What can I expect?

[BRsRock]

I have BR hens in with an EE rooster. I intend to cull any roos I get this spring/summer for meat. Will that combo give me a decent meat bird?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

all birds are meat; other than that it depends on how you define decent. That seems like a glib answer, sorry, what I am saying is yes they will be meat, no they won't be huge. I personally think my male layer culls that I butcher almost as soon as I can tell they are male, to avoid wastefull feed expenditure, make decent home grown (almost free) 1.5 lb soup meat.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

They'll taste just like chicken !!

I agree with Katy, it depends on what you define as "decent". And how much you want to invest in them before they come to the table. If these are the chickens you have and you're going to hatch their eggs, you'll get nice pullets that will lay well for you and cockerels that could grow to 4-5 lbs. I don't know about the genetics, if they'll be brown or green-egg layers, if you could color-sex the chicks to know which sex will have the barring. That would be a good question to ask on a different section of the forum. I have some BR hens and an EE rooster, along with several other breeds & types. It seems that the barred color only comes out in the cockerels, and I also have some black hens with poufy cheeks, not sure what color eggs they're laying.

You could process them early just so you don't have to keep feeding them, their feed-to-meat conversion rate won't be as good as other meat breeds. Or you could let them free-range & forage for a lot of their food, and process them later when they're bigger (this is what I do).

If you're aiming to breed really really good dual-purpose birds you may want to start with different breeding stock. Otherwise this combo will work nicely.

 

[ghulst]

Go for it .I have eaten Old English games.

 

[donrae]

I have a mixed flock that includes those breeds and intend to eat excess cockerals this year. I don't expect the roos to be huge, but around five pounds? I don't mind feeding them until twenty weeks or so, I have good free range here so feed costs aren't a lot