Wyandotte and buff cross for meat

[Crazy chickenlady]

So my friend had 12 eggs in the incubator none of them hatched. He wanted them for meat birds. I told him I've hatched 3 successful batches this year if he'd like to use my eggs. Problem is I have Wyandottes and buff Orpington male. Will they be good beat birds?

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons are both dual-purpose breeds, meaning they can be raised for both meat and eggs. While they are not specifically bred for meat production, they can still be good meat birds!

 

[FunClucks]

You can eat any chicken. The question is, how much meat do they produce in a desired amount of time, and how much feed do they consume while getting to butcher weight?

The idea behind meat birds is to maximize the amount of meat present at the desired butcher time while minimizing the cost of feed and the time needed to grow them out. In this respect, nothing is as good as a cornish cross. However, cornish cross require specialized care and can have significant health issues, and you can't breed them at home and get repeatable results because they're a terminal cross (hybrid).

An egger bird is maximized for egg production, and are typically as lightweight and feed efficient as possible - they're bred to put all their energy into egg production, not into gaining weight. You can eat an egger, and they'll taste fine, but will have a lot less meat than a meat bird. The best producing egger is the production white leghorn.

A dual-purpose bird falls in the middle of the two extremes, producing a decent amount of both meat and eggs, but not as much meat as a meat bird, and not as many eggs as an egger. The benefit of dual purpose, especially heritage dual purpose birds, is that they can be bred at home (you don't have to keep buying chicks) and give repeatable results.

Many eggers can be bred at home too, and some meat birds, but many of the meat birds sold commercially that I'm aware of are hybrids.

If you have hatchery Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons, your friend may be lucky to get a 3-4 lb carcass from them in 4-6 months. But if he just wants to raise a few chickens and then eat them, this may suit his purposes fine. Doesn't hurt anything to try it, and see how he likes it. While your friend is getting his incubator and hatching sorted out, using local barnyard mix eggs he didn't pay tons of money for is a great idea.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

So my friend had 12 eggs in the incubator none of them hatched.

Where did he get the eggs he tried to hatch? What were they, Cornish X, Rangers, or something else? That would give us something to compare to.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I have never tried it, but you definitely can. Are your Wyandottes Columbian or Silver Laced? Your buff rooster will produce sex links, if so, so you will know right away. The red chicks will be female and the white ones will be the males.

https://originalhomesteading.com/guide-to-sexlink-chickens/

This is not the article I was looking for, but it explains it a bit anyway. I read a study that said the wyandotte hens produced meat chicks with not as good of feed conversion as Delaware's or Sussex, but it will still work. Just not on a gold laced hen.

 

[imacowgirl2]

X2 to what FunClucks said…

I processed a 9 month old Australorp rooster (which are also dual purpose and fairly similar in size to Orpingtons)— he dressed out at 3.4 pound compared to the 6-7+ pounds I got from my New Hampshire meat birds who were 14 weeks old.

Below shows the difference in carcasses…

…for someone who has a small family and plenty of time available to process birds, they will potentially be plenty pleased with those birds. For someone like me who is feeding 7 hungry mouths, that bird was a disappointment as far as meat — hardly worth the time and effort. I processed him because he was mean, and when I’m already processing other birds, one more doesn’t make much difference — but I wouldn’t be wanting to process multiples of him to fill the freezer, as I would need twice the amount of birds.

 

[FunClucks]

X2 to what FunClucks said…

I processed a 9 month old Australorp rooster (which are also dual purpose and fairly similar in size to Orpingtons)— he dressed out at 3.4 pound compared to the 6-7+ pounds I got from my New Hampshire meat birds who were 14 weeks old.

Below shows the difference in carcasses…
View attachment 3487418

…for someone who has a small family and plenty of time available to process birds, they will potentially be plenty pleased with those birds. For someone like me who is feeding 7 hungry mouths, that bird was a disappointment as far as meat — hardly worth the time and effort. I processed him because he was mean, and when I’m already processing other birds, one more doesn’t make much difference — but I wouldn’t be wanting to process multiples of him to fill the freezer, as I would need twice the amount of birds.

So the New Hampshires were the top three, and the 9 month Australorp was the bottom one?

What was the third one from the top? It seems smaller than the top two. Was it a female New Hampshire, and the top two were males?

 

[imacowgirl2]

So the New Hampshires were the top three, and the 9 month Australorp was the bottom one?

What was the third one from the top? It seems smaller than the top two. Was it a female New Hampshire, and the top two were males?

Yes, australorp is the bottom one. The third one from the top was a rooster as well…I’m not sure why he looks so small in the picture (he does in real life too) because he was close to the same size as the others. I’m wondering if it’s because the bag he is in didn’t shrink wrap correctly (he puncture a hole into the first bag, so I just double bagged him and the second bag didn’t shrink as well) so he’s not as “squished” together as the others are?? That’s my only guess…

 

[JeffPr]

Why do you skin your birds?

 

[imacowgirl2]

Why do you skin your birds?

I’ve not tried plucking yet at all…I’m typically only doing a handful of birds at a time, and all the setup (and tear down) for plucking would add significant time that I’m not sure is worth it, especially since I pressure cook 100% of my birds. I also don’t have close (less than 2 hours one way) access to a plucker so would be hand plucking and would need to buy/borrow a large pot and a propane burner for scalding as well, adding more overall effort.

Also I’m not sure I could handle the smell of wet birds…I’m likely still carrying some trauma from that one time back in the day that my father in law decided we were going to butcher a bunch of old hens…when it was 90 degrees in the shade and I was 8.5 months pregnant. Zero stars, do not recommend!