What is the best breed to raise and sell for dual purpose?

[ChickSter99]

I'm new to the 'world of chickens'. I had wonderful luck hatching an raising a variety of bantams and I'm ready to move on to large fowl. I would like to raise one particular variety of large fowl only to sell as dual purpose birds. I'm going to be selling of all but a select few of my bantams right now. As of now, the large fowl that I have are Jersey Giants, Plymouth Rocks, Turkens, Orpingtons, Australorps. I have a roo and two hens for the Australorps so, it would be convenient to start there when they start laying. Do you all have any suggestions or what type of dual purpose birds do you raise and sale?

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I think you'll get as many answers as there are members here.
From the list you have I'd say forget the giants for sure, they mature too slow to be dual purpose. Rocks do well depending on the strain, but are farly slow to finish. I'd suggest the Orps, Australorps or the Turkens myself. I haven't had Australorps, but our Turkens and Orpingtons dress out nice and also lay well.

 

[ChickSter99]

I think you'll get as many answers as there are members here.
From the list you have I'd say forget the giants for sure, they mature too slow to be dual purpose. Rocks do well depending on the strain, but are farly slow to finish. I'd suggest the Orps, Australorps or the Turkens myself. I haven't had Australorps, but our Turkens and Orpingtons dress out nice and also lay well.

Thank you for you're reply. The Turkens and Orpingtons are so much nicer than the Australorps. I know that niceness may not count for a lot of people when just for selling, but I would like to keep that in mind because of my children.

 

[ChickSter99]

What about Leghorns or Delawares? Would they be a good choice for dual purpose? I looked under the Breed section to read a little on each of them. It says both would be good dual purpose. I think Leghorns would do good in this area.

 

[ve]

I have Show strain Leghorns. They are as big as my hatchery Newhampshires, and lay very good.They trive very good in our GA heat. People here like Rocks (they call them Dominikers) and Rhode Island Reds, For brown egg layers Newhampshires will do good if you like Red-orange chickens. I like my hatchery ones.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Delawares are reportedly very good dual purpose birds. Leghorns are not a dual purpose breed! Leghorns are egg layers extraordinaire. They are small and males don't dress out very well at all at a young age, they kind of resemble a rubber chicken. A lot of people who are looking for a dual purpose bird for a meaty carcass will even tell you that it isn't worth the time and feed to grow them out for butchering.

I don't really have any suggestions yet. We're still trying to figure out which dual purpose breed will meet our needs best. So far, we've narrowed our search down to 4 breeds; orpingtons, sussex, wyandottes, and buckeyes (and the wyandottes are really largely because they're so pretty...I suspect that they will end up at the bottom of the list when we get a chance to raise and compare growth and processed weight on the cockerels).

Of course, which breed(s) work best for you really depends on what your specific goals are. If you're looking mostly to raise chicks to sell to others in your area, you'll have to look around at feed stores, craigslist, etc and see what's popular in your area to get an idea of which breeds and varieties are going to sell the best. For example, buff orpingtons and barred plymouth rocks are extremely popular varieties thanks to their popularity with/from hatcheries. But other colors of the same breed may not sell as well if people are not familiar with them. White rocks are almost as popular from hatcheries as barred rocks, but you may have a hard time finding a market for silver penciled or partridge plymouth rocks since these varieties are not well known to the general public in most areas. If you're looking to raise dual purpose birds to bring eggs and meat to your own table, or sell to others, then it might help to know what is in demand in your area. Leghorns are top notch egg layers, but in many areas it's hard to sell white eggs because people associate white eggs with grocery stores and commercial farms and buyers prefer brown eggs as there is a perception that they are "fresher" or "healthier" than white eggs. And if you're looking at selling processed birds for others to eat, it's important to know that the majority of buyers are going to be disappointed in the carcass of a dual purpose cockerel because they are used to (and expect) the huge breasts of the commercial broilers that they can buy in the grocery store. Compared to a commercial broiler, even a good dual purpose cockerel is going to look a little on the scrawny side.

Finally, in the end it's important to choose a breed that you like. You may be raising them with the ultimate goal to meet customer demands, but at the end of the day you are the one doing all the work and paying the feed bill, so you might as well choose a breed that you like for your own reasons. Besides, chances are pretty good that there's more than one breed out there that will meet your needs. When I'm considering what breed of chicken to choose, I look for which breeds meet my needs first and then from there choose the one that pleases me the most. Pretty is as pretty does, but if all else is equal I'm going to choose the bird that looks prettiest to me to get the job done.

 

[ChickSter99]

Delawares are reportedly very good dual purpose birds.  Leghorns are not a dual purpose breed!  Leghorns are egg layers extraordinaire.  They are small and males don't dress out very well at all at a young age, they kind of resemble a rubber chicken.  A lot of people who are looking for a dual purpose bird for a meaty carcass will even tell you that it isn't worth the time and feed to grow them out for butchering.

I don't really have any suggestions yet.  We're still trying to figure out which dual purpose breed will meet our needs best.  So far, we've narrowed our search down to 4 breeds; orpingtons, sussex, wyandottes, and buckeyes (and the wyandottes are really largely because they're so pretty...I suspect that they will end up at the bottom of the list when we get a chance to raise and compare growth and processed weight on the cockerels). 

Of course, which breed(s) work best for you really depends on what your specific goals are.  If you're looking mostly to raise chicks to sell to others in your area, you'll have to look around at feed stores, craigslist, etc and see what's popular in your area to get an idea of which breeds and varieties are going to sell the best.  For example, buff orpingtons and barred plymouth rocks are extremely popular varieties thanks to their popularity with/from hatcheries.  But other colors of the same breed may not sell as well if people are not familiar with them.  White rocks are almost as popular from hatcheries as barred rocks, but you may have a hard time finding a market for silver penciled or partridge plymouth rocks since these varieties are not well known to the general public in most areas.  If you're looking to raise dual purpose birds to bring eggs and meat to your own table, or sell to others, then it might help to know what is in demand in your area.  Leghorns are top notch egg layers, but in many areas it's hard to sell white eggs because people associate white eggs with grocery stores and commercial farms and buyers prefer brown eggs as there is a perception that they are "fresher" or "healthier" than white eggs.  And if you're looking at selling processed birds for others to eat, it's important to know that the majority of buyers are going to be disappointed in the carcass of a dual purpose cockerel because they are used to (and expect) the huge breasts of the commercial broilers that they can buy in the grocery store.  Compared to a commercial broiler, even a good dual purpose cockerel is going to look a little on the scrawny side. 

Finally, in the end it's important to choose a breed that you like.  You may be raising them with the ultimate goal to meet customer demands, but at the end of the day you are the one doing all the work and paying the feed bill, so you might as well choose a breed that you like for your own reasons.  Besides, chances are pretty good that there's more than one breed out there that will meet your needs.  When I'm considering what breed of chicken to choose, I look for which breeds meet my needs first and then from there choose the one that pleases me the most.  Pretty is as pretty does, but if all else is equal I'm going to choose the bird that looks prettiest to me to get the job done.

Thank you for the advice. A lot of people raise RIRs and BRs around here. I already have 2 beautiful Australorp hens & 1 roo. I'm really leaning to the Delaware . I'm still tossing ideas around. This is a next year plan. But I would like to go ahead and hatch some of whichever I choose.