Meat bird Bantam

[Big George]

Has anyone bred bantams to make a meat bird type chicken. I've raised cornish x rocks before but with space limitations this idea has sparked my interest. ?.

 

[ClairedeLune]

Hmmm. Sounds interesting. I would think that they wouldn't be very meaty, though.

 

[Lollipop]

Why not just butcher the full size birds earlier?......Pop

 

[mike67909]

I guess white cornish bantams make good meat birds. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/bantam_white_cornish_bantam.html

 

[slc]

Some of the commercial breeders actually use "dwarfed" females to produce broiler crosses. Sasso does this. According to Sasso the dwarf gene is carried on the female sex gene so any standard size male will produce standard size offspring. Its cheaper for the company to feed a dwarf if your keeping them around just for breeding. The F1 or the bird we buy is regular size due to the standard size males genes. If broilers from this type of line where to survive till breeding age the f2 or folowing generations may eventually pop up some dwarfs or bantams from the hens recessive genes.

 

[Big George]

Thanks, thats very interesting information.

 

[jaku]

So you want to breed a broiler to have non broiler qualities? Interesting... that's kinda like looking for a leghorn without the hassle of picking up all those darn eggs every day!

 

[CityChicker]

I really don't think Bantams are going to save you that much space. Just do less birds or process earlier (which is I believe how Cornish hens are done, maybe someone else knows). I just can't imagine doing Bantams though would be worth the trouble. If you utilize one of the multitudes of tractor variations, the space you are dealing with is rather small to begin with. If you get something that is not bred to be a meat bird, most often- you are going to regret it (IMHO).

 

[pepper48_98]

I am going to try bantams this spring to see how it works. I am going to try a bantam white rock over a bantam white cornish hen. Nothing to lose except a little time. I like the idea of a small, one or two portion bird and I don't want to butcher any cornish X at 4 weeks.

 

[Big George]

Hi Pepper48 this is exactly what I was thinking about. Maybe after having the breeding stock raising several batches thru the year. I would like to hear more about your project as it progresses. This year finds me knee deep in house renovation and I'm doing good to tend the laying flock I already have. I've found the banties so easy to work with I thought there could be more potential. Thanks