Thinking of trying an experiment.

[bobbi-j]

She has not eaten a store bought chicken in years. She has chickens for food, meat and eggs, and a garden. Providing for her family is a number one priority.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you put a meatier rooster over the hens. I was. Last summer I put a Bielfelder rooster over riff raft hens, EE mostly, a white rock, and BO. Got some very nice medium size hens, and meatier roosters. The hens are still good layers, and two of the EE daughters still give green eggs.

Good luck, it is so darn slow when you are breeding for a change.

Mrs K

I just googled your rooster. What a beautiful bird! Where does one find these birds?

I think right now I'm leaning toward the Buff Rock (since I ordered him specifically) and the White Giant. They appear to have the most size to them. Again, I haven't actually gone out and hefted any of them to see who feels heaviest, so they could just be all fluff and no substance. One of these evenings I'll remember.. I'll have to admit - after the skunk incident, I'm a little hesitant to go out there after dark even though the run is locked up.

Some of the hens that will be with the roosters will be Buff Rock, White Giant, Barred Rock, Dark Cornish, and Black Australorp. I also have one cute pullet that I have no idea what she is. If I ever remember to take my phone with me when I do chores, I will snap a pic and post it. She came with the heavy breed assortment. I have at least two each of the breeds that I named for pullets.

 

[Mini Meat]

I would put an NN into consideration. From what I have learned, researching heavy breeds, they have a nice meaty carcass. The giants on the other hand have a large frame but not an abundance of meat.

No personal experience with either breed, just my understanding.

Fun project, looking forward to hearing more about it.

 

[bobbi-j]

NN?

 

[Mini Meat]

Sorry... Naked Neck

 

[bobbi-j]

I actually have one of those. The coloring on his body is beautiful (I love colorful roosters) but that neck... I just don't want a flock of those things running around...

. We'll have to see how he does with the "heft test.

 

[aart]

I would put an NN into consideration. From what I have learned, researching heavy breeds, they have a nice meaty carcass. The giants on the other hand have a large frame but not an abundance of meat.

No personal experience with either breed, just my understanding.

Fun project, looking forward to hearing more about it.

Agrees...have also read that naked neck or Turkens are often raised for meat...or maybe were, before they were kept for their funky appearance.
Would be a good addition to the experiment/project.

 

[bobbi-j]

Seriously? But that neck! I guess on the other hand, at least I'd know which chicks belong to which flock..... Something to ponder, I suppose. You people possibly just saved his ugly neck....

 

[Mini Meat]

I know they are kinda hard to look at. I'd have them but my daughter flat refuses.

I believe you can breed the nakedness out when cross breeding. F1s will have more feathers F2s will have some with full feathering. Select only fulyl feathered birds from F2 and it's gone from the flock.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This could be a fun thread. There are also just two of us so we don’t need a huge bird, but bigger is better. I find that works a lot better for cockerels than pullets or hens though. Since half of what I hatch are female, I eat a lot of pullets and hens. Those are usually not very big but we still get two meals out of them.

When selecting which cockerel to keep, I suggest you look at how much meat is on them at the age you tend to butcher. Your Jersey Giant may be huge but does he have any meat on those bones. Like Brahma’s they tend to be late maturing.

When I first moved here and started a flock from hatchery chicks, I saved the biggest cockerel for a couple of seasons. The size of the cockerels I hatched did improve. Then I brought in some designer chickens from a breeder for certain genetics but lost the size because of the breed I got. So I brought in another batch of hatchery chicks and saved one of the biggest cockerels last season. I haven’t butchered any of his offspring yet but the size of the chicks looks promising. I think you will quickly see some results but the improvement will slow down after that.

It’s your experiment, do as you will, but if I were doing it getting the absolutely biggest cockerel I could would not be my goal. My goal would be to improve the size of my smallest cockerel. The smaller ones are probably the ones you are eating. I’d be looking more at flock average, not just the biggest.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, the Naked Neck gene is dominant. Dominant genes are easy to eliminate. It’s the recessives that are hard to get rid of.

Supposedly NN have a lot fewer feathers than other breeds. Might that make plucking easier?