Dual purpose breeds

[siletz]

This past year we raised some of our Buff Orpington chicks as meat chickens.  We like the idea of raising one breed of chicken both for eggs and meat and we already had the buffs for our egg layers. We enjoyed the process and will do it again this year.  I was wondering who else raises dual purpose birds and which breeds you have that have done well for you.  Which breeds gave you a nice meaty carcass and at what age did you butcher?  Thanks!

[bergere]

I love purebred Cornish.

Also liked Marans, Salmon Favorelles...

[Deleted]

I just bought baby chicks from Orschelns on Thursday. I bought 1 Rhode Island Red pullet, 1 Buff Orpington pullet, 1 Production Red pullet, 2 Red Sex Link pullets and 2 Americauna pullets. I noticed they had what they called frypan special chicks. I am sure these are almost all roosters. Anyway, they had them for $.50 each. I took my little pullets home and got them situated in the brooder, then talked to dh. I ended up going back and buying 10 of the frypan special. At 50 cents, I figured I couldn't go wrong. I know they take longer than the Cornish Cross to grow out, but we like the dual purpose chicks better. These are a variety of barred rock, RIR, Buff Orp, and Americauna. I will see how they grow out. I hope my little pullets will furnish us with plenty of eggs and meat next year.

[siletz]

Thanks for the replies! I have recently been reading up on the Delawares. Does anyone have any experience with them?

[Deleted]

We have tried a lot of different breeds and always just come back to the Orps. We want something that is sustainable on little outside feed. DS got a dozen of the Cornish cross this year, from the free chick day at the feed store. We have done it before with a lot of different breeds. He fed them 1 sack of chick starter and turned them out with the Orp hen that hatched her clutch. We will see how they grow. They are getting ground oats, heavy screenings as scratch and whatever they find out in the pasture. They look good so far, about double the size of the Orps right now. We have done this before, they grow faster, butcher 4 weeks earlier because they get so big. We don't like all the fat of the Cornish cross when fed out, on commercial feed, very little taste and soft meat. It is just easier for us to keep 1 breed and since I will always have Orps we go back to them, havent found a better all around chicken....James

[jamiecatheryn]

We have eaten 2 buff orp roosters and an easter egger roo, but didn't try to raise for meat it just ended up that way. They tasted great at about 16w and were of a decent size, already a bit tough though. Honestly, and this is purely theory right now for me if I were to grow meat birds on purpose I think I'd go for ducks or guineas, they forage better and chicken meat is readily available for sale but other birds are costly to buy.

[Deleted]

The only other meat bird we grow are pigeons. Otherwise rather have rabbit. Not a fan of duck at all. Goose, wild, breast only. Rest is dog food....James

[claytonpiano]

We raise Orps as well and like them because they forage so well. I have raised barred rocks, but very little meat. I have raised Freedom Rangers, but they did not forage as well as I had hoped. We let them cross breed with our Orps, but that experiment was something of a failure. It did not really increase the size of the Orps.

[bergere]

Interesting about everyone liking the Orps... the ones I have here, seem to be all feather, and not near as heavy as my Susssex or Marans... or the Golden Comets for that matter.