you need lots of space for them).

 

[Ms Biddy]

Muscovy ducks are my answer. They have a great quality meat, very beef like. The eat more than chickens, but they are more calorie dense. They raise their own young. They're big enough to not be bothered by hawks (at least in my area). They're practically silent. They'll lay more eggs than you want to eat.

The only downside is they're ducks, and you have to be equipped to deal with their mess (ie, you need lots of space for them).

I really want muscovies but don't feel up to the mess and another animal responsibility. The closest I've gotten to my dream is a neighbor who accepted some processed chickens in trade for some live ducks, which I processed the next day. I'd do that trade over and over if I could.

 

[JeffPr]

I am curious of what kind of table fowl. A Cornish x American Bresse cross would produce.

We all think you will get the best of both, but usually end up with the worst quality of both,IME...

 

[Silexian]

We all think you will get the best of both, but usually end up with the worst quality of both,IME...

You don’t know if you don’t try. I have had some trash crosses that did not produce as well as the parent stock. I have also had some that produced better than my expectations.

 

[JeffPr]

I get that.... Just stating that my experience whether it was with horses, labs, or walker coon dogs, we got more bad traits than the good...

Breeding is a lot more than using what we think are two good parents. It’s much more complicated than that to be “predictably” successful rather than breed and pray.

YMMV

 

[GCrumb]

@U_Stormcrow
I have never eaten rabbit from a store.

When we raised them, we fed them on pellets and supplemented like you do. Grass hay and alfalfa hay, fresh grasses and forbs from pasture and their own little rabbit-greens patch, kitchen vegetable scraps.

They were in all-wire commercial-type rabbitry cages, not a lot of space and nothing much to do.

I did meet a couple of different people who had tried a large-pen method. They had barns with concrete floors, or rubber-mat floors, and box-stalls with tall walls. They'd put hardware cloth at gaps and a layer of straw bales, still in the bale, one deep on the floor and two or three deep making a slope up the back wall. Drop in a trio and let er rip, they'll make their own little warren-y thing burrowing in the straw and if you keep them tame with treats and not overfeeding you can grab them when you want, mostly. I don't know how often these guys had to tear the whole thing apart and set up new straw, and you can't see how things go with newborns, but it looked like fun.

 

[nicalandia]

Heritage Dark Cornish.

 

[DonaldR]

Just buy 100 cornish cross birds and raise them to adulthood. Then put the healthiest hens in with the biggest sweetest Plymouth Rock or similar meaty but gentle rooster/s you can find and hatch their eggs. At that point start selecting for the traits that you want. The bad stuff in the CC's DNA wants to go away and with a little selection pressure from you it goes away fast. You will have to cull a lot of birds but they're good eating in that first go round anyway. This is just an idea extrapolated from my procrastination in butchering some cornish cross birds. I'm not certain of the specific strain they were but know they came form Jenk's hatchery. Those that remained healthy and weren't culled on schedule have contributed some really good characteristics to my flock. Ultimately the CC is just a highly selected bird of convoluted lineage. Like any domesticated animal or plant it wants to revert to its wild form. Only our selection for the prettiest blooms, or white feathers, or bad legs and unsupportable muscle growth keeps them from becoming ideally suited to their environment. I say experiment and have fun with it but don't fall into this recreating the CC trap. It would end the same way. What's that about insanity and repeating stuff or something? Above all, please be kind to our fine feathered friends. Good luck!

P.S. To answer the original poster's question. I would focus on the body confirmation and lifestyle of the source of my parent stock above breed. I got some dark cornish hatchery birds that are pathetic but have eaten easter eggers that were surprisingly meaty. There you go. Easter eggers are great all around birds. They forage well and are fairly intelligent and wiley while still being friendly. They aren't really a breed though are the? Oh well that's how I'm voting.