Silly question, Where do they come from?

[MandyH]

Also forgot to add that they have to artificially inseminate them due to their size and lack of breeding ability.

 

[taraann81]

I KNOW WHY YOU SHOULDN"T ALLOW THEM TO GET TO LAYING AGE. That is not my question. I DO have a dual pupose breed I am just curious about my actual question. LOL these answers are making me laugh. I don't think people are actually reading my question!

 

[annek]

Just like dogs are bred over years to bring out certain traits, chickens have the same thing. I am sure farmers kept the best egg layers and used their chicks to replenish their flock, so too with the meat chicks. The ones that grew the fastest and were the plumpest were selected to breed.

Not every meat bird is going to keel over at 6 weeks, breeders would keep the ones they want healthy enough to lay eggs and rear chicks. But these are genetically chosen for growing fast and fat and if you don't watch them closely they will not make it to breeding age. I would think it would be a lot harder to get them to egg laying age.

 

[taraann81]

Quote:
Thank you. It appears you actually understood my question. Was it worded confusingly? LoL. Thanks

 

[saddina]

Ok when you say "meat birds" most people mean cornish crosses, if you have a dual purpose breed, you can let them do thier thing, two different sorts of chicken.

Your birds can reproduce fine, they're not a meat hybrid, which can not.

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

Quote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this did answer your question.

 

[Lollipop]

Most meat birds are hybrids, meaning that they are cross bred. Most common that I am aware of is white rock X cornish. I could be wrong, but logic would dictate a cornish cock is mated with white rock hens, the reason being that rock hens are better layers, but it could easily be done the other way around, or RIR hens, etc could be used. The reason for using white birds is ease of plucking. When crossing breeds like this, you get what is known as "hybrid vigor", which is basically the best of both breeds, thus producing a fast growing, heavy bird. Mating two birds of the same hybrid vigor cross never reproduces offspring with "hybrid vigor", so to reproduce the big meat birds, you need to make the cross that produced them in the first place. Clear as mud? I hope I`m explaining this so most can grasp it. One more thing that inhibits mating like meat birds, or keeping them to laying age, is that rapid growth produces bone problems and many birds, when grown to laying age, merely have too many physical problems to make it feasable.........Pop

 

[taraann81]

sorry Saddina, I had not read your last post when I wrote my last post, My dial up is slow. That absolutely answered my question. Thank you! It was just a curiosity thing, not that I was interested in raising them. Thanks so much for the answer!

 

[saddina]

No worries they're kinda a freaky thing, I got lucky here I'm in city limits so I have a few egg hens, and my grandparents outside of town have the meaties.

 

[Junkmanme]

I have read on BYC many times about not letting your meat chickens get to laying age as"that is not what they were made for". So my question is, where do meat chicken chicks come from if it is so detrimental to allow them to get to laying age?

To answer a "silly question" with a "silly answer"........:

The "meat chickens" come from the "grocery store" !!!

Silly !!!

-Junkmanme-​