Tips on starting a breeding project?

[Raptor-tooth]

Kind of a broad question I know. My mother and I have been thinking about starting a breeding project to be able to have a flock of buff brahmas for meat (We like the idea of slower growing birds rather than broilers for meat). We want to start from hatchery stock and hopefully over time breed larger birds. In addition to that we have a quail belgian bearded that we have been looking for more of to start breeding them to the SOP to enter in shows.

With all this, I've been trying to work out the logistics in my head of how we're going to manage the number of cocks in each flock so there's no fighting and if inbreeding is going to be too much of a problem, when to bring in new birds into the line, and how to keep track of all of this! I may be way overthinking it and it is still likely going to be until March before we actually pick out any of these birds to start our projects, but my head is spinning thinking about it.

The title of the thread says asking for tips, but really I know that there are probably a million ways that people have managed to keep track of their birds, house them, and start breeding for the traits they want. I just want to know how other people do it and get some ideas as to what might work for me!

 

[Frog Bog]

Ok. Asking these questions seems to show that you're not ready for what you want.

I'm not familiar with bantams and have never heard of quail belgian bearded. Is it an accepted breed/color by the APA?

If you want birds for meat, start with good stock. Hatchery Brahmas are not going to meet the breed standard as far as I know. While Joe down the road might have some chickens that mature quickly and provide meat.

There is a line between slow growing and edible today. In generations of folk not used to farm fowl, much past 20 weeks old, it's gonna be all slow cooking, soup, sausage, taco type meat. Brahmas might make good roasters at 10 months old, but grilling or frying? I just don't know as I've not tried it. I tried to fry an 11 month leghorn pullet once. Once is the moral of that story.

As far as cockerel/cocks go, you shouldn't have a problem. They're not game. I would keep your bantams separate of your large fowl, but that's about it. To hatch the numbers you're going to need, to improve quality, you're talking hundreds of birds a year. Infrastructure, record keeping, and know how.

You will certainly learn a lot by diving in. I do recommend finding good genetics when looking for meat or show. Much of the work has been done for you. It does not always equal success, just a head start.

Do some more research and decide if this is truly a road you want to go down. I fyou just want some meat, get meat birds.

 

[Raptor-tooth]

Ok. Asking these questions seems to show that you're not ready for what you want.

I'm not familiar with bantams and have never heard of quail belgian bearded. Is it an accepted breed/color by the APA?

If you want birds for meat, start with good stock. Hatchery Brahmas are not going to meet the breed standard as far as I know. While Joe down the road might have some chickens that mature quickly and provide meat.

There is a line between slow growing and edible today. In generations of folk not used to farm fowl, much past 20 weeks old, it's gonna be all slow cooking, soup, sausage, taco type meat. Brahmas might make good roasters at 10 months old, but grilling or frying? I just don't know as I've not tried it. I tried to fry an 11 month leghorn pullet once. Once is the moral of that story.

As far as cockerel/cocks go, you shouldn't have a problem. They're not game. I would keep your bantams separate of your large fowl, but that's about it. To hatch the numbers you're going to need, to improve quality, you're talking hundreds of birds a year. Infrastructure, record keeping, and know how.

You will certainly learn a lot by diving in. I do recommend finding good genetics when looking for meat or show. Much of the work has been done for you. It does not always equal success, just a head start.

Do some more research and decide if this is truly a road you want to go down. I fyou just want some meat, get meat birds.

This comes of as very condescending and a bit rude. I was only asking how others personally do breeding projects and this is part of my research preparing to jump into that world.

Quail Belgian bearded D'Anver Bantams. Quite a long name so I shortened it assuming that "Quail Belgian bearded" would cut it as it does when I talk about them elsewhere. They are a recognized breed by the ABA and are a true bantam without a full sized counterpart.

I know brahmas take quite a while to grow out but have heard they still make decent meat birds if they are restored back to their heritage standards through selective breeding. Hatchery birds of today may not be what the birds of the early 1900s were, that is understood. I'm not looking for a quick return to standard but it should be a fun and enjoyable long-term project. This is just for a self-sustainable homestead and the birds are likely just going to go to home-made chicken broth and chicken and dumplings so they don't need to be tender. If I can get good roasters, even better.

Here is a link talking about how they were once a leading meat breed and produced great roasters: https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/brahma

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sounds like an interesting project. Are you planning on breeding in the hundreds, or will this be a backyard-scale project? I ask because I'd like to watch this thread, particularly if it is small-scale. We have ended up with a few more cockerels than we needed and they ended up as dumplings or soup. Although they were EEs and not meat birds, they were far superior in flavor and texture than grocery store chicken. Your question made me wonder if it would be practical to try to breed for meat at home. I'll be watching this thread. Good luck!

 

[Raptor-tooth]

Sounds like an interesting project. Are you planning on breeding in the hundreds, or will this be a backyard-scale project? I ask because I'd like to watch this thread, particularly if it is small-scale. We have ended up with a few more cockerels than we needed and they ended up as dumplings or soup. Although they were EEs and not meat birds, they were far superior in flavor and texture than grocery store chicken. Your question made me wonder if it would be practical to try to breed for meat at home. I'll be watching this thread. Good luck!

While we have the acreage to do a larger scale project easily, this will at least for a while be a small-scale thing for our little homestead.

That's actually pretty funny though with the EEs because we are in a really similar situation. Bred out EEs in March and got 90% cockerels so when they didn't sell (literally tried giving them away first) we tried our hand at processing chickens for the first time to try it out and decided we might want to breed heritage meat/dual-purpose birds just for some home grown healthy birds to eat.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

While we have the acreage to do a larger scale project easily, this will at least for a while be a small-scale thing for our little homestead.

That's actually pretty funny though with the EEs because we are in a really similar situation. Bred out EEs in March and got 90% cockerels so when they didn't sell (literally tried giving them away first) we tried our hand at processing chickens for the first time to try it out and decided we might want to breed heritage meat/dual-purpose birds just for some home grown healthy birds to eat.

We ordered day-olds for the first time last year. Received them around the first of March. Three out of 24 didn't survive and 3 were cockerels. We kept one and took two to my local Mennonite lady who dresses them for $1/head. They were so good! I am looking at the on line catalog again. We've had some attrition so I'm thinking about ordering pullets and cockerels just to be sure we get half a dozen in the freezer. What do you recommend? We don't want CornishX.. oh, I'm not hijacking your thread, am I? Just me if I am and I'll open a new one.

 

[Amer]

Hi! Very good questions! Oddly enough, I own d’Anvers bantams and Buckeyes, very similar to what you are breeding.
I love that you want to breed your Brahmas to the SOP and also use them for meat. This was a tantalizing idea for me as well, though I soon found out that it was not for me, since one acre isn’t enough to sustain a large fowl flock. Since then, I have begun to switch to bantams, but I did learn a few things from my Buckeye experience.
First please please get good stock at the outright. While not hatchery birds, my breeding stock were perhaps 2 pounds under standard weight and not developing fast enough either. As I began to focus only on size (which I achieved by the way, after three years of selective breeding), recessive traits like stubs and single combs began to emerge.
Also, don’t outcross too much. The only reason you would need to do that would be if you found something that would actually improve upon what you have. Every outcrossing is a disease risk.
Just don’t dig yourself into a hole. Just as you said you were going to do, keep multiple cocks and rotate them through the hens. That should produce enough genetic diversity to continue to improve the line for years.
I personally think that you have a good enough idea of what you are doing out there to take the leap. If you have any specific questions, shoot. I’m here.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have 7 1/2 month old hatchery stock brahma pullets that already weigh at least 7-8lbs. Were using them for eggs right now, & they'll soon be used for my giant Silkie project in the future.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I'm recently working on a Wheaten based Crele Orpington Project right now if you'd like to hear how I started it?

 

[ColtHandorf]

I would look into spiral breeding with three or more pens. That will most likely yield the results in the most economic fashion that you are looking for.