Indian River Broilers (and reverse cross)

[Redhead Rae]

Earlier this year, I bought both Delaware and New Hampshire chicks so I can do the Indian River Broiler cross (Delaware roo X New Hampshire hens) for meat birds since that crossing reputedly produces birds larger than the Delaware parent. We want to be able to hatch our own broilers and this seemed to be the easiest solution. However, I am considering getting into the egg selling business (we feed organic feed and keep the chickens out of grass). So I am considering doing a cross in the other direction (New Hampshire roo X Delaware hens) to produce red sex links so I can sex at hatch and raise the cockerels as broilers in a tractor and the hens as layers with the flock. I was wondering how this pairing would effect the growth rate of the "broiler" birds compared to the normal cross.

I guess if all else fails I can raise two batches and compare feed input to finished weights.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where did you hear about that cross always automatically producing larger birds than the Delaware? What kind of rational did they use?

Some flocks of Delaware have average weights larger than other flocks of Delaware. Same thing is true for New Hampshire. The person selecting which chickens get to breed controls that. If they actively select for size they can soon have a flock that has larger birds. Or they can have a flock of smaller birds. The strain of Delaware or New Hampshire will have a lot to say about that.

In theory if you take a Delaware rooster from that Delaware flock and cross him with a New Hampshire hen, and you take a NH rooster and cross with a Delaware hen from the same flocks you should get similar growth and production traits. There can be a lot of difference in the largest and smallest rooster in any flock too, so which ones you choose to breed can have a huge influence. The hens will also have an effect since they also contribute genetics.

No matter which way you make that cross you get the same hybrid vigor and you get the same basic genetics until you take into account which specific individuals you choose. I strongly encourage you to raise those two batches for comparison purposes. You could easily get a difference due to which individuals you choose but there is no way to know which direction will produce larger birds.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Actually I went back and looked at the explanation for using hybrids for broilers rather than the parent breeds and I got it wrong. The hybrid vigor causes the hybrid chicks to grow and feather out a bit faster than the parent breeds which make them more suitable for slaughtering at a younger age.

The breeder I got the Delaware chicks from purposefully selects for early maturation, large size, and egg size. I couldn't find a breeder for New Hampshire chickens so I ordered Cackle's "free range" New Hampshires which come from parents kept in tractors and fed organic feed. The difference was VERY obvious. I did an initial culling and the difference in weights at 12 weeks was amazing on the New Hampshires. The largest cockerel was just over 4lbs, the smallest was just under 3lbs. The Delawares are a larger bird, so the largest was just shy of 5lbs, and the smallest was 4.25lbs. So the breeding selection seems to be CRUCIAL to breeding large birds. I am down to 3 New Hampshire and 4 Delaware cockerels. One of the Delaware cockerels is already off the breeder list because I marked him as a pullet at 12 weeks and he fooled me until 15 weeks (late maturation not desirable) He is still smaller and less developed than his fellow roosters. I'm going to soon weigh and select down to my two largest for each breed. I was leaving myself some wiggle room in case one was bad tempered, but at almost 20 weeks both breeds are MUCH better in temperament then my Buff roosters ever were. Since the pullets are almost to laying, I need to weigh and select them for who I will be using for breeding. All of the Delaware pullets seem to be more consistent in size (they are larger than all my Buff hens) than the New Hampshire pullets. The largest New Hampshire is almost as large as my Buff hens and the smallest is still smaller than my leghorn hens. So I definitely need to size select on my New Hampshires. I'm hoping to find a really excellent rooster at some point to breed into that line, but that will have to wait a little while. For now I'll work with what I have, which are some very hardy New Hampshires that are excellent foragers and fairly docile birds.