wondering about dual purpose mutts ...

[Avalon1984]

I hatch my own meat birds out of Australorp, RIR, BO, EE, BR and some leghorns. They are not too terribly bad. Brahma X were more bones than anything but tasted great at 20 weeks. I am with you after a horrible hatchery experience. For now I will continue hatching out of my own flocks even if I yield less meat. Saves the hassle of quarantining the birds because of some weird infectious disease.

I love the idea with the early Leghorn processing. That sounds terrific and cost effective. Good luck!

 

[lynnemabry]

I think I am going to try, just for the experience.

If I like doing the meatie thing I can always plan my future flock to be much more dual purpose.

I should at least get a batch of the worlds best chicken broth.

 

[Avalon1984]

You do that

Let us know if you need any help.

 

[ShadyHoller]

Just make sure you put the cockerels on a high-protein diet. I once took some straight run RIRs, and had them all on 16% layer ration. I thought I would take the roos out and butcher them at 16 weeks. The first ones were tiny, so I waited a few more weeks to butcher the rest. After another month, they were still tiny! They just wouldn't bulk up on the layer ration. That was a mistake I only had to make once. I have no experience with leghorns, but I think it would be even harder to get them to gain weight.