What breeds other than Cornish X

[LilyD]

I am looking at a sustainable breed that I can raise as meat birds that will also give me eggs. Right now I am running a mixed flock but I want to have some birds to lay eggs simply for the purpose of incubating for meat birds so that I don't have to order cornish. I am okay with waiting longer for the processing a little longer but I still want a bird that will be substantial once they are processed.

 

[mommabrowncow]

It sounds like your in the same boat as I was a few months ago. I tried Cornish X and won't ever do it again. I ended up getting 12 Delawares and have about 2 more weeks until butcher time. Ill let you know how it goes, so far so good.

 

[LilyD]

It's not that I won't do them again I was just thinking that since I have egg laying birds it will be much easier to have some that will lay eggs for me to incubate for meaties. That way I'm not paying for meat birds three times a year. We get 100+ meaties each year and that's about 159 dollars that I could be saving by incubating my own birds I am trying to add birds to my present flock that are larger and more weighty so I can use them for both purposes.

Right now I am looking at

Jerseys -- seem like a heavy enough breed but grow really slow. I could make improvements as I go with them by keeping the faster growing ones to add to my breeders and eating the slower ones so that gradually they grow faster.

Brahmas -- get about 12 pounds for roos and 8 pounds for hens they start laying around 6 months and are table ready by about 7 months.

I presently have cochin/ barred rock/wyandotte/rhode island red mixes and Gold Comets. The Comets stay pretty small so I might phase them out although I could also breed and keep the larger for breeding since they do grow faster than the other breeds.

I am just looking for input

Which have the best meat to bone ratio and grow at decent rates. Right now I am leaning toward the brahmas but not sure yet.

 

[itsy]

Hey Lily,

I don't know if you've seen this link yet: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=438262

If I had to pick a DP breed, it would likely be somthing where I could sell the feathers if I decide to skin them. OR- I'll let the chickens decide for me. Out of our very diverse flock of pullets, we ended up with two roosters. If they reproduce, we'll likely eat the mutts.

 

[LilyD]

I love the coloring and the growth rate of my gold comets they range from a caramel color to a dark reddish brown but there are definitely other breeds just as beautiful. Long term I am going to try breeding a mix of different breeds. Some that grow faster and some that are meatier so that I can eventually get a strain that is both faster growing (by that I mean ready between 5 and 6 months rather than later like 9 months and still laying decent sized and amounts of eggs.

 

[orientphoenix]

get pure cornish not the cross, regular pure cornish grows slower but they nicely fill up their breast meat if u let them live long enough to there fullest potential

 

[LilyD]

That would be another good one to add to the mix as well. So far I am thinking Buff or Light Brahmas for size since they get 9 to 12 pounds as adults and Orpingtons for the same reason maybe I will add some cornish too and then as I hatch out eggs I will keep the larger babies for breeders and eat the smaller until the babies get to a larger size.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

We started out with EEs for fun and eggs, but realized if we were hatching eggs we would get roos and what would we do with them?
Now, we have marans ( FBCM- blue and black) and orps-- both started from a few breeders' eggs.
I would recommend the orps for many reasons. First, the roos are BIG. The hens are too, if you have too many. They lay at about 6 months, but I will say the eggs are much smaller than the marans of the same age. The orps lay well and are mellow and friendly. They also come in colors which can make breeding interesting.
The marans are a nice size bird also, slightly smaller than the orps, and you can sex them rather early if you want to separate them. They lay well and they are nice large eggs. I cannot yet recommend them because we are having a rough time hatching them at a good percentage rate. But we are working on that! The eggs can be sold at a premium if you want to bother with egg color.
We currently have a dozen or so of these free ranging until fall, when we will enjoy some very good meat.

 

[LilyD]

I was looking at marans also but I am kind of put off by the fact that I can't candle the eggs in the incubator. I have three orps in my incubator now with 5 mixbreed eggs from large hens and roos and 3 ameraucanas

I am considering

Brahmas They are large and look like they have a large breast area (I know it won't be as large as a cornish but at least somewhat comparable)

Jerseys because they are larger but seem lankier and less breast meat...has anyone raised these for meat before

Orpingtons of course not as big and eggs are smaller but nice breasts and meatie DP bird

Cochins my sister is raising these and they seem large and meatie not sure has anyone raised these

Delewares also seem big and are a DP bird

If anyone has any thoughts on any of those I would be interested in hearing about your experiences

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well i like the idea of the dp birds myself im hopeing to find something that will work out sence its down to just my wife and i here at the house we are looking at eggs first then at meat i know that we wont ever have a bird that grows as fast as the cx but that doesent matter we are looking at something to use for roasters or a stewing bird as far as fryers goes only thing she likes are vreasts anyways so thats bot a big thing here but we do want to beable to hatch out our own birds so we are looking to see whats going to fill the coop so far we have barred rocks and jersey giants but we are going to try a bunch of the so called dp birds to see what we like maybe we might end up letting the different chickens breed and eatting the mutts if that works out but if we find something that works out for us we will let everyone know