- Mar 5, 2009
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I have been working on my own dual purpose chicken with more emphasise on the meat aspect of it. Right now I am pretty happy with the results. The chicks they are producing are pretty consistent in body type and weight gain and the hens are each laying about 4-5 large eggs a week. Absolutely no fatalities or health problems of any sort.
I just butchered 16 of them this weekend. These were all hatched by my constantly broody orpington (she's 8 yrs old and still broody). They were 1 day shy of 18 weeks when I butchered. The hens weighed between 5.6 & 6.4 pounds, and the roos 6.8 & 7.8 pounds dressed weight. I was VERY pleased with this. I have been feeding them flock raiser. I did not keep track of how much feed they consumed exactly, but I have them separated from my laying flock and I was purchasing the same amount of feed for them as my 21 layers. I think that's pretty good. They did not get any time to free range since my yard looks like a giant glacier.
Ok, now for my questions.
Do you guys think these are good results?
I am now at the point where I don't know where to go with this. I need to add some new blood to this flock, but I'm not sure what. I love the fact that some of them are laying green eggs and would like to keep this trait if possible. The breast meat was pretty good, but I would like to increase it slightly. I thought about trying out a chantecler roo over my hens, but I'm not sure if that will get me anywhere. What do you guys think?
I just butchered 16 of them this weekend. These were all hatched by my constantly broody orpington (she's 8 yrs old and still broody). They were 1 day shy of 18 weeks when I butchered. The hens weighed between 5.6 & 6.4 pounds, and the roos 6.8 & 7.8 pounds dressed weight. I was VERY pleased with this. I have been feeding them flock raiser. I did not keep track of how much feed they consumed exactly, but I have them separated from my laying flock and I was purchasing the same amount of feed for them as my 21 layers. I think that's pretty good. They did not get any time to free range since my yard looks like a giant glacier.
Ok, now for my questions.
Do you guys think these are good results?
I am now at the point where I don't know where to go with this. I need to add some new blood to this flock, but I'm not sure what. I love the fact that some of them are laying green eggs and would like to keep this trait if possible. The breast meat was pretty good, but I would like to increase it slightly. I thought about trying out a chantecler roo over my hens, but I'm not sure if that will get me anywhere. What do you guys think?
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