which is more economical?

[zachbelle]

Hi I currently have RIR and BR hens and a RIR rooster as my egg laying flock. we want to do meat birds this year and was told at about 16 weeks if I hatch my own eggs they will produce "fair" meat. so my question is would it make more sense to hatch my own eggs for virtually free and feed and care for them for 16 weeks or pay just under 3 dollars per chick for a broiler and feed it for half the time? also how does a RIR or BR at 16 weeka compare to a broiler at 6 weeks as far as the amount of meat? we got our layers last spring so im fairly new to raising chickens my husband and i are striving to be more self sufficiant in providing fresh food for our family and will be proccessing them ourselves so cost for proccessing is not a factor for me. thank you

 

[blucoondawg]

Your amount of meat from a 16 week old dual purpose breed will be substantially less than a broiler raised to maturity. I butchered my extra br and nh roosters at 20ish weeks maybe 22? They are good eating flavor wise but the meat amount is nowhere near a broiler especially the breast. I know there are pics on here comparing the 2 but I can't remember where. I don't know where your located but around here we can get broilers for far less than $3 more like just over $1. I do like the dual purpose birds meat but I want to eventually breed my own cross that is slower growing like dp birds but has a bigger breast than your average dp bird

 

[zachbelle]

thanks for the info! im located in maine and can order chicks thru various feed stores around here they are 2.75 each and the price goes down to 2.50 if you buy over 25

 

[blucoondawg]

Yes that's high for us my buddy raised broilers from one of the feed stores and they we're 1.10 each and that feed store is high priced on their feed I won't use them for anything.

 

[zachbelle]

hmm this is thru agway maybe i should do a little more research and see if we can find them cheaper anywhere else. we got our layers thru them last year and we had good luck they were all very healthy. ill check around. thanks

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Maybe you can find a feed store with a better price but going through a hatchery direct like Meyer they are 1.90 with order of 25 but then you add $22 for shipping so still $2.75 per bird.

https://www.meyerhatchery.com/produ...D=WBRS&grd_prodone_filter=PRODUCT_ID = 'WBRS'

A fast growing larger hybrid is a black sex link. If you hatched the eggs from RIR over Barred Plymouth Rocks you'd have a fair sized bird in the males and have layers or more meat from the females. Females are black at hatch and males will have white dot on heads as chicks as they will be barred. It's not going to have the double breasts size of a meat bird but be of good size at 14 weeks and tender enough to grill if slaughtered at 12 weeks.

Last year my dual purpose males dressed at 3 lbs in 14 weeks but a bit tough for the grill, not bad but the kids thought tough so trying 12 weeks this year.

 

[zachbelle]

thank you everyone for your input!! cant wait to have fresh meat

 

[OwlandBear]

I was wondering this same thing; I was hoping to breed Cornish Rocks, but my chicken guru told me they don't "set" well. He did tell me that dual purpose birds will make a good meal, but that if I go with Cornish that I would have to slaughter them around 8 weeks or else they'll just keep gaining fat and eventually suffocate.

 

[zachbelle]

right which can be very benificial when it comes to the grain bill lol. that leads me to another question... with my layers theyre feathers didnt come in til they were between 4 and 5 weeks and i had to keep them in a brooder until then, now ive been told the broilers are usually big enough to proccess at 6 weeks so do theyre feathers come in sooner? or will i have to keep them under heat still for 4 or 5 weeks?