Unhappy with Speckled Sussex - Looking for a different breed

[LaFleche]

Here are some of the dual purpose breeds that I would consider:

• Barred Rocks/Plymouth Rock
• Delaware
• Wyandottes
• New Hampshire
• Bresse
• Buckeyes
• Bielefelder
• Marans

Regardless of the breed, genetic diversity is important for robustness, appearance and perfomance, as inbred birds will often suffer from inbreeding depression, leading to all kinds of undesirable effects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding_depression

 

[cmom]

One of the breeds I raise are Rhode Island Whites. They are large fowl dual purpose. The are very good layers. Almost as good as my Leghorns. Some people don't like white birds. I love mine. They do tend to go broody more than other breeds but again are very good layers of light brown eggs.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

I second the humble red sex link, everyone I ever had laid decently large eggs

 

[Tonyroo]

I did get nice eggs from a Delaware- and nice size. But for the most part I found it true that dual purpose, was not real good for meat, and not real good for eggs.

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.

And while I have eaten a lot of home grown chicken, I find that I like laying birds and roosters for soups and casseroles, but for chicken, I want my meat bird. So I do both.

I find a dozen meats, keeps me in enough chicken, and home canned chicken broth for about a year.

If you want to raise eggs - get egg laying breeds, the sex link, cinnamon queens, the leghorns. Throw in a couple of BO, mine have generally been willing to raise a brood for me. And a pen of meat birds.

Mrs K

I agree dual purpose birds do fall short of expectations. And it's sensible to pick layers and meatbirds instead of relying on a breed to give you both.

I keep Swedish Flower chickens and I can say there not meaty, but they do lay large eggs and they never get broody.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I agree dual purpose birds do fall short of expectations. And it's sensible to pick layers and meatbirds instead of relying on a breed to give you both.

*Maybe.

If, for whatever reason, you have to be able to "grow your own", the very best of the meat birds (in terms of rapid growth and feed efficiency) are off the table. and if you are limited for freezer space, then its just not practical to buy a load of meaties a couple times a year with a bulk purchase, followed by bulk processing.

From my own example, I'm hatching anywhere from 6-10 birds every three weeks. On average, half of those will be males. That allows me, on average, to take one young male, and one aging female, out of my flock each week for the table while maintaining a stable flock size across a range of ages, with a constant source of replacements, that allows for small but natural losses to illness, injury, or predator. and it allows me to improve the lot (albeit very, very, very slowly) along the way, selecting for birds which do best under my management conditions.

It really depends on how you want to measure "best". If measured in terms of cost inputs per pound of meat yield or eggs produced? Even free ranging and having no chick purchasing costs, I'd lose out to "purpose built" birds - but that ignores the fact that I don't have the freezer space, and even if I did, I'm not in a position to take on the extra equipment purchase costs to process meaties in bulk, nor do I have a low cost source nearby to process for me. "Best" is a relative term.

Theory and Practice sometimes diverge, particularly when perfect conditions do not exist. We make do.

 

[Tonyroo]

*Maybe.

If, for whatever reason, you have to be able to "grow your own", the very best of the meat birds (in terms of rapid growth and feed efficiency) are off the table. and if you are limited for freezer space, then its just not practical to buy a load of meaties a couple times a year with a bulk purchase, followed by bulk processing.

From my own example, I'm hatching anywhere from 6-10 birds every three weeks. On average, half of those will be males. That allows me, on average, to take one young male, and one aging female, out of my flock each week for the table while maintaining a stable flock size across a range of ages, with a constant source of replacements, that allows for small but natural losses to illness, injury, or predator. and it allows me to improve the lot (albeit very, very, very slowly) along the way, selecting for birds which do best under my management conditions.

It really depends on how you want to measure "best". If measured in terms of cost inputs per pound of meat yield or eggs produced? Even free ranging and having no chick purchasing costs, I'd lose out to "purpose built" birds - but that ignores the fact that I don't have the freezer space, and even if I did, I'm not in a position to take on the extra equipment purchase costs to process meaties in bulk, nor do I have a low cost source nearby to process for me. "Best" is a relative term.

Theory and Practice sometimes diverge, particularly when perfect conditions do not exist. We make do.

That's a sensible approach.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have an EE that lays jumbo eggs.

I have Brahmas that lay extra large eggs

A Black Copper Marans that lays the standard large eggs

Orpingtons that lay both medium, & large.

My Heritage Plymouth Barred Rocks lay medium eggs.

 

[MysteryChicken]

We butcher Heritage breed birds, & crosses.

I sometimes just take two different birds, & breed them specifically for meat. Best cross done so far was Brahma X Easter Egger.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We butcher Heritage breed birds, & crosses.

I sometimes just take two different birds, & breed them specifically for meat. Best cross done so far was Brahma X Easter Egger.

My "culling project" has some Mutt x Dark Brahma mixes I'm pretty happy with. 6# (live weight) males at 14-16 weeks. No idea how long they will take before they start laying, all my DBs were around 7 months to start of lay, which is too long for my needs. Nor do I (yet) know frequency of lay or size of eggs which ar eother factors to consider if you plan on keeping some of the hens. Just for meat though, with heritage, I've read a number of positive reports of butting a medium sized fast maturing bird over the Brahma - who will othewrwise eat you out of house and home before they do anything productive. Its no wonder the SLW were developed as an attempt to improve upon them (reportedly) as one of the orignal "dual purpose" breeds. Noble effort anyways

 

[MysteryChicken]

My "culling project" has some Mutt x Dark Brahma mixes I'm pretty happy with. 6# (live weight) males at 14-16 weeks. No idea how long they will take before they start laying, all my DBs were around 7 months to start of lay, which is too long for my needs. Nor do I (yet) know frequency of lay or size of eggs which ar eother factors to consider if you plan on keeping some of the hens. Just for meat though, with heritage, I've read a number of positive reports of butting a medium sized fast maturing bird over the Brahma - who will othewrwise eat you out of house and home before they do anything productive. Its no wonder the SLW were developed as an attempt to improve upon them (reportedly) as one of the orignal "dual purpose" breeds. Noble effort anyways

My Easter/Brahma hen lays pretty well, & started laying around 6½ months. She's definitely a heavy weight. She feels about 9-10lbs at least.