Meat Birds and Egg laying...

[m1chelle1]

Hello BYC Family,

So ive never raised purely "meat birds" before. But I did cull and eat some of my DP cockerals...they tasted ok.
This might be an incredibly stupid question, but I was under the impression that people typically purchase meat birds as babies, then raise them, then slaughter. Repeat.
What if you wanted to do this, but also wanted to breed CX or another breed of pure meat bird, so you had a recurring sustainable supply? I know most people butcher their meat birds before "egg laying age" so its my understanding that they dont get to an age where theyre popping out eggs in the chicken tractor. But is it possible to breed these types of birds? I know they dont live very long on their own, since they are heavy meat birds, so im even also wondering if they can make it to egg laying age..... Really looking for someone who has done this before, or knows of a friend or family member who has, so i can get a good look at how difficult this would be.

Wasnt able to find anything about it in this forum, but i think my search function is broken right now. Would love if this discussion happened before, someone could attach a link.

Thanks All!!

M

 

[Broodygranny]

I think the Cornish cross birds have health problems as they get older, making it difficult to get fertile eggs as they mature. Many people raise dual purpose birds for meat and eggs with no problems reproducing, so most people just go with that. I have raised some dual purpose breeds, but not Cornish cross birds, so hopefully someone who has will chime in. I currently raise quail, and they are laying eggs by 6 to 8 weeks of age, so thats another one to consider. Easy to dress out too! I can have one dressed out for dinner in ten minutes!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

The industry that supplies the Cornish cross that you find in the supermarket maintain a sire line and a dam line. A cock from the sire line over hens from the dam line create Cornish crosses.

 

[123RedBeard]

How about toads?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/

 

[cottontail farm]

It's my understanding that cornish crosses are hybrid birds. Therefore if you buy a flock and manage to get them to breeding age they wouldn't breed true anyway. (even if they managed to successfully mate - I have read that the cornish cross roosters get so breast-heavy that they literally can't mate and therefore the eggs are artifically inseminated). I have raised them, butchered at 8 weeks and yes they taste just like supermarket chicken.
Red rangers are the meat "breed" that I love to grow. They take slightly longer than a cornish cross, I butcher at 10 weeks, but the taste/texture is the same at that age. We grow them out in a large pen on grass. If you let some of the hens get older they lay large brown eggs and mine have gone broody/raised chicks for me.
I have a Brahma rooster that mates the red ranger hens. The offspring are huge, gentle and beautiful.
As for the "supermarket" taste: the flavor and texture of grocery chicken comes from being butchered at such a young age and not being able to move around much. The older a chicken gets (the more it is allowed to, god forbid, run, flap it's wings and be a chicken) the more "chicken-y" the meat will taste, the meat will look darker and will be more fibrous. Frankly, I've come to appreciate the flavor of a chicken that's had a longer life.

 

[cottontail farm]

I like the taste of quail, but they only cost about five dollars each where I am, so you could just eat one to see if you like it. They can't be housed with chickens. They are much smaller, so the pen doesn't take up much room.

Quail are fantastic and very easy to breed. My husband calls them "the lobster of the poultry world" lol. Egg to freezer in 8 weeks (the males start fighting at about that time). It takes about 2 quail per person for a meal. The meat is dark meat. They are sweet little birds and simple to butcher. We raise them on grass.
You can buy day-olds around here for $1 or $2 each and once you have a little flock they are prolific layers (like 5 or 6 eggs a day from 6 hens) and easy to incubate.
I did a post awhile back about meat quail. The final cost of the initial batch (buying in the chicks) was $1.37 a bird. It would drop to 81c each if you incubated your own eggs. http://cottontailfarm.blogspot.com/2017/05/quail-harvest-butchering-results-costs.html

 

[Kabootar]

Well of the 3 CX I’ve raised... a runt, and two midsized at processing age, I’m going to process one of the midsized ones as she can no longer stand at 20 weeks... they have been on the diet and exercise plan. They are laying... but super small eggs and not with any frequency. I’m still going to try to breed them.

Well, there was a lady on the caponizing thread, she had a CX hen that lived for years and laid super large eggs.

 

[igorsMistress]

Looks interesting, I want to read the whole thread , then I will give my take. It will take a few days. But at the same time I am voracious reader, I may waste my sleep on it. Who knows

Thatslwhat I did. He has some interesting stuff there surrounding sex linking too. I have a couple of eggs from his Dorking/Red Ranger crosses due to hatch Sunday.

 

[Kabootar]

it’s not the easiest thing to do from what I’ve read, and for 20 birds at a time... I’ll just stick to ending them as they become hostile to each other.

That's true it takes some practice to master the art of caponizing. Now I can caponize a cockerel in less than two minutes, but when my father was teaching me the skill I was very nervous. I said that I may kill a few of them, he said "dont worry we will have a chicken dinner tonight" then I said that I may kill far too many, he said "we will invite the village."

We have a breeding operation on our farm so we cannot afford having culls and barnyard mutts running around. So it is a good thing that I learned.

 

[m1chelle1]

How about toads?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/toad-raising.1152440/

ooohhhkkay, i had never before heard of this breed, so at first i said to myself, toads, hmmmm. Toads. Like Ribbit ribbit, right..... this man is either 1. in a state that has made the devils lettuce legal (which AZ to my knowledge hasnt) or 2 has had 3 too many....then i clicked on the post and sweet baby jesus. Those birds look like a FANTASTIC option!!!! And thank you!! Ill have to read up some time later so i can get all the knowledge on these beauts!