Has Anyone Raised Murray McMurray's Delaware Broilers?

[3KillerBs]

I'm wondering how they are as both meat birds and dual-purpose layers and how they compare to other, ordinary hatchery Delawares.

Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[3KillerBs]

Bump.

 

[wolfwalker]

Mine are 12 weeks old and about the same size as my Light Brahma hens, though not as wide yet. From memory they averaged 5.5 pounds at 11 weeks. I had plans to track them weekly, even have a thread where I started, then I sold my house five days after it being listed and started to scramble to pack and find a new place. I start moving in 6 days.

I had one get injured so I processed it. The wings reminded me almost of young turkey hens, definitely more than a few bites worth that you see in the Cornish cross. The legs were also larger, and my last batch of Cornish resulted in a lot of 8 - 9 pound dressed birds.

Actually, I wish I had bought more than the 10 chicks I did, mine were part of the first shipment this year. I ended up with 8 males to 2 females and of course they are still to young to start laying, size wise though, they can't be far off.

Overall, I've been impressed so far as they have survived without issue here at my 5300ft and I expect them to really do well once we move to a lower elevation, but then again Cornish will do well for me at a lower elevation. But seeing as the breed is not a hybrid and will breed true, so I can have a sustainable flock,that cements it in my flocks going forward.

I will be ordering more come spring, to hopefully get more females and will properly track them week by week and add them to my thread. I might get a few Cornish cross to compare at teh same time as my growing conditions will have changed and to be accurate I would have to re-track both once I get moved.

 

[3KillerBs]

then I sold my house five days after it being listed and started to scramble to pack and find a new place. I start moving in 6 days.

Been there and done that. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

 

[Compost King]

I am glad you brought these Delaware Broilers to my attention, I had no idea McMurray ones bred to be broilers and not Dual Purpose (which means egglayer to me).

 

[speedy2020]

Mine are 12 weeks old and about the same size as my Light Brahma hens, though not as wide yet. From memory they averaged 5.5 pounds at 11 weeks. I had plans to track them weekly, even have a thread where I started, then I sold my house five days after it being listed and started to scramble to pack and find a new place. I start moving in 6 days.

I had one get injured so I processed it. The wings reminded me almost of young turkey hens, definitely more than a few bites worth that you see in the Cornish cross. The legs were also larger, and my last batch of Cornish resulted in a lot of 8 - 9 pound dressed birds.

Actually, I wish I had bought more than the 10 chicks I did, mine were part of the first shipment this year. I ended up with 8 males to 2 females and of course they are still to young to start laying, size wise though, they can't be far off.

Overall, I've been impressed so far as they have survived without issue here at my 5300ft and I expect them to really do well once we move to a lower elevation, but then again Cornish will do well for me at a lower elevation. But seeing as the breed is not a hybrid and will breed true, so I can have a sustainable flock,that cements it in my flocks going forward.

I will be ordering more come spring, to hopefully get more females and will properly track them week by week and add them to my thread. I might get a few Cornish cross to compare at teh same time as my growing conditions will have changed and to be accurate I would have to re-track both once I get moved.

You may want to hatch some from your block and then buy some to add to the block couple years down the road. That way the gene pool isn't too close relate.

 

[Compost King]

I was thinking of getting Delaware broilers and Red Rangers, keep the Delaware females and 1 Red Ranger male for breeding, sell the female chicks as Giant Egger Red Sex Links and raise the males as broilers.

 

[333113]

I have had Delawares for years, and showed them, too. All Delawares I have had, and those I have seen at shows, are like little turkeys at full adulthood, and they get there pretty fast. We don't eat a lot of them, ourselves, since we sell them as hatching eggs.

I looked at the Murray McMurray website, and they say that their Delaware broilers are full-bred heritage birds, not a cross.

The Livestock Conservancy lists Delawares on the watch list, says that they were originally developed to be broilers. Cocks are 8 pounds, hens six. https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/delaware

One of the questions I always get at shows is, how do you breed such big birds when mine get smaller with every generation? The answer is, you measure them as they are growing up and don't select your breeders until they are at least two. My dad and all the old-time breeders used to say, you don't know what you are looking at until you are looking at a two-year-old.

My guess is that Murray McMurray did what many hatcheries do, start producing chicks as soon as the pullets and cockerels are old enough. That's fine for producing lots of chicks that are Delawares, but they are not selecting for any particular traits, so it's not really breeding, per se. So their stock probably became smaller with time, which is the tendency for all large stock.

I also guess that Murray McMurray acquired a line of good Delawares that had actually been selected to be what the breed was meant to be, broilers.

So, their marketing types probably came up with a new name to bring back buyers who wanted broilers, without losing their current stock's customers.

And I say this because, comparing notes with other breeders at the Ohio National Poultry Show last year, most of us have been approached at one time or another by the hatcheries for stock.

 

[3KillerBs]

And I say this because, comparing notes with other breeders at the Ohio National Poultry Show last year, most of us have been approached at one time or another by the hatcheries for stock.

That's actually reassuring for those of us buying hatchery birds to know that they care enough to add good blood from good breeders to their stock.

Every time I plug my info into a What Chicken is Right For You? selector it comes up Delawares and Australorps.

 

[wolfwalker]

You may want to hatch some from your block and then buy some to add to the block couple years down the road. That way the gene pool isn't too close relate.

2 females is not really enough to start a flock from, well it is but it just makes it harder to select for good traits.

So my thoughts are to get another batch of chicks from McMurray so I have enough to breed and look around for good quality stock to get eggs from to add new blood to the flock to the flock next fall. I am so tempted to order more this fall, as McMurrya has some at the last hatch of the season, but just moving to the new farm means I am limited until the pens and barns are built and will not have room.