Unhappy with Speckled Sussex - Looking for a different breed

I am looking for a breed that lays at a minimum of XL (63g) eggs fairly consistently, gets large enough to eat (I cull my roosters for stock/soup) and is not expensive.
I should have also asked in my original post, but in any of these breeds do you find the hens to go broody? It's actually a trait I would be looking for.
You can't have it all.
Any bird can be eaten, especially for stock/soup.
Egg laying breeds are not going to be meaty like Cornish Cross/grocery meat birds.
Any bird can go broody too, but there are no guarantees.

Your wish list sets a very high bar. Might want to re-evaluate what is most important to you.
An impossible bar.
Expectations definitely need to be assessed.
 
I do not care about egg color.
My Leghorns are my best layers of white eggs. My Rhode Island Whites are my best layers of light brown eggs. The RIW's tend to go broody more. I have one right now that's broody but I take the eggs.
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I haven't had a lot of them , but if you want DP, large eggs, and heat+cold tolerance, Delawares are the way to go. One of the few breeds that tick all the boxes.
Edited to add: it may be a hunt to find good stock. Most of my hatchery Delawares were on the lean side.
 
I should have also asked in my original post, but in any of these breeds do you find the hens to go broody? It's actually a trait I would be looking for.
Delaware may be your best bet but you would have to find a GOOD breeder for them to be truly dual purpose...
Recommend against the Brahma. Contra to the experience of the other poster, I've found my predator aware, very attractive Dark Brahma to be VERY slow growers, mostly feathers, producing only medium large eggs. Not usually large, definitely not extra large.
My brahmas had great dark meat and very little fat? They do grow really slow tho and I am fine with medium eggs
Love my Comets for egg size and consistency - lg to sometimes xl, almost every damned day.
Me too lol!
Honestly, it seems to me that you can have a bird that makes a lot of large eggs early.
Yeah or you get a bird that grows meat fast you don't get both
Your wish list sets a very high bar. Might want to re-evaluate what is most important to you. Egg Size, Egg Frequency, Meat Production. Giving on one of those factors somewhat might make finding the other two a bit easier.
x2
Egg size/production is very much the most important factor. Bird size is 100% secondary. I would also put broodiness above bird size, but below egg stuff.
You may not get broodiness if you want large eggs
Then in my experience, the sex link hybrids are likely your best bets. LOTS of early eggs, of very good size relative to body weight.
I agree
None of mine have gone broody, its not something emphasized in the hybrids. and that basically ends my experience.
Yes, So you may not want those OP
But I too started with the idea of dual purpose birds. I have since gone to meat birds, and layer birds. Not only do I want eggs, but I want high quality eggs, and not all eggs are high quality. I want thick whites that hold together while poaching.
Yeah I don't like the lack of breast meat on my Sex links
 
So I wanted to go the route of the Speckled Sussex because they are touted as a dual purpose bird. After not being able to find a good hatchery, I took a chance from multiple and sorted the best I could. Turns out I have small birds that lay small eggs. Are they beautiful? Yes, but I don't care.

I am looking for a breed that lays at a minimum of XL (63g) eggs fairly consistently, gets large enough to eat (I cull my roosters for stock/soup) and is not expensive. I am not into rare breeds as I have too many predators and I like to be able to easily replace stock as needed. I live in Maryland and have semi cold winters w/ hot summers. So region specific would be even more ideal.

I'm currently leaning Barred Rock or Orpingtons, but I am tired of reading false narratives on the internet. I would like some commentary from you wonderful people.

Thanks in advance
Years ago I raised Orpingtons. I wasn't impressed with their egg laying. Some people told me they were good egg layers. Mine weren't that good of layers. They do tend to go broody more than some other breeds and are dual purpose. I never had Barred Rocks but a friend of mine did and they were the nicest Barred Rocks I had seen. She got her start from Good Sheppard poultry. His website isn't up anymore but if you can get birds from Frank Reese of Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch they are prime birds. Good luck...
https://hobbypoultry.com/good-shepherd-poultry-ranch/
https://goodshepherdconservancy.org/
https://goodshepherdconservancy.org/meet-the-birds/
https://www.facebook.com/Good-Shepherd-Poultry-Ranch-113163342091155/
 
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I have to agree the production sex links in my experience usually produce well and big eggs too, also poke around on reading up on the white egg breeds... there are a few hybrid White Eggers that are available that seem to produce large eggs. I have been eyeing a few of these “breeds“ to eventually raise myself to see how much they lay and size.

My EEs have in the past laid well enough but eggs were not large, more in the medium or small size. I think it is hit and miss on the egg size with them. So we are trying Legbar, Legbar crosses out next... they arrive in July and August so it will be a bit before we know what we like and dislike.

If I was going for size I would focus on breeds/hybrids and production lines known for that. If breeding I would choose a rooster from one of these production lines you like and then use him over the girls with biggest eggs... then see how his daughters produce.
 
I see this thread is a couple of months old but I just want to point out that hens that go broody are not very productive, as I learned from my sweet, beautiful BOs. They laid about a dozen eggs, then went broody. Twenty-one days to hatch, no eggs of course. Then four to six weeks raising chicks, no eggs. Then several weeks molting, no eggs. Then it was winter, pretty much no eggs. Spring, EGGS, hooray! Less than a dozen and you guessed it. Broody. No eggs. I didn't let them set this time. Instead I spent all summer trying to break them. Here an egg, there an egg .... and back in the broody breaker. Year three, a repeat of Year Two. Until I got fed up and sadly made them into soups and dumplings. I will stick with my EE and BA. The hens lay plenty of medium to large-ish eggs for us, and the cockerels are meaty enough for our family.
 

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