Meat chicken logistics

[Morrigan]

Pretty birds! It looks like your Speckled Sussex got used in the breeding program along with your Americana. Did you start out by crossing the two of them? The near white one in the back is really striking. My EE-Sussex crosses have always come out a bit weird looking.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No, but if I had started out with this goal in mind that would not be a bad choice. My first was a Delaware and Speckled Sussex which gave a red sex link. As my goals changed I brought in other birds. I just have fun playing with it. I'd get bored if all the chicks I hatched looked the same.

When that near white one was a pullet it was just a black mottled bird. But after it's first adult molt it cam back like that. From what I've read that is not all unusual with mottling but if you are breeding to the SOP it is not good.

 

[Molpet]

Which breeds are best to raise for meat?

reading material https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

 

[Chickenheadmate]

What breed is the white cockerel?

I suffer from a mild disorder called "all the colors" where I have tried many breeds(and cross breeds) trying to get all the egg colors I desire(ok all of them)... Right now I have decided to continue forward with some Delaware and Delaware cross, Turken(my own cross with Big Size), Ameracaunas(for the blue /green eggs), I also have some Cuckoo marans cross, some wellsummer,(both for Dark eggs), some Black Australorps, and some White leghorns..... my big concentration right now is twords the crosses from my Delaware with my Big white roo(he was a gift not sure on breed but Big, like 14 pounds) here is one of the offspring I managed to hatch in september he is 13 weeks in the pic and standing in front of a 6 month old german bielfelder, he weighed in at 5 pounds at 12 weeks. View attachment 1639466 all the reading I have done on the Delaware states that they were originally designed for making broilers. So they should be able to be bred back to that.

 

[aliciaplus3]

What breed is the white cockerel?

boy is that the question of the year at my house.... he was a gift, the lady told me he was a leghorn. At 14 pounds I believe he was either a Large White Plymouth Rock or a White Giant( I have been told by Giant folks that his leg color was wrong for a giant and by rock folks that he was too big for a rock) He passed away not too long ago.... I started a thread in the meat bird forms about Treebeards Offspring... that was him

 

[bruceh]

Just my 2 cents.
Here are some breeds to look into on self sustaing.
White Plymouth Rock. From
Mt.healthy hatchery
barred plymouth rock
Mt healthy or Reich hatchery
New Hampshire
From. Freedom ranger hatchery
Very good birds fast growing and breed true.
You can also sex link by using combinations of these birds

 

[Brick2429]

wow this thread is exactly what I was looking for! I've been spending a fair amount of time at the library and the drafting board trying to figure out the best way to do this, and these posts have clarified a lot of the info for me!
thank you so much to everyone that posted, especially @Ridgerunner for the detailed info, and @madisonjh95 for starting this conversation!
I still have a couple questions though... I only have layers right now, so I spent some time with a family down the road learning to butcher chickens. they said they were no longer going to raise Cornish x because they have roughly a 30% loss rate due to health problems, so they're thinking of switching to red rangers. my question is, are Cornish x really sustainable for a tiny outfit like me? I want to raise/maintain enough to feed the family and our house pets (they get sort of home made food, not commercially processed food) or are dual purpose better for that? also, if i'm picking the best of the bunch to keep, how do I know when to bring in "new stock"... or maybe, at what point does inbreeding become a problem?

 

[mandelyn]

Some things to ponder... this is our 3rd season for going dual purpose/sustainable. Start with large stock Breeder-bred birds, they'll be larger in almost all varieties. You may need to keep additional hens in order to get larger batches of chicks at a time. 5 hens will get you about 35 eggs (though not all may be hatching quality) in a batch if you collect over 8 days, up to 10 days or more is possible for storage, the standard rule is 7 days for collection. When making breeding picks, expect to select from 30% of the hatch, not all will be breeding quality for their variety. Half of the hatch will be boys, on average. I just sorted 22 boys out of 31... At least we'll eat good?

Grow out space for each age group... every batch that's farther away than 3 weeks in age will need their own space until they're competitive in size to the prior batch. If you do small batches often, you'll find yourself with many ages that may need separate housing, to avoid the older ones picking on the newer ones.

Heritage birds won't be ready for processing until at least 20 weeks, some varieties don't have fast growth and need 8 months to get anywhere close to their advertised mature weight. Feed has some influence on this as well but they can only grow as big/fast as they're genetically programed to do.

If we eat chicken regularly we can go through 3 a week for just us 2 but 75/yr is plenty. That means 150+ need to be hatched a year. (we only invite the boys to dinner) Spring/Summer/Fall offers the best forage, to take advantage of that you wouldn't want to hatch any later than June. For us, the sale of extra pullets pays for the feed for the boys, in case there is a batch that needs fed over winter from a late summer or fall hatch. We started using pasture tractors last year and that's been awesome.

I watch the growth on the boys to see who sprouted first, who filled out first versus who shot up in height like a beanpole. Then I watch their initial hormone bloom... overly aggressive birds come to dinner first. Largest that aren't potential breeders go after that. At 20 weeks I put legbands on my breeder picks so that husband doesn't do the wrong ones.

Here is an example of different body types... the first is a Blue Birchen Marans at 6 months old...

Next is his half brother split to Silverrud for an Olive egger, same age at 6 months old. He's lighter built, not as wide/deep in structure...

This next guy is bigger than the Marans, from a line of Hybrids I've had since our first year here. His sons in the bachelor pen now at 8 weeks old stand out in size!

With the dual purpose varieties, you're looking for a depth and width to the body, broad across the back, coincidentally what the SOP calls for that fills out a baking pan better than an efficient layer breed would. When making selections, you have to put your hands on them and feel, the feathers can hide a lot.

For the girl's, in my hybrid pen I'm looking for the big Bertha types. Here in a couple of years my feed bill is going to reflect how big they were bred! I have a new cockerel in mind for next year, based on how he matures.

In this picture, the white bird standing behind him is a Bresse. Look at the width between his legs! For dual purpose, the Bresse have been great! The girls have been laying machines and I forgive them for their boring white feathers.

It helps to have more breeder girls than you need, so that you can be picky/selective on which eggs get set. If you breed too much towards meat traits, you'll lose laying ability. If you breed towards laying ability/frequency, you'll lose table traits. Finding and maintaining that balance is where you get dual purpose.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Some things to ponder... this is our 3rd season for going dual purpose/sustainable. Start with large stock Breeder-bred birds, they'll be larger in almost all varieties. You may need to keep additional hens in order to get larger batches of chicks at a time. 5 hens will get you about 35 eggs (though not all may be hatching quality) in a batch if you collect over 8 days, up to 10 days or more is possible for storage, the standard rule is 7 days for collection. When making breeding picks, expect to select from 30% of the hatch, not all will be breeding quality for their variety. Half of the hatch will be boys, on average. I just sorted 22 boys out of 31... At least we'll eat good?

Grow out space for each age group... every batch that's farther away than 3 weeks in age will need their own space until they're competitive in size to the prior batch. If you do small batches often, you'll find yourself with many ages that may need separate housing, to avoid the older ones picking on the newer ones.

Heritage birds won't be ready for processing until at least 20 weeks, some varieties don't have fast growth and need 8 months to get anywhere close to their advertised mature weight. Feed has some influence on this as well but they can only grow as big/fast as they're genetically programed to do.

If we eat chicken regularly we can go through 3 a week for just us 2 but 75/yr is plenty. That means 150+ need to be hatched a year. (we only invite the boys to dinner) Spring/Summer/Fall offers the best forage, to take advantage of that you wouldn't want to hatch any later than June. For us, the sale of extra pullets pays for the feed for the boys, in case there is a batch that needs fed over winter from a late summer or fall hatch. We started using pasture tractors last year and that's been awesome.

I watch the growth on the boys to see who sprouted first, who filled out first versus who shot up in height like a beanpole. Then I watch their initial hormone bloom... overly aggressive birds come to dinner first. Largest that aren't potential breeders go after that. At 20 weeks I put legbands on my breeder picks so that husband doesn't do the wrong ones.

Here is an example of different body types... the first is a Blue Birchen Marans at 6 months old...

View attachment 1667771

Next is his half brother split to Silverrud for an Olive egger, same age at 6 months old. He's lighter built, not as wide/deep in structure...

View attachment 1667772

This next guy is bigger than the Marans, from a line of Hybrids I've had since our first year here. His sons in the bachelor pen now at 8 weeks old stand out in size!

View attachment 1667776

With the dual purpose varieties, you're looking for a depth and width to the body, broad across the back, coincidentally what the SOP calls for that fills out a baking pan better than an efficient layer breed would. When making selections, you have to put your hands on them and feel, the feathers can hide a lot.

For the girl's, in my hybrid pen I'm looking for the big Bertha types. Here in a couple of years my feed bill is going to reflect how big they were bred! I have a new cockerel in mind for next year, based on how he matures.

View attachment 1667780

In this picture, the white bird standing behind him is a Bresse. Look at the width between his legs! For dual purpose, the Bresse have been great! The girls have been laying machines and I forgive them for their boring white feathers.
View attachment 1667797

It helps to have more breeder girls than you need, so that you can be picky/selective on which eggs get set. If you breed too much towards meat traits, you'll lose laying ability. If you breed towards laying ability/frequency, you'll lose table traits. Finding and maintaining that balance is where you get dual purpose.
View attachment 1667803

Very well put....