Meat bird talk

[chicken dude]

Hey everybody I was just wondering if it is possible to get a good meat production flock as good as some of the meat hatcheries can. I read that the best meat chickens are a mixture between a white cornish rooster and a barred rock hen. If anyone has any insight can you please tell me as I am planning to start a chicken farm one day! Also any pics of your meat birds would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sure, just hire the top professionals in their fields (genetics, nutrition, disease etc.), invest millions of dollars in facilities and labs, breed millions of birds for a few decades and you can get there.

Seriously, it’s a lot more than a simple cross. Getting where they are is not realistic for us. There are people on this forum that have developed birds for meat that do OK but it’s not an overnight thing. It takes time and study and they are not like the commercial hybrids. They don’t grow as fast and the proportions of white and dark meat are probably different, but that depends on what they are breeding for.

Here is a video that might be of interest to you on what it takes to keep the grandparents of the chickens that will be broilers.

Broiler Chicken Videos

 

[farmerChef]

there is a "MEAT BIRD ETC" section that would probly better able to answer your question