Orpingtons as Meat Birds

[LilyD]

We are up to about 10 lbs of our first big bag gone, plus we finished our original 5lbs so total of 15 lbs eaten since the 13th of February. We keep adding birds to the bunch so it will make it hard to figure out what each bird is eating but in general the guys in the larger brooder outside are eating less than the group inside. They have 3 times the space though and are moving around all day. Waiting until after this weekend to get everyone outside since we are dipping back into single digits again tonight.

 

[LilyD]

Up to 31 babies hatched out so far. My fertility is now to 100% which has me over the moon happy. Loving the older grow outs. I have a few that I really like out of the oldest bunch. They are 7 weeks now and are fully feathered and have been for a week or so. But have a broad back that is nice and long and a wide chest. I really need to get a chance to weight them again. I haven't gotten a chance since my last weigh in on the 5th of March but with the Coronovirus I'm doing a lot of the running for quite a few family members since I'm one of the only ones not in a high risk of getting sick. Hoping that things start stabilizing a little bit so I can get back to my normal spring tasks. I added a video of the older grow outs. Still too early to really make any decisions but I have a few that I really like and I am keeping an eye on for the future.

 

[Morrigan]

Looking good. Thanks for the update.

 

[gatrapper]

Great post! I have enjoyed the updates. Keep them coming.

 

[LilyD]

Great post! I have enjoyed the updates. Keep them coming.

I will definitely. Moving them to the outdoor brooder tomorrow so hoping I can get a weigh in when I move them. Fingers crossed they are feeling cooperative.

 

[RiverOtter]

Great thread! Best of luck with your breeding project, I'm looking forward to following it.

 

[LilyD]

Okay April weigh in and update. Moved all the babies outside now to the outdoor brooder so they have a 20 foot circle with a coop that has one light in it for the younger ones that aren't fully feathered yet. This way they can practice their foraging and being chickens outside. Eventually I will open up the pen and let the chicks out to free range with the rest of the flock during the days I'm home at first and later once I'm sure they are doing well I will let them out every day. I have to be careful though because my current Chocolate Mottled rooster weight in over 10lbs the last time I caught him to trim his butt feathers and weigh him, so he could sit on the chicks and squash them.

Okay now on to the good stuff. Weigh ins
Greens are the oldest at 8 weeks old and they weighed in at 1 lb 15.8oz for the black cockerel chicks and 1lb 13.7oz for the mauve pullet.

I really like these two chicks both are fully feathered out and are solid chicks. The rooster is very solidly built. He needs to build his breast up more but that should happen with being able to move a bit more in a larger area. The brooder in the barn isn't that great.

Next group is the yellow group that is 7 weeks old right now. There is a black cockerel chick and two Mauve pullets. The Cockerel chick weighed in at 1 lb 8.1 oz and the two pullets weighed in at 1 lb 5 oz and 1 lb 6.9 oz

I like the dark mauve pullet in this bunch. She's already fully feathered and seems very solid even though she's a week younger than the first group I can definitely see a lot of the same growth in her that I did in the first two.

The blue group I had one mauve chick and one brown black chick the brown feathered out with spots on her chest and is a pullet. The Mauve looks like a cockerel chick and also feathered out with spots. Super friendly chicks both.

The Mauve weighed in at 1 lb 8 oz and the Chocolate weighed in at 1 lb 6 oz. The chocolate chick is fully feathered at 6 weeks and is fairly solid even though she's younger. The mauve chick is a little bigger but I would expect that out of a cockerel versus pullet. I didn't get a good picture of him he's very flighty and not very easy to settle which makes him less desirable since I want them to have a pleasant orpington personality too.

Next is the purple crew and we have two blues and a black. When they feathered out they their feathers came in black blue and brown (maybe a dark mauve not sure) I can't tell pullets versus cockerel in this group they are 5 weeks old. Currently they are all right around 1 lb (1 lb 2.8 oz, 1 lb 0.2 oz, and 1 lb 2.9 oz) and are nice chicks hoping their genders will start becoming evident in the next week or so.

Last crew were not my chicks but came from an outside breeder and were supposed to be BBS. Instead I got 5 that were BBS and 5 that were lavender chicks. Their hatch date was on the 5th of March and they are just short of 5 weeks old currently. There are a few of the black chicks that are on track with the purple crew that is just a few days older at just over a pound and the rest are just under a pound. The chicks are not feathering in quickly for the most part (there are a few that are but for the most part they are further behind the groups ahead of them. Still watching them and there are a few that I might add into the mix to help build width and good toplines but looking at them compared with the chicks that are the same age and the chicks from my birds are still coming out on top as far as growth rate and over all health.

I also have to say that as far as chicks hatching I am seeing a definite difference between the chicks from my eggs and the chicks from outside breeders. The chicks that I am hatching tend to hatch out well and are up and moving in the hatcher much quicker than chicks from outside sources. They are out of their eggs much quicker from initial external pip to full zip and hatch than the others and at hatch they are larger to start than the chicks from an outside source. I have also noticed that all the chicks that make it to lockdown hatch and are healthy from the start. I haven't had any late quitters DIS from my eggs. I have had a few that were failure to thrive and passed shortly after hatch from the outside breeders. I am going to include a picture comparing two chicks right after they are taken out of the hatcher one is mine one is a chocolate mottled from an outside breeder and the difference in size is very evident. Not sure if it's just these chicks or if it's something else but figured it was note worthy and wanted to make sure I recorded it here.

This is two hatch day chicks. The yellow is one that I hatched out (not sure how genetically that happened because with the colors I have unless there is dominant white in the bunch it shouldn't have happened) The other chick is a chocolate mottled from an outside breeder who is local to me. The chocolate mottled is definitely smaller and thinner in width and if you feel the two chicks together the white chick is heavier than the mottled chick.

Going to try and weigh the older chicks once each month and hopefully I can start weeding out some of the ones that aren't going to work for breeding so those can go to make more room for the chicks coming.

Currently in the indoor brooders I have 13 chicks ranging in age from 3 weeks to 1 day old. I have 15 eggs in the hatcher currently that are all my eggs. They will be moving to the brooder in the barn in the next few days and I will start weights on them as they get to 4 weeks old. At 5 weeks they can go in with the older chicks in the outside brooder and will be added to their weigh ins. Hopefully I will be starting processing between September and October this year so that I can get them all done before snow flies.

 

[LilyD]

Finding homes for a few of my culled pullets as I go, but the ones I am looking at keeping are all right around 2lbs give or take a few ounces at 10 weeks the rooster being about 2 and a half lbs and the pullets being closer to 2lbs. Haven't done their 12 week weigh in yet but that needs to happen soon since that is coming up this middle of this week. The rooster I have my eye on is nice and wide through the back and chest. His breast isn't fully filled out yet but you can definitely feel muscle through there. They are already showing how much they like to be outside and foraging even though they don't have free range yet. This next week I will move the cockerel chicks out to the hoop house in the pasture and give them access to free ranging so that I can concentrate on the girls in the outdoor brooder a more.

 

[Mesa]

That's why I opt to sell the pullets unless they are injured then I can process them. If they are healthy and growing well then I would rather sell the ones I'm not going to be using for breeding as egg layers or pets than butcher them. The roosters are hard too because they are friendly and there isn't any market for them. I usually go through about 50 chickens a winter so if I hatch out 100 birds I can then process the cockerels slowly as they get to the right age rather than all at once and keep the ones that are exceptional to add for breeding. What I sell instead of process goes in the fund for feed, and other chicken items needed throughout the year.

I also opted for ordering hatching eggs from a breeder in North Carolina who has exceptional blues. 12+ lbs adult weight for males and 10+ for females. View attachment 2026859
View attachment 2026860
The English Orps if bred correctly are very solid birds. Not light weight at all and very broad in the front and behind. Hoping I get a few good quality birds that will help work on what my birds are lacking and we can work up from there.

Who sold you these birds? I love them.

 

[BuckeyeAmy69]

This interests me a lot because I'm basically doing the same thing you are but with Buckeyes. I also don't have a lot of extra space for overwintering, so I also will be butchering the birds I don't want to keep in the fall. I'll be following along as your project progresses.