which birds to get

[lilshadow]

Hi all! I am trying to decide what type of birds to get. Can you eat eggs from all different types of chickens or just certain ones, and can you eat all different type of chickens or just certain ones. Like can you also use the rare chickens for food.

 

[Omeletta]

You can! To both questions. A good site to check out is Feather-site.com for their pics and information on alot of breeds. Some are better egg layers, some will go broody, some will not, and while you can eat all of them some have more meat than others. A good bird is labelled a "dual-purpose" bird...good for meat and good for eggs.

Hope that helps you lil!

Tanya

 

[s6bee]

Sounds as if you want a dual purpose bird. So start there. You are also in a cold climate so get cold hearty birds too. I have only 5 hens but with the same requirements I chose Deleware, Barred Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, and Austrolorp. Also from what I heard, a dual purpose bird will also lay longer, but not as many eggs per week. I currently get about 4 eggs a week per bird. Plenty for me and my family.
Check this website out as well. It's got a great chart to scan over.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

[LoneCowboy]

If you want to use a chicken for eggs and food, I'd look for the dual purpose ones. Like Orpingtons, and such. however, nothing is keeping you from eating the others, but there is little meat on them to make it worth it.

Yes, you can eat the eggs from all different chickens too, but bantam eggs are awful small.

 

[lilshadow]

Thanks guys for all the info, should i get these chickens now, and raise them during spring and summer and slaughter during the fall and winter. I am really new to this chicken raising, and I have never slaughter a chicken before, so when that time comes I will be asking more questions.

 

[mdbucks]

are you looking for chickens just to slaughter??

you can get a cornish cross which are cheaper than duel purpose breed, and they take a lot less food to get them to butcher weight, will be butcher weight in 8-10 weeks http://www.meyerhatchery.com/get_list_5.htm
if you are also wanting eggs you can order whatever breed you wish. The duel purpose will reach a good size too, but will take 6 months or so to get to the same weight.

 

[lilshadow]

Quote:
just want birds for food purposes, egg and meat. Also, just to have chickens around.

 

[mdbucks]

just want birds for food purposes, egg and meat. Also, just to have chickens around.

I would suggest do a split order of cornish cross for the food and a sexlink for your eggs and to hang around with, this way you get the best of both food and eggs. The duel purpose is good if you are gonna hatch your own, so you dont feed say a leghorn that will give you plenty of eggs, but will be a scrawny bird as far as meat goes. A RIR/have to throw in BUCKEYE/barred rock will give you eggs and roos will dress out fine with good amount of meat, just not as quickly as a cornishX, howerer the cornishX, usually can not be raised old enough to get eggs from. Check this link and it will tell you which breeds are best for meat/egg/duel

I dont think there is a right/wrong to this it comes down to what you prefer.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html#b​

 

[greyfields]

You are better off buying laying breeds for eggs and meat breeds for meat. You can certainly eat hens, but you'll probably not find them very satisfying if you like to dive into a thick breast with knife and fork and feel full afterwards.

As far as layers, there are 100 opinions by 100 people of which breeds are the best. Pick one you think is pretty, as they are all largely similar in performance.

As far as broilers, you have very limited options. The Cornish Cross is the standard, which is probably what you will end up with. Once you get into advanced meat chicken production, I strongly reccomend looking at Freedom Rangers - or any other 'breeds' which are being developed for free range production rather than intensive.

 

[chickenwrangler]

Up to this point I have only raised layers and the Gold Sex Links have been my favorites of the ones that I've tried. The Barred Rocks were nice also but I've had bad experience with the BR roosters becoming too aggressive and end up taking the .410 expressway to where ever it is bad roosters go.

But I digress. The Buff Orpingtons I have now are doing real well and laying real nice eggs. I've had them since April 07. They are still laying even though it's gotten cold. I had Silver Laced Wyandottes and Black Australorpes that laid real well also.