Suggest a dual purpose meat bird and why.

[Rockashelle]

Ps - they are very cold hardy. It's been 32 degrees here the last few nights and low 40 today, still 4 eggs from 6 girls. Not bad for the start of winter. They have been known to lay in as little as -20 below. We don't get anywhere near that temp though.

 

[Newchickenguy]

Rockashelle you really have me thinking about the Dorking now. Thats a great carcass weight and the butcher time is not as long as I thought. And you say they are not that tough? Hmm, can I ask how you prepare yours. I mean whats the most common way you cook your Dorking chickens or your favorite way. And yes that other topic I am talking about is why I am starting chickens this year. After some thought I felt as if I should have named this thread, " What is the perfect crap hits the fan chicken?" As a christian I believe that the ultimate prep is Christ, however over the last couple years all I can think of is getting rdy, for what I am not sure but it has consumed my mind. The bible does say, " A prudent man forseeth evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.'. I started gardening last year, and learning about seed saving etc. After some time I realized one thing in my diet that would be missing is protein. And yes I am aware of other forms of non animal protein but it isnt the same IMHO. Anyway I digress. Again thats another topic lol.

 

[Amarisus]

I've been thinking about the same things you have lol but even if it doesn't happen in our lifetime it's nice to be self reliant anyway and teach it to our children. I actually read an article saying the best chicken for when the "zombie apocalypse" hits is the welsummer. But that might have just been for eggs/broody because I don't know if they're very meaty. Either way I always find topics like this very interesting

 

[Newchickenguy]

Smoochie, I may have forgot to mention in my orginal thread I will be cooping the chickens. I live on a 60 acre farm, its just us and my inlaws which I love. They let me do almost anything on the farm, however Mary, my mother in law prefer that I not free range them at this time lol. So yea they will be cooped. But thanks for the heads up.

 

[Newchickenguy]

Yea Amarsis I know what you mean. I have never owned a chicken but plan on learning the skill sets involved with them before anything happens. I also have a few other things I am trying to learn. I feel that having food and water etc stored is great but having knowledge is better. You just dont know how long things are going to be down. I mean lets say you have 10 days of food and water but the economy crashes for a year? We recently had a bizarre storm here in Wv back in the summer. My father in law who is 70yrs old said he never saw anything like it. It wiped out 90% of the states electric. Think about that. You should have seen the gas stations. People were packed in there like rats. I pulled up to fill up my car with enough gas for work the next day, and the guy next to me had a pickup truck with two 55gal drums in the back he was filling up with gas. Everyone was buying gas to run there home generators to get some air condition in there house as it was very hot. Out electric was out 5 days with lots of people I go to church with out for longer. And so gas sold out in no time.

When hurricane Sandy came through, my wife gave me the green thumb to buy a kersosen heater as lots of people were loosing electric. So I finally found a place that had one. I bought it and then proceded to buy a gas can to get kerosene in. Guess what? Everywhere and I mean everywhere was sold out of fuel cans except for the one gallon ones. Lol, we had a heater in the house but no way to fuel it. I mean people really need to read the writing on the wall. I just hope I can learn enough to help my family when it comes. I have a beautiful wife, and 3yr old girl. Through the Grace of God I plan on being rdy. I just hope its not to late.

Anyway this thread is about chickens and I appreciate your input.

 

[Cedarknob]

I suggest you buy a straight run of DP or sex-link chicks from a hatchery for the experience before trying out raising your own flock of quality birds.

I raise true [non-hatchery] large fowl Cornish for meat. I keep a few off-breed hens for eggs. I eat my culls, and breed the off-breed hens to Cornish for faster grower meat birds also. [No need for maintaining two flocks, though I also am developing a Cornish Rocky that serves as dual purpose bird that lays large, blue/green eggs] True, quality Cornish are difficult to find and expensive to buy, and other breeds will be also................... maintaining a flock of cheaper birds will give you the experience you need while trying to buy find whatever you settle on, providing you decide to stay with raising your own food.

A young Dark Cornish cockerel and White Cornish pullet. They're the only breed I know of that produces a a dressed carcass that looks like a commercial broiler................................ though are slow to grow. Their dressed bodies look like the live bird due to their close fitting, hard feathering.








ETA: It took three years to find someone that was willing to sell me a quality Cornish. Be wary of anyone willing to sell them, as there are those selling trash, and no breeders sell hatching eggs from good Cornish.

 

[Rockashelle]

I roast for 30 minutes @ 375 breast down in a covered roaster and then dropped the temperature to 325 for two hours. 15 more minutes, breast up. The meat was falls off the bones and browns in the pot perfectly! I want to find a recipe to roast in my cast iron dutch oven. During the winter, we have lost power up to two weeks and would love to be able to use the cast iron on my wood stove. We’ve been able to cook all sorts of things on the wood stove… but not sure how I would be able to roast. I’ll let you know if I find a good recipe. There are avid cast iron users I know I can get the info from… Just need to take the time to find out. I wish I had good news to report on my garden last year… we had such a weird summer and it was my first attempt at gardening. From what I hear… your first year is normally the worst. LOL! At least I hope that’s the truth. I’m assuming that you have researched “Heirloom” seeds versus your GMO seeds. If not, make sure you look into it as GMO seeds will not come into seed or provide minimal seed yields.

Get on the B.Y.C. Dorking Club and people with Dorkings are more than willing to help you out finding your stock as they are a threatened and they want to help establish flocks to conserve the breed. There are several hatcheries that do have Dorkings $6 a chick, however…. Unless you want to order 25 +, find a good local breeder to supply you with the amount you want. Chances are you’ll get better stock. A local breeder will have tons of information for you as well. When I first got my Dorkings, I expected to lose a few as I have in the past with other breeds. They are resilient little beasts and I haven’t lost a one of them. They are very personable, independent, and comical all in the same. You’ll be able to let them out of the coop to run amuck when you are around and they’ll come back to the coop to roost at night. Especially if you wait to toss them treats until bedtime. Just toss in the coop and in they go. Something else I failed to tell you about the fattening of my birds. My birds have had no corn… one of the key fattening agents, and they still reach a great weight. I’ll send you a PM with some information.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

If I was moving to a cold climate, the dorking was one of my top picks! I don't think they'd do well in 115 degree heat though.


...I'm not sure how I'll do in 115 degree heat.

 

[cjhubbs]

I was wondering if anyone has experience with raising Golden Comet roosters for meat? We bought a batch of GC hens and a rooster this year and are planning on hatching chicks, selling the pullets and raising the roosters for fryers. I do know that I will not be getting a GC if I breed a GC hen and a rooster but I found that out to late

. I did however find out that a GC is a chicken that was hatched from a White Rock Hen and a NHR rooster I am going to be raising some CX next year and I was wondering if it would be a bad idea to house the GC cross roosters with the CX? Thanks.

 

[chickened]

For fast grow out and a good carcass 5 to 6 pounds in about 4 months try crossing ameraucanas to other breeds. I had some silkies... yes silkies, standard silkies that were developed by a local breeder that would yield a 5 pound carcass in 4 months that I was able to market to the asians. They looked 100% like a silkie but laid green eggs. They had other distand bloodlines in them but they would breed true to type and had the black meat sought by the asian market.