What Dual Purpose Chickens Are Good To Eat????

[neen]

I'm amazed that in this thread no one has mentioned Buckeye. I've maintained a breeding flock for over 10 years and love them. Calm, friendly, good broodies, beautiful carcasses (male and female), fair to good egg layers of medium/large brown eggs, heat tolerant, super cold hardy, good foragers, respectful roosters. Somebody stop me! I've never raised a super fast growing meat breed, but for a chicken to have in your backyard year after year, providing all that a chicken can provide a homestead, I strongly recommend Buckeye.

 

[neen]

This is part of the flock 2020, maybe 4 weeks before processing.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Speaking only for myself, I tend to start with Henderson's Handy Chart - and contra the Livestock Conservancy's Chart (pdf) it identifies the Buckeye as moderately slow to grow, with medium eggs and only moderate frequency of lay. That's enough to eliminate it from my consideration. Both sites agree its well suited to cold, but adaptable to heat. In hot, humid FL, that's another reason for me to avoid. Then (GUILTY!) I saw it was on "watch" status, and assumed there would be very limited availability.

After research, I find they are readily available from numerous large national breeders (Cackle, Hoovers, Strombergs, CA, TheChickenHatchery, etc) and that every source except Hendersons claims Large, not medium eggs, and a better rate of lay. Still not suitable for my needs, but a good footnote in the importance of thorough research and relying on more than one source.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Honestly I would have been more than willing to try the bantam buckeyes (bantams suit my needs better and I just prefer bantams over all) but I can only get them from a breeder and right now there's just too much going on to add that to the list

 

[Ridgerunner]

I saw it was on "watch" status, and assumed there would be very limited availability.

I found this as a definition of a "heritage". I probably did not look hard enough but I did not find their definition of "watch" status. From what I remember it is a count of how many flocks actually meet their standards.

Heritage Chicken must adhere to all the following:

1. APA Standard Breed
   Heritage Chicken must be from parent and grandparent stock of breeds recognized by the American Poultry Association (APA) prior to the mid-20th century; whose genetic line can be traced back multiple generations; and with traits that meet the APA Standard of Perfection guidelines for the breed. Heritage Chicken must be produced and sired by an APA Standard breed. Heritage eggs must be laid by an APA Standard breed.
2. Naturally mating
   Heritage Chicken must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating. Chickens marketed as Heritage must be the result of naturally mating pairs of both grandparent and parent stock.
3. Long, productive outdoor lifespan
   Heritage Chicken must have the genetic ability to live a long, vigorous life and thrive in the rigors of pasture-based, outdoor production systems. Breeding hens should be productive for 5-7 years and roosters for 3-5 years.
4. Slow growth rate
   Heritage Chicken must have a moderate to slow rate of growth, reaching appropriate market weight for the breed in no less than 16 weeks. This gives the chicken time to develop strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to building muscle mass.

There is a lot more to their definition of "heritage" than just chickens that meet the APA Standard of Perfection. Somebody breeding for show may meet the SOP perfectly but not meet any of the other requirements. The hatcheries we buy from won't even come close. That is not an economical business model to hatch or raise a lot of chickens.

A gentleman that I haven't seen on here for probably 9 years or so raised "heritage" RIR's and showed them. He's get upset when he saw all this stuff about how RIR's are mean vicious chickens. His were not because he bred and raised them to not be.

He was passionate about his RIR's. He was an APA judge and would penalize a show chicken for being overweight as much as underweight. According to him, many APA judges rewarded them for being oversized. I think he lost out on some prizes because of that. An interesting gentleman, and he was a gentleman. He was honest, I miss him on here. Some breeders were taking about how everyone on the forum should only get show quality chickens. He said for the vast majority of people on here that would be a waste. Hatchery chickens met their needs quite well.

As popular and widespread as RIR's are, he was aware of only three other RIR flocks that met his heritage definition in the entire US. I think of that when I read about watch lists and things about heritage.

 

[neen]

I understand that Buckeye won't be perfect for every person or situation. But they are TRULY exceptional birds for so many reasons. I just think they should be routinely included in the list. Also, I believe the sad reality is, the birds are rare enough that few have had experience with quality Buckeye. Many of us who love them, and wouldn't trade for any other breed, are quietly thanking our stars that we stumbled onto such a great bird, and not putting in the effort to celebrate and draw others to the breed. I'm guilty.

 

[davidmpenning]

For the last year I've been breeding a Naked Neck rooster with the following hens: English Orpington; Naked Neck, Rock, Slow White Broiler and Red Ranger. My primary goal was meat production, with a secondary goal of egg production. It's been an interesting experiment.

On balance, the most consistently large offspring were from the Red Ranger hen, followed by the Slow White Broiler. I was surprised at just how consistently large those chicks where. I got dressed weights of between 4 and 5 lbs from the cockerels at 13-14 weeks, and similar weights from the hens at 6 to 8 months. The other crosses yielded decent, but much smaller sizes. However the hens proved to be consistently superior egg layers. It ended up being a good balance for me -- the broiler offspring went to the freezer and a few of the Rock and Orpington offspring are being kept for their eggs.

I was also pleasantly surprised at just how hardy those two broiler hens have been. They both laid well throughout their first laying season and made it through multiple, 100+ degree summer days (albeit it camped out under misters). They haven't started laying yet this year, so I don't know what type of decline in egg quality/quantity I might see in their second year.

I had initial plans to breed a true dual purpose heritage flock, and I still might some day. However, crossing a slower growing broiler hen with my Naked Neck has proven so easy and productive, I'm sticking with that for now.

Two things I learned that bear keeping in mind:

--Depending on how many meat chickens you want from your flock, you either need to butcher some of pullets; or raise twice as many birds as you need and plan on selling a lot of pullets. Otherwise you will soon be overrun with hens. We chose to butcher excess pullets. That proved much harder to do on a emotional level than it was to butcher the cockerels. However, they really did make for excellent eating.

--If you want to breedfor certain qualities, you need to have the space and temperament to be evaluating and replacing roosters on a regular basis. This is what ultimately caused me some pause in my breeding efforts. Having a mature rooster that I trusted and the hens get along with, is such a nice thing. Even though my Roo isn't as large as I would like, he has proven to be such a good and easy boy, I was reluctant to make a change, and go through the turmoil of a raising an unproven, randy cockerel in my flock to replace him.

How are the Naked Neck broiler crosses doing? If you have any pictures of the new generation, I’d love to see them. We’re getting NNs next year as one of our main meat breeds, but still learning about what other breeds to bring in, so I’m curious as to how your breeding is going. I just recently heard about Welp Hatchery and their Slow White Broilers - is that where you got those from?
Thanks!!