New Hampshire for meat

[Chickenheadmate]

Could anyone suggest any lines slash strains of New Hampshire breeds that would produce or have been bred to produce a lot of meat?

 

[Maeschak]

Looking forward to hearing any answers as well!

 

[speedy2020]

The White American Bresse is available. It is dual purpose breed and best flavor meat bird around. Why bother raise anything else?

 

[Chickenheadmate]

The White American Bresse is available. It is dual purpose breed and best flavor meat bird around. Why bother raise anything else?

I really like how the New Hampshires look.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Jeremy of XW Poultry Ranch breeds to the standard. I don't know of anyone that breeds them with meat in mind. People have but I don't know any that sell birds/eggs. The difference would be rate of early fleshing. New Hampshire is inherent to be faster to mature, a person breeding for meat would focus on that to enhance. A breeder to standard selects year old or older birds without record of weights at 12 weeks.

You wouldn't go wrong with Jeremy's birds. Your pursuit of meat would be to focus on the largest birds at early age, tag them as breeders. The largest at year old is not always the largest at young butchering age. Fastest maturing birds can be selected as early as 6 weeks. I take notes at 10 to 14 weeks of age, tag the largest few, eat the rest and select breeder following spring of what is left.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

Thank you, from all of us!

Jeremy of XW Poultry Ranch breeds to the standard. I don't know of anyone that breeds them with meat in mind. People have but I don't know any that sell birds/eggs. The difference would be rate of early fleshing. New Hampshire is inherent to be faster to mature, a person breeding for meat would focus on that to enhance. A breeder to standard selects year old or older birds without record of weights at 12 weeks.

You wouldn't go wrong with Jeremy's birds. Your pursuit of meat would be to focus on the largest birds at early age, tag them as breeders. The largest at year old is not always the largest at young butchering age. Fastest maturing birds can be selected as early as 6 weeks. I take notes at 10 to 14 weeks of age, tag the largest few, eat the rest and select breeder following spring of what is left.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

In case I misspoke about XW Ranch having New Hampshire I remembered a source for German New Hampshire in Florida. Eight Acres Farm, have a website also, breeds the German Line. The German are definitely better colored and hard to find. It seems as soon as they were imported few years ago they were bred into the old American lines to the extent it's hard to find pure German. They were the rage when new to the states and pricey. Eight Acres look to be fine birds.

https://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/new-hampshires.html

 

[bngowe]

The White American Bresse is available. It is dual purpose breed and best flavor meat bird around. Why bother raise anything else?

I’m starting to think that too. Been trying to raise a few dual purpose breeds ( granted that these are all hatchery stock) and noticed that many seem to lack breast meat and aren’t very bulky. I raised some RIR for meat, and they grew wonderfully fast, but around 16/17 weeks they slowed down a lot and the body shape was pretty lean. I read that New Hampshire reds came from RIR but were developed to be meatier. My New Hampshire reds are around 17 weeks and the body is lean and scrawnier than the RIR. My barred rocks and buff Orpingtons looked much more bulky in comparison. Guess so many dual purpose breeds have shifted toward focusing on egg production that their meat production has suffered greatly. I raised a small flock of Bresse a few years ago and was very satisfied with the meat quality.

 

[bngowe]

In case I misspoke about XW Ranch having New Hampshire I remembered a source for German New Hampshire in Florida. Eight Acres Farm, have a website also, breeds the German Line. The German are definitely better colored and hard to find. It seems as soon as they were imported few years ago they were bred into the old American lines to the extent it's hard to find pure German. They were the rage when new to the states and pricey. Eight Acres look to be fine birds.

https://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/new-hampshires.html

Wow that German line looks wonderful, and bulky! I may have to look into getting some for myself. Here’s a picture of my New Hampshire reds at 17 weeks. So scrawny and thin compared to that German line.

 

[Mosey2003]

@bngowe - where did you get yours? Hatchery birds aren't going to perform the same as standard bred birds from good breeders. Nothing is going to give you the same breast meat as a Cornish Cross Broiler, but some of the Dual Purpose are very serviceable if they're bred right.

If I were looking to get into NH I would try to find good breeders that were focusing on meat. Like was mentioned above, XW Poultry and Eight Acres are good places to start. Would probably be good to get as many chicks or eggs as you can from each, tag the fastest gainers, and focus on them going forward.