Meat birds from eggs

[jhill1440]

This may be off topic but.... Does anyone know of or have info on getting fertile eggs for Cornish x rocks or the, much famed as of late, "Colored slow broiler" aka JM hatchery Red Bro or Freedom Ranger line? Does anyone sell hatching eggs? I was wondering if it would be cheaper to hatch my own instead of buying day old chicks? I don't think I can just call Hubbard and say I would like 50 fertile eggs, they would probably reply "you said 5000 right".

I don't want to get the chickens to make the cross, I want the fertile eggs from the cross.

Anyone done this before? Pitfalls, besides the usual of hatching eggs?

peace
josh

 

[greyfields]

You can get them for Cornish X's, but it ends up costing you about 2X as much per bird to go that route. Getting day olds is really the way to go, unless you are a mad scientist and love to do things yourself.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
do you want fertile eggs to get the cross or fertile eggs from the cross?? i know you say fertile eggs from the cross but i just wanted to make sure.

couple of us down here in houston have kept the red/bronze FR's and am planning on trying to hatch eggs from them, so just asking....

 

[jhill1440]

I would want the eggs from the parent cross. So that the bird that hatches is the meat bird. I am sure you know that the eggs you get from the FR that you keep back are not going to produce the exact bird. They will be close and it will be interesting to see how they grow and fill out. Keep us posted on that.

peace
josh

 

[blue90292]

yes, we're just wondering how the cross X would turn out....i think greyfields already experimented some.

i guess it would be different if you're looking for FR's, but if you're looking for cornish X eggs, it would be cheaper to go the chick route. with birds (including shipping) coming out to $1 a chick at some of the hatcheries, vs getting a dozen eggs, even if they were $2 a doz, it'll be $10 for shipping, that's a $1 an egg and with 50% hatch rate on shipped eggs, that comes out to $2 a chick not counting the time and electricity you put in to hatch the eggs.

but

if you only want like 6 chicks instead of 25 at a time, i guess the egg route would be much cheaper....

sorry, just rambling.

 

[fowlwoman1]

I had been thinking about selling my red broiler eggs... I'm definitely going to be hatching and selling the chicks.

 

[HillCountryMomma]

Just to clarify, even birds from the 'parent' strains are not going to produce hatchery equivelent broilers. Unless you find someone lucky enough to have broiler breeder stock.

From the research I'm doing, you can't just cross any old white (or barred) rock and cornish and get a broiler that's going to keep up with those that have been commercially bred for fast growth (ie- day old chicks from a hatchery).

So, whether you're crossing Freedom Rangers (or the other colored meat birds), other types of broilers, or the parent breeds odds are you're going to fall short of commercial produciton standards.

That doesn't bother me personally so much. I'm holding back some of my FR hens for a little experimental breeding. If they grow a little slower, oh well. I'm gonna buy some broilers from a hatchyer too though.

If you have to buy the eggs and incubate, I don't think it's worth the hassle. I'm only going to try it because I won't have to buy the eggs and hopefully I can convince a hen (or two) to do the incubating and brooding for me (from my laying flock).

Liz

 

[featherwood]

I don't get it. Everyone says you cannot breed your meat birds. How on earth do the hatcheries do it without them dying? I was going to hold some back for chicks and was told they would die on me, and if they lived long enough to get eggs, they would have a blow out trying to lay the eggs.
This just does not make sense. I often wonder if this is something we are told so that we don't produce our own. Something does not add up.

I even asked about crossing the Cornish and white Rocks and was told you had to breed for 5 generations to get that bird, and once again they would never live to breed. And a person would never get 2 generations into before all the birds were dying.
Well...SOMETHING has to live to breed, or they would not have an endless supply of these birds to sell us as Broilers...all year round.

I am not saying it is a farce, I'm saying I just don't get it!! If someone knows, can you tell me why, and how? Not that I want to put the effort forth to do all these generations...but because I just don't get it...this secret magical cross that can't be bred, yet is by hatcheries.

Please help me (and I am sure others too) understand this mystical thing.

 

[greyfields]

The breeding flocks of hens and roosters are kept in service around 66 weeks, after which they are culled. Replacement breeders are hatched and timed to be in full production as the older flock is trailing off.

The parent strains grow nothing like the hybrids they create do, so mortality isn't the issue for them.

 

[featherwood]

So why can't people use those parent strains? Or is the "guarded secret" of the hatcheries...not as simply the Cornish and white Rock crossing?

What about these Red Bro at JM? Can they be bred for meat if you hold some back?