Sustainable Meat / Standard Bred Dual Purpose Bird Thread.

[Tabasco Jack]

I've been following this and a few other threads also concerning sustainable meat birds. I started over a couple of years ago with Delawares. I haven't been able to get selective on breeders until this year. And, of course, I didn't weigh the 4/22/16 hatch until they were 6 weeks old.



2 of the males are over 570 gm and one is over 615 gm. One female is 515 gm. These got tagged.

Now the funny part of this is the Marans that hatched the same time are at an average weight of 585 grams. Maybe I'm try the wrong breed!

 

[Bigshooter]

I wish I would have found this thread months ago. I have been trying to come up with a way to breed a dual propose breed for awhile now. And what I am going to try is a dark cornish rooster with a white rock hen, and a dorking rooster with a Delaware hen, then cross the offspring of each to make a 4 way cross. Also while doing this I want to try and improve the pure breeds to hopefully make the crosses better in the future. I just started this project and will not have any chicks this year but should have plenty next year. I started this with the hope of getting a 4lbs dressed bird at 12 weeks. So now only time will tell now.

 

[lpatelski]

I wish I would have found this thread months ago. I have been trying to come up with a way to breed a dual propose breed for awhile now. And what I am going to try is a dark cornish rooster with a white rock hen, and a dorking rooster with a Delaware hen, then cross the offspring of each to make a 4 way cross. Also while doing this I want to try and improve the pure breeds to hopefully make the crosses better in the future. I just started this project and will not have any chicks this year but should have plenty next year. I started this with the hope of getting a 4lbs dressed bird at 12 weeks. So now only time will tell now.

F1 generation 50%DC/50%WR looks like:













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F2 generations: 75%DC, 75%WR, 50/50 x 50/50


50%DC/50%WR bred back to pure DC = 75%DC/25%WR Looks like:












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Next F2 cross 50%DC/50%WR bred to the same mix 50/50 looks like:







Next F2 cross is 50/50 bred back to WR = 75%WR/25%DC looks like:




It is a great project - good luck. I am at F2 saving back for F3 now.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

I believe this cockerel will become my rooster. He is the second heaviest bird. My heaviest has a white feather which the JG people tell me is a absolute cull. I am not giving up much is early weight gain, the heaviest is 923 g and this one is 913 g.

 

[Ifish]

So week 4 update.

Weights are starting to separate by sex. Birds are almost fully feathered and have been moved out to the main coop.Bodies are feather covered, just a little down yet on the heads. Most cockerels are very obvious by now with red, tall, combs, thicker shanks, and body posture.

I will be separating the cockerels and pullets in the next week or two and weighing them separately. So this is the last "All Flock" weighing.

Heaviest: 450 grams. Several Cockerels were over the 400 gram mark.

Lightest: 302 grams.

Flock average: 368 grams.

I do believe if I had a better setup for brooding, the numbers would be better. Planning a whole new outdoor setup for brooding next year to eliminate the the work load on keeping feeders and water clean and available.

 

[rottlady]

weights at 7 weeks for my Chickcharney Delawares. Click to view full size

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'll get some weights up tomorrow for sure. By monitoring the oldest cockerel came to the conclusion I didn't need to get weights so early on the bulk of the birds. At 10 weeks will easily show fastest maturing and still give a decent growth curve for determining optimal cull time for this line. Group ages are 12, 10 and 8 weeks.

 

[rottlady]

losing our housing so I am selling 4 of the birds (Delawares- chickcharney) Details are in the NH thread

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Moved some pullets to the layer pen and weighed up for the first time a group of five cockerels at 10 weeks. They were consistent, ow of 38 ounces and high of 40 ounces. My lone cockerel at 12 weeks did prove to be my large early gain bird. Visually from younger he did seem to stand out even though he was the only one of age group. At 10 weeks he was 43 ounces with weight taken same as this morning- straight from coop before feeding.

The 12 week old is the one I've tracked from early age and have a graph of his growth to attach:


The dot at top and past 15 weeks must be a projection? Not familiar with Google spreadsheet at all. Seems reasonable it calculates projection. At any rate, the potted points do start to reveal a curve. I'll weigh this fella each week from now on and will keep him longer than I want for grilling. 15 weeks seems fair, don't want to ruin the meat going any longer as he and brothers will be grilled this summer. By weighing him each week it should reveal an optimal cull week for this strain. Having five cockerels at 10 weeks now should give me the prime week to butcher them. There are seven cockerels 8 weeks of age that are from a different strain of same breed. I'll weigh them at 10 week mark to compare.

Feed use is getting insane. Starting last week it's a bag of feed per week for the entire flock. 8 to 10 weeks of age they start to pack it in, entire flock feed was a bag in two weeks which went to 1.5 weeks and now is a week of feed for 50#. By moving pullets up to layer coop I'll try and get a handle on how much feed is actually being used on the cockerels. Currently that coop is housing a broody I'm trying to bust and the top breeding cock of this spring with all these young birds. The cock is going and broody should bust in few days. Might get all pullets up to layer coop too so it's just cockerels then start to weigh feed daily for them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If that lone cockerel from first poor fertility hatch didn't have so much autosomal red on him it would be an easy choice for breeder barring any other major faults. It's a shame really, hope something large shows itself from the other strain. Visually I see two that tower over others at 8 weeks. Very curious is other strain is eve close to weight of this one. Obvious to me the strain from last year had recent cross to Partridge for intent of increased weight of this variety. Like last years hatch the earliest to mature and largest birds were heavy showing autosomal red. Used the two largest anyway as breeders inn hopes a full silver male would arise. Have one that hit average of 2 lbs 7 ounces that will be held from cull.

Posting as I have a picture of grow out coop. Was thinking of posting it in one of the many threads titled "How many birds fit in a 4x4 coop?"






How many more could I keep in this 3x3 coop?

These birds are so docile and obviously brood mates don't mind sleeping tight together. The cock bird is first to jump out in morning so not even in this photo from week ago. They've got over 6000 sqft of run space and all happily pack themselves in at night. The shoddy pen is left open unless getting weights. Was closed when they were chicks to keep separate from flock too. Now layer coop is out of area in electric netting run so they'v got free range of huge dog kennel with lilac bushes.