Meat birds or dual purpose??

[Brunty_Farms]

I would get both... you can always hatch out chicks from the Barred Rocks. When you do this... just process the extra males.

But for filling your freezer and selling some to neighbors... broilers are the way to go.

Good luck...

 

[Ridgerunner]

LOL -- me too, but isn't it FRUSTRATING that the only ones you get to eat are the ones that are not really so appropriate for eating? Whereas you have a big broad deep cockerel strutting around and you can just *see* how nice he would look on the table...

If I'm successful in selecting for size and faster development, I hope this is less true each successive generation. More likely it will be a constant feeling with the standards changing each generation. I do understand exactly how you feel.

If I get broilers I think we will make a chicken tractor/coop for them and allow the laying hens the real shed we are turning into a coop. It's a fairly large shed, I have no idea how many birds we can fit in there though! It will all be a learning curve, thats for sure!!!

It's hard to make a tractor that you can easily move without heavy machinery for 25 chickens. I'm not familiar with the Cornish crosses so you might be able to get more in a tractor, but with dual purpose chickens things get real difficult after about 6 to 8 birds. Hopefully someone with experience with them will chime in. I assume when you talk about meat birds, you are talking about the Cornish cross and not just selecting certain of the barred rocks to raise as meat birds. There can be a pretty good difference in how you manage Cornish crosses and barred rock as meat birds.

As far as hoping you'll like the taste, there may be a learning curve. If the chicken is ranging outside getting exercise, eating green things, various seeds, maybe berries and fruit, and all kinds of creepy crawlies, the taste and texture will be different. Age makes a big difference in texture and flavor too. Slower cooking methods probably work better for the dual purpose birds. To avoid the health problems associated with the Cornish crosses, you'll have to process them young enough that you should be able to fry or broil them. I like the way my dual purpose breeds taste and, like Pat said, I know they make great broth. I have not raised the Cornish cross and cannot speak to them, just the dual purpose. We make broth using the feet, back, neck, wings, gizzard, and heart and pick the meat off the back, wings and neck to make chicken salad or chicken tacos.

 

[Buster52]

I am raising standard Cornish for the purposes you describe. I haven't eaten any yet, since they are only about 8 weeks old, but they are very compact birds with lots of breast meat developing, especially when compared to dual purpose birds or layers. I know some folks consider these dual-purpose, but they were in fact the meat bird of choice before the advent of the Cornish X

We'll see how they dress out and taste, but one thing is for certain... they breed true and they breed naturally.

There are advantages to growing Cornish X, and there are advantages to growing heritage breeds. It all depends on what you are looking for and what you want in the long term.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It sounds like you are serious enough about each purpose individually, especially the economics of egg productin, to make it worth having two separate flocks -- some leghorns (or, if you don't get along well with their temperament and I know you couldn't pay ME enough to keep a bunch of leghorns around

, a good line or red sexlinks, perhaps ISA Browns if you can get them, which are *nearly* as economical in terms of egg output per lb of food input) and then a separate flock of either storeboughten broilers or your dual-purpose breed of choice.

Guys, I have to say, I have NEVER eaten a chicken from a farm. I have NO idea about the difference between them!!! That will be very interesting to me, tasting my first chicken that I raised from a wee chick. I hope it's delicious and that I don't feel too bad. :S

That would seem to argue for starting out with the "few of these, few of those, few of t'other ones" approach, so you can see what suits you both in terms of birds' personalities and management requirements AND in terms of their eatin' qualities. Be a shame to get 25 of something you turn out not to like all that much, or to miss out on something you'd like better just 'cuz you never happend to try it out

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Wait 'till you try them Buster! I'm sure you will like them

Steve in NC

 

[raroo]

Quote:
This is what we are doing right now.

We are raising a flock of 24 White Rocks, turned out to be 12 cockerels and 12 pullets. We will be keeping all the hens for eggs as well as one or two roosters, and processing the extra cockerels. Then we're going to hatch our own chicks and raise them for meat.

We decided to do it this way for a couple of reasons. We want to raise our own meat and eggs, but we want it to be self-sustaining. By using dual purpose birds we won't have to keep purchasing new chicks, because we'll be able to hatch out our own whenever we want.

Also, we will be able to strengthen our own flock as we go along by breeding and keeping only the best for optimum health. We will have a closed flock and will only deal with our own birds. There will be no need to keep replenishing a hybrid layer flock and a hybrid meat flock.

Finally, it's our personal preference to have dual purpose birds because we feel they are more natural and healthy than cornish X and hybrid layers. We are willing to wait twice as long for the birds to grow, and have less eggs, simply because we feel better about doing it this way. We don't have to worry about the heart attacks, keel blisters and leg problems that plague Cornish X, or the egg binding, prolapse and internal laying that affects hybrid layers more often than dual purpose layers.
Our flock of White Rocks are far more hearty and self sufficient than Cornish X are. It is just our personal preference to raise animals more naturally rather than acquiring hybrid creatures designed to have maximum output and production at the expense of their health. This is probably our strongest reason for going with dual purpose rather than hybrid birds.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Wow! What a diverse thread. There are so many approaches to poultry farming. I guess all can explain why they make the choices that they do.

Our farm is built around heritage fowl. It's a beautifu; way of farming. We do not house any industrial hybrids either for meat or for eggs. So, I choose not to speak to those.

For eggs and meat with traditional breeds, there are a couple of ways of going about it. Dual-purpose breeds are really meat birds that lay to varying degrees, some more well, some less well. If they have access to forage it reduces the grain bill, which reduces the ultimate price of egg production. If they are kept in more confined spaces the price of the eggs is raised.

Egg breeds are the best layers, both in quantity and the economics of production. They lay eggs of various sizes depending on the breed, but that is of no real importance for the home kitchen. Most flock owners will end up with more eggs than they know what to do with. Some great egg layers are Anconas, Andalusians, Hamburgs, Lakenvelders. They are fine 16 week fryers or twenty week fricassee cockerels, as well.

As for meat breeds, there are five that are praised above all others for meat quality: the Dorking, La Fleche, Houdan, Crevecoeur, and Old English Game. They are truly excellent. They are quite fine grained, fone boned, and juicy. None is as large as a Cornish X, yet Cornish X size is unnatural and thus will not be reflected in the size of natural chickens. Those five, are, however, of better meat quality.
For fast maturity, the NH is king. Followed by the Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes.

Of all of them, the La Fleche will probably lay the best.

The decision ultimately needs to be made as to one's level of commitment/involvement. If one simply wants meat and eggs without any relationship to the fowl, then commercial birds are fine, I suppose. But if one wishes to be deeply engaged in the process, see improvement year after year in one's flock, through the development of one's own strain. If one has any inclination to work toward environmental sustainability and food security, then these things have to do with the selection of a heritage dual purpose breed, or a heritage dual-purpose breed and a heritage layer. One breeds them yearly, remains commited to the same breed or two, and builds a homestead around them

Best of luck, and feel free to visit our website: www.yellowhousefarmnh.com

 

[egghunter]

This is just my way of doing it...
I like to raise dual purpose birds for meat and eggs. I usually start with about 50 chicks in late winter - early spring, and go with straight run birds (or hatch my own). At 20-24 weeks I thin out the flock, keeping about 12-15 nice looking hens and sometimes 1 roo, (for possibly breeding the following year). The rest go into the freezer.

By the time the hems start laying the weather is turning cooler, so my choice of birds has more to do with where I live and the extremely cold winters we have. Buff O's are probably my favorite, with Australorps, and Wyndottes being high on the list too. All are nicely feathered birds with round bodies that tend to hold up in the cold winter well and lay eggs even when the temp stays below zero for days on end. I also think they provide a good amount of meat for a dual purpose bird. The meat is more to the dark side, but again, that's something I prefer.

I know the specialty birds will give me more eggs or meat for the money, but I like the self sufficiency and temperament of the dual purpose birds.
It all comes down to personal preference, and what you enjoy raising.

 

[claud]

I like dual-purpose birds. I like simple things and to me raising one type of bird for many purposes is just simple. Cost more though to raise them until they're big enough.

The meat is definitely different. I'd say more like turkey - very dark meat. Makes great chicken broth! Use Emeril's chicken stock recipe and then freeze the cooked chicken for casseroles, enchiladas, etc.

I've use RIRs and Marans.

 

[Bassleg]

Steve_of_sandspoultry I like your web site you have some very nice pictures and nice looking birds!