Sustainable Meat / Standard Bred Dual Purpose Bird Thread.

[Maeschak]

Barnwares
Parents (barnevelder rooster over Delaware hen) and assorted chick pics

Very cool, thank you so much! Some of those chicks look a lot like my prod red x Del sex links. I had to cull that rooster for temperament and am looking for a replacement roo breed for when I want to make sex links.
Thanks again!

 

[Mosey2003]

I have some standard bred BR, that are massive, beautiful birds, but not very productive. Make a good roaster after 28 weeks. I just ordered some Freedom Rangers from the Freedom Ranger Hatchery in Pa. in order to have some tender meat, and just on a whim added in some Henry Nole New Hampshire's. Supposedly a true DP bird leaning toward meat production. He also breeds hybrids, so I am assuming he understands how to breed for production. He makes the statement, that they breed true, so it sounds like he has done a lot of crossing, which Based on the two photos available, would appear to be the case, not exactly SOP compliant. At this point I don't care, if I could have POL at 6 months and decent tender carcass at 14 weeks I would be more than pleased. Is anyone familar with this line of chickens? Thanks.

What do you consider productive? I just processed 8 standard bred BR cockerels at ~19 weeks and they dressed at 3.5lbs average, with more breast meat than the hatchery birds and English Buff Orps I've done in the past (not a ton obviously, but noticeably more). The down side was that I ended up skinning them all because they were FULL of pinfeathers, since they feather so slowly (Good Shepherd line). I'm pretty sure that had I wanted to wait until, oh, 6 months or so that I'd have had some really nice-sized roasters, as far as DP birds go. But nobody in my family likes roasted chicken

I don't know anything about various lines of NH, but I do know you'd be well set up to do Black Stars with a NH cock over your BR hens. I know one guy in particular that basically only eats his own Black Star cockerels, as far as eating chicken goes. If I ever get more pens set up I'd like to do this myself one day.

I've been following this thread with interest, I'd like to head towards a very productive line while still striving for the standard

 

[Amosis16]

I have some standard bred BR, that are massive, beautiful birds, but not very productive. Make a good roaster after 28 weeks. I just ordered some Freedom Rangers from the Freedom Ranger Hatchery in Pa. in order to have some tender meat, and just on a whim added in some Henry Nole New Hampshire's. Supposedly a true DP bird leaning toward meat production. He also breeds hybrids, so I am assuming he understands how to breed for production. He makes the statement, that they breed true, so it sounds like he has done a lot of crossing, which Based on the two photos available, would appear to be the case, not exactly SOP compliant. At this point I don't care, if I could have POL at 6 months and decent tender carcass at 14 weeks I would be more than pleased. Is anyone familar with this line of chickens? Thanks.

How did those New Hampshires from Henery Noll turn out? I have been thinking about using a batch of them as a basis for a meat breeding flock

 

[IllinoisEh]

I just got into chickens this year so I'm still trying out some different breeds. So far australorp, new hampshire, delaware, white chanteclair, and black dorking. I'm debating between trying out a few more breeds in the spring (buckeye, buff orpington, icelandic, cornish, bress) or getting some more chenteclairs to start breeding along the lines outlined at the beginning of this thread. If i did I'd get some white, buff, and partridge to ensure genetic diversity, then start a 3 clan breeding system as described by harvey ussery on his modern homestead site (which is a great resource: https://www.themodernhomestead.us). What do you guys think of that idea? Anybody else breeding chanteclairs for meat?

 

[cactusrota]

I just got into chickens this year so I'm still trying out some different breeds. So far australorp, new hampshire, delaware, white chanteclair, and black dorking. I'm debating between trying out a few more breeds in the spring (buckeye, buff orpington, icelandic, cornish, bress) or getting some more chenteclairs to start breeding along the lines outlined at the beginning of this thread. If i did I'd get some white, buff, and partridge to ensure genetic diversity, then start a 3 clan breeding system as described by harvey ussery on his modern homestead site (which is a great resource: https://www.themodernhomestead.us). What do you guys think of that idea? Anybody else breeding chanteclairs for meat?

Where did you get the Black Dorkings? I've got some Buckeyes on order, but it's just from a hatchery so we'll see how they turn out I guess. I only have experience with hatchery Australorps, no experience with any of other breeds you listed so I don't have much of an opinion, but looking forward to hearing how it goes. I've been messing with chickens on and off for awhile and just now finally got to really work on a project over the past year and half and have settled on crossing Naked Necks with Bresse. I really like the Bresse for, well, all the reasons... haha! Except I also love Naked Necks for the easier processing and a few other reasons as well. Working towards a line that breeds true, but I think that's gonna take a few years.

 

[IllinoisEh]

I

Where did you get the Black Dorkings? I've got some Buckeyes on order, but it's just from a hatchery so we'll see how they turn out I guess. I only have experience with hatchery Australorps, no experience with any of other breeds you listed so I don't have much of an opinion, but looking forward to hearing how it goes. I've been messing with chickens on and off for awhile and just now finally got to really work on a project over the past year and half and have settled on crossing Naked Necks with Bresse. I really like the Bresse for, well, all the reasons... haha! Except I also love Naked Necks for the easier processing and a few other reasons as well. Working towards a line that breeds true, but I think that's gonna take a few years.

We bought our chicks from Sandhill Preservation Center. I actualy ordered cuckoo dorkings but recieved black. Hopefully the hens are good layers because they're too scrawny for much meat. The rooster we had grew quite quickly (similar to delawares and new hampshires) and was tasty. Have you kept track of growth rate on your bress/NN? I've also thought of a clan mating scheme with white, black, and blue bress, but the chicks are so expensive and I've heard the genetic diversity is somewhat lacking with american bress.

 

[cactusrota]

The Bresse strain I've got gets some color leakage in it at times, blue/black/laced, and I'm finding that the ones with leakage are always the leanest-lightest of them all. I've heard this from others that have tried the colored Bresse as well, that the colored ones are lighter and better for laying flocks. So now I'm only keeping the heaviest ones, which happen to not have any color leakage, for breeding. The rest are going to freezer camp. If you want a really heavy Bresse, they need to be caponized when small. They don't really fill out until they start sexually maturing. (the breeder I got mine from said he didn't process until about 6 months old) Before that they are boney and you worry that they won't fill out. But they do. They aren't huge birds. I butchered my older 10 month old cockerels a couple months ago and their butcher weight was 7-7.5 lbs. The NNxBresse pullets that I'm keeping for breeding are nice and heavy, but also didn't start filling out until they came close to sexual maturity, around 5+ months. When I pick them up now I'm astounded at how heavy they've gotten.
I'm growing out some new cockerels and should have them in with the hens by the holidays. I'll probably be selling hatching eggs for $3 each shipped if you want to try some out. Right now I have a NN cockerel in with them for more crosses.

 

[DesertChic]

I

We bought our chicks from Sandhill Preservation Center. I actualy ordered cuckoo dorkings but recieved black. Hopefully the hens are good layers because they're too scrawny for much meat. The rooster we had grew quite quickly (similar to delawares and new hampshires) and was tasty. Have you kept track of growth rate on your bress/NN? I've also thought of a clan mating scheme with white, black, and blue bress, but the chicks are so expensive and I've heard the genetic diversity is somewhat lacking with american bress.

Dorkings are a very slow to mature breed. You won't see any noticeable meat on most of them until they're at least a year old, and real breeding assessment shouldn't be made until they're 2 years old. That said, I just processed and ate one of my Silver Grey Dorking cockerels and the texture, flavor and succulence of the meat was fantastic, even though he only processed out around 4 lbs at 26 weeks. If you're going to work with Dorkings, you must have patience.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Dorkings are a very slow to mature breed. You won't see any noticeable meat on most of them until they're at least a year old, and real breeding assessment shouldn't be made until they're 2 years old. That said, I just processed and ate one of my Silver Grey Dorking cockerels and the texture, flavor and succulence of the meat was fantastic, even though he only processed out around 4 lbs at 26 weeks. If you're going to work with Dorkings, you must have patience.

I just got a line on a dorking rooster that I will get to pick up in a week! I don't have any hens to work on pure dorkings but I am excited to see what he can offer as as cross with some of my other hens.... I am thinking dark cornish, turken, and maybe Delaware?
I currently have a set of eggs in the bator due next Saturday that is mostly Nn but a few eggs from my Delaware hen covered by Big white roo found their way in too.... I am excited to see what happens.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I'm an advocate of butchering most of your extra cockerels at 12 to 14 weeks. It's the most economical feed to meat conversion rate if done in that time frame. The meat is also suitable/tender enough to broil.

Dorking is a great example of fast maturing bird that doesn't finish large when adult. But it does provide an ample carcass that's fleshed at broiler age. I critique my birds to breed for this same attribute though they are not Dorking.

A graphical example off growth I'll post below. It only has three point of reference but believe it's enough to show birds rate of growth slows after broiler age. Same feed in and less yield. You certainly won't be breeding the runts, you can butcher smallest 50% at least if not 75% of your cockerels at broiler age. It to advantage to do so, less housing space needed and large savings in feed.

Weight of bird taken, 11 14 & 19 weeks