Sustaing Meat Chicken Flock

[heartlunger]

Anyone know of good breeds to breed or cross to have a sustaining meat bird flock? Something that would provide chicks that grow relatively fast and are also meaty. Anyone know what the commercial hatcheries cross Cornish chickens with to make their meat birds?

[carugoman]

howdy y'all,
the commercial standard for the best meat conversion::feed ratio is the Cornish X Rock. These Hybrids are market ready in 6 weeks as 3-3.25 lb(dressed weight) fryers and up to 8 weeks as 4-5 lb D.W. broilers. *These birds must be caged raised, not "free-ranged". *These birds have such rapid growth rate that they must be butchered by the end of 8 weeks, other wise they get so heavy that their legs can't support the weight and usually break. *Another condition that commonly occurs; I can't remember the vet's medical term for this is, that the chest cavity fills up with excess lymph fluid and the bird suffocates i.e. drowns to death in its own body fluid. *Either way, I don't buy this hybrid, since I think what I just described is against every rule I ever learned about proper animal husbandry and stewardship. *The meat has very little taste. *It taste like supermarket chicken,which is why the hybrid was developed for in the first place! *If you're interested in good quality, barnyard trotters, get some of the dual purpose breeds that give good meat and eggs. *The benefit of these Heritage breeds is that 75% of their food comes from whatever grows outside, including bugs,grubs and locusts. *BHM has great sources of free info and very fine books on raising these types of dual purpose birds. *No, I don't work for them,either.
My personal favorites are Buff Orpington-big bird,lot's of meat and lg light-brown eggs. *Black Astralorps-big meaty bird;extremely prolific layer of large to extra large; medium- brown colored eggs(one B.A. holds the world record laying 360 in one year!) Last but not least, Barred or Buff Rocks big and meaty large; brown eggs.
There are many others, of course, but I hope I have set you on the right road? *Y'all do take care and God Bless!

[walls0stone]

jut ordered a ton of them for .90 each.
the farm were I placed my orderd had them in a large room. they were not "caged" per say..but in a large room with a long feed bin. All they do is eat eat eat. they were the size of a bowling bag and around 15 lbs.

they told me the key to them was to feed 12 hours, then take away all food, and lights out at 14 hours. I got them becouse I want to raise them, and kill them before hay'n season starts. I do not like to have birds all over all the time. Old birds are like eating a shoe.

another way to go is the Cornish...just plain Cornish, in a moveable cage outside, on the ground in a large, grassy open place. in Pa we have black crickets by the baskeet full they are so high in proteen that the birds will put on megga weaght.


give you a 3rd idea. my friend waits till fall, and orderds roosters for.25 each. Every friday he heads out and kills 2.
do what works 4 you.. and good luck.

[harvester]

Cornish giants and white rocks are the cross of commercial chickens. Since its very difficult to keep the cornish/rocks as breeders of future cornish/rock chicks its easier to have the cornish's and the rock's and cross them. The crosses themselves are not very good layers and especially in higher elevations tend to drop dead of weak hearts when they get a little age on them. Best to cross them yourself.
You could always go with a heritage breed which were used as dual purpose chickens, meat and eggs. Your table chickens wont be a pretty as a commercial chicken, but will provide a meal for the family well enough.

[fancyfowl]

Those cornish x rocks are a terminal cross of at least 2 inbred lines, there are only a couple suppliers of the eggs nation wide. They can not reproduce like kind. If limit feeding is practiced they could sometimes survive for over 1 year or longer, they do have the genetic potential to weigh over 20 pounds.

I have success growing them in small batches with limit feeding, 7 am to 7 pm, any 12 hour period works. They can be put on grass but they do not forage as other breeds. I like them as meat birds and find their meat to be just fine, they take a lot longer to get to weight when restrictive feeding and some pasturage.

If I were to keep a breed for the home flock, meat and eggs, I would make it the Ameraucana. They have a pea comb, have good hybrid vigor, for the most part, make a green or bluish egg shell and make enuff eggs to make them worthy as eggers. They come in several color varieties for interest.
most of the commercially available medium and heavy breeds have been selected for egg production and just dont make a good table bird in my estimation. A good pen of standsrd or show quality heavy breeds are much larger in size but may have some degree of inbreeding depression, probabnly not the best egg makers.

It is not possible to cross cornish and rocks and get they type of cornishxrocks you might see in the market. well, unless you figure out how to come up with the complex inbred parent stock.

[harvester]

Ofcourse its possible to cross cornish and rocks..lol..I did it for years. And no you wont get the exact commercial cross, but it will make an incredible meat chicken. Then again you could just do strait cornish too and get some good ones.
I never kept a cornishxrock rooster, but my hens layed only fair, and layed fertile eggs. Maybe its where you get them or the roosters are sterile. Not sure about that one.
Strait rocks make good meat chickens too. When you get into the heavy breeds you will sacrifice time in raising. It will take you much longer to raise one fit for the table than just raising the commercial rock crosses.
When I was raising my meat chickens I used a cornish rooster ona variety of hens and had fine enough table chickens.

[fancyfowl]

Sure, any chicken breeds can be crossed, they are all the same genus and species, just different shape and color!!
I have bred poultry for years and studied genetics of the domestic fowl- chickens.

Regular cornish(standars) and Rocks do make a good meat bird just nothing like the commercially available types. They are called a terminal cross not meaning they are sterile, it means it is the desired end result.
It depends on personal wants I reckon, heck, a Leghorn rooster tastes pretty good too!! But there isnt a good reason to keep them as table birds if you like the nice big plump juicy thangfs!

[EarthMother]

Be sure to get good sitters if you want to be self sustaining. I have had Barred Rocks for about 5 years and never found a broody hen. I think I will try another breed this year. This is good info for me too. Thanks. for asking the question.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Earth Mama-- Just get some bantams to go along with your Barred Rock. They hatch anything and brood regularly. Little Banty hens are amazing.

I was actually going to suggest barred rocks as a good combination chicken. I have never done very well with the cornish or cornish crosses. They die too easily. Overall though, I prefer the egg layers to meat chickens. Cleaning chickens is tough work. Sometimes is seems easier just to skin the things rather than pluck. Or better yet, just eat the eggs.

[fancyfowl]

We used to have columbia Rock bantams which dressed out to look just like the little cornish game hens you see in the markets.

Commercial barred Rocks are selected for egg production which of course reduces their setting desire. As mentioned a few bantams would hatch out all you want, Silkies are the hands down best at that, or game hens. Unless you can find a sourece for show type Rocks which still retaing the broodiness and type of the original Rocks.

[harvester]

silkies!!! hahahhahaa! the number one all time sitting chicken. second is the bantam cochin. And if anyone near me has silkies they dont know what to do with? I do! send em to me! ahhahaha

[walls0stone]

Game hens set? cool.
Silkies are every place round here. Like wild cats and rabbits.. all over the place. ;D they will try to set a stone

[harvester]

Game hens set? *cool.



They do? I had game hens for 6 years and they never set for me, I had to use the silkies or the incubator. :-/

[fancyfowl]

We bred pit games til it became a felony to use them properly! They set good as do most of the gamy breeds, my Phoenix and Sumatras were real good setters.

[huckelberry]

ever hear of jersey giants,they dont have the problems the cornish cross do,will get huge an will reproduce,,,i have grown cornish cross to 12 lbs dressed weight.an i did have them on pasture,an i kept,red cornish cross hen,with my layers an she layed a doulble yolk egg almost every day of her life,my all time favorite is the road island red,they are good layers,will set an hatch chicks,an the roosters make fine fryers....huck

[walls0stone]

I have never seen a red cornish cross that I know of. how did you get it? I forgot about the Giants. they are fine birds. I would like to get a Game Cock some day.

[fancyfowl]

standard Cornish varieties are white, dark white laced red and I think buff. The commercial cornish are white and the crosses are made with white Rocks.
You can't get the same bird as the commercial types by crossing standard Cornish and Rocks, they are made from inbred families of each and the Parent stock is not sold.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

fancyfowl--
You know a lot about small livestock like hens and rabbits. Did you spend a lot of years showing or just learn from having them?

[fancyfowl]

Huh! I wouild like to understand all I know about them!! ::)


I have bred several breeds of poultry and waterfowl for a long time, rabbits too. we showed all across the country from Maryland to oklahoma. Studied poultry genetics from a couple of poultry scientists and poultry geneticist + a lot of observation. Wec have made a few breeds or recraeated ones which were about junk from lack of good breeding. i now do mini Rex rabbits and am getting a handle on their genetics. breeding critters has always been my thing. I mess with some plants too. I guess I just like itt??

[jonvee]

I've had good luck with the cornish cross. Since we are a house of 2 I raise them to game hen size which takes about 2 bags of feed and 3-4 weeks.

I want to have a more sustainable flock and I've heard that the New Hampshire and Dorking breeds are good for dual purpose. Also getting a few Silkies for setting eggs. Seems that all the instincts have been bred out of other breeds. And if the power goes out an incubator wont work.

[Anon001]

I've always been partial to the Buff Orpingtons.. they are good big meat birds and are good layers. However, I think the genetics are changing in them, too. Buff Orpington used to be good setters but they don't seem to be as good anymore. This year I plan to order Rhode Island Reds to add to my Buff Orpingtons. Or I may just get a couple banties.

Fancyfowl... got a question..... What about "penny hens". Do they still exist? I haven't googled it yet, but years ago we always kept a few penny hens around because they seemed to be great setters and fierce mommas......protecting chicks from almost anything.

[harvester]

arent penny hens the same as old english games? these are small fighting cocks actually. I used to raise them.

[Anon001]

That could be. I think they were about the same size.

[Deberosa]

You may be interested in the article I put on my blog about this.

http://deberosahomestead.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/dark-cornish-experiment-update/

By the way the entire homestead is for sale right now. ;-)

The Dark Cornish did extremely well for us. I just gave away a freezer full of chicken because we can't take it with us on the trip to VA. Very meaty and very independent birds!