New Hampshire for meat

[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.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

@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.

Thanks for the info!

 

[edgarmongold]

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

Try Good Shepherd Ranch Frank Reese Jr
Bred for dual purpose.
Totally different than hatchery stock that most are bred for egg laying.
Broilers at 16 to 20 weeks.
Females average 200 eggs annually.
Pictures of dressed carcass and cockerel alive