- Oct 15, 2012
- 156
- 4
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Sorry for all the question spam today.
We have our short list of meat breeds down to dorkings, buckeyes, and jersey giants. Our only problem with the JGs is that they grow so slowly and apparently don't often go broody. We want broody meat birds to hatch our own chicks every year.
I'd thought about collecting the JG eggs and just putting them under one of our broody RIRs, which is probably what I'll do, but I started snooping around a bit and heard about people crossing their JGs with Leghorns or other breeds for a little better growth rate or broodiness. Has anybody here tried cross breeding their JGs? What about crossing them with Dorkings? It's something I might think of since we're probably going to order both of them and try them both. What do you think? Should we go do this with JG hens? Has anybody had success maintaining JG crosses for a sustainable meat flock?
We have our short list of meat breeds down to dorkings, buckeyes, and jersey giants. Our only problem with the JGs is that they grow so slowly and apparently don't often go broody. We want broody meat birds to hatch our own chicks every year.
I'd thought about collecting the JG eggs and just putting them under one of our broody RIRs, which is probably what I'll do, but I started snooping around a bit and heard about people crossing their JGs with Leghorns or other breeds for a little better growth rate or broodiness. Has anybody here tried cross breeding their JGs? What about crossing them with Dorkings? It's something I might think of since we're probably going to order both of them and try them both. What do you think? Should we go do this with JG hens? Has anybody had success maintaining JG crosses for a sustainable meat flock?