What's a better choice...RIR or Plymouth Barded Rock?

[Rosaleen]

Quote:
These eggs are available to me from a local farm. I'm just thinking about that 50/50 ratio of hen/rooster hatch rate and what to do after four or five months.

 

[aoxa]

Quote:
These eggs are available to me from a local farm. I'm just thinking about that 50/50 ratio of hen/rooster hatch rate and what to do after four or five months.

So you are going to eat the roosters, and keep the hens?

I know my BR is 5 months old and doesn't have a whole lot on her yet. My rooster is a tad bigger. Just saying you would get more meat if you purchased a bird designed to get big fast.

 

[kfacresagain]

neither one.. both are equally average for a meat bird... especially if they are hatchery sourced... if hatchery sourced, you may as well go the leghorn route- it's about the same-- in a more feed efficient package I bet.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

I vote "C" or NONE OF THE ABOVE.

If you want meat, go with a Commercial Broiler.

Sadly the "Dual Purpose" birds bred today no longer have the dual purpose ability they did a half century ago. We have placed too much emphasis on brown egg production in these birds and have given up the meat production aspect these breeds once had.

Jim

 

[Fred's Hens]

I disagree, a bit, I guess.

I have both RIR and BR. Some, not all, of the BR are HUGE. So much depends on the parent stock. So many so-called RIR are pretty small, orange rust colored layers, but still larger than a Leghorn by quite a bit. But I've got a couple of BR girls that easily tip the scales at 6-7 pounds live, and dwarf the RIR. Just depends.

 

[kfacresagain]

Fred's Hens :

I disagree, a bit, I guess.

I have both RIR and BR. Some, not all, of the BR are HUGE. So much depends on the parent stock. So many so-called RIR are pretty small, orange rust colored layers, but still larger than a Leghorn by quite a bit. But I've got a couple of BR girls that easily tip the scales at 6-7 pounds live, and dwarf the RIR. Just depends.

6-7 lb is not HUGE, sorry... Last time I checked, that wasn't even par to the SOP for those two mentioned breeds...

For reference, I have a Dark Cornish cockeral, hatched in July- which weighed almost 7 two nights ago; and he frame wise, is the smallest bird in the pen (as well as age).

I have a much larger cockeral, about a month older, who's not quite as thick.. who also weighs around the 7 lb mark.

My cornish pullets, weigh b/w 5 and 6 lbs right now, hatched in May and June... They're about half grown- but the differnce is they are in the leggy stage right now, instead of getting maturity setting in.

I've got a crippled Cornish male, that's the oldest bird, hatched the second to last week of may.. He weighs almost 8 lb right now.​

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
6-7 lb is not HUGE, sorry... Last time I checked, that wasn't even par to the SOP for those two mentioned breeds...

For reference, I have a Dark Cornish cockeral, hatched in July- which weighed almost 7 two nights ago; and he frame wise, is the smallest bird in the pen (as well as age).

I have a much larger cockeral, about a month older, who's not quite as thick.. who also weighs around the 7 lb mark.

My cornish pullets, weigh b/w 5 and 6 lbs right now, hatched in May and June... They're about half grown- but the differnce is they are in the leggy stage right now, instead of getting maturity setting in.

I've got a crippled Cornish male, that's the oldest bird, hatched the second to last week of may.. He weighs almost 8 lb right now.

The SOP for a Barred Rock hen is 7.5 lbs. The pullets I referenced above are only 4 months old. They'll "finish" at 8 lbs. Not too bad for a hen. But I agree that many hatchery BR hens finish at 5-6 lbs.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Rosaleen,

Since you getting free eggs to hatch from a nearby friend, why not just study the parent stock? You'd likely be able to tell which parent stock birds are larger/thicker to your eye. Perhaps the flock keeper from which these hatching eggs are taken would also be helpful in offering you guidance or at least their educated opinion of their own stock.

 

[kfacresagain]

Fred's Hens :

Quote:
6-7 lb is not HUGE, sorry... Last time I checked, that wasn't even par to the SOP for those two mentioned breeds...

For reference, I have a Dark Cornish cockeral, hatched in July- which weighed almost 7 two nights ago; and he frame wise, is the smallest bird in the pen (as well as age).

I have a much larger cockeral, about a month older, who's not quite as thick.. who also weighs around the 7 lb mark.

My cornish pullets, weigh b/w 5 and 6 lbs right now, hatched in May and June... They're about half grown- but the differnce is they are in the leggy stage right now, instead of getting maturity setting in.

I've got a crippled Cornish male, that's the oldest bird, hatched the second to last week of may.. He weighs almost 8 lb right now.

The SOP for a Barred Rock hen is 7.5 lbs. The pullets I referenced above are only 4 months old. They'll "finish" at 8 lbs. Not too bad for a hen. But I agree that many hatchery BR hens finish at 5-6 lbs.​

That makes much better sense, as something to be proud of now-- otherwise not so much...

Personally, I think the RIR is a tremendous breed of chicken- even though that are extremely rare to find in high quality. That is, if you can get over the temper of hte males once mature...

The BR, I've never been a fan of, I guess I've never actually seen a breeder quality bird, only hatchery sourced ones... but they're just bland to my taste.

Alot of people sure like them though-

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Sure and agree. What we have here is a young person (most everyone is young to me these days.

) who has been offered free hatching eggs from a neighboring farm. The question was not which is the best meat bird, but of the choice offered, which would be better. That's hard to answer without seeing the actual parent stock, but if both are hatchery stock, the RIR gets the short shrift even worse than the BRs, although neither seem to represent their former glory very well. Again, hard to answer without seeing the parent stock. In this case, Rosaleen has the distinct advantage, I hope, of taking a good hard look at the parent stock. Best regards and good evening.