Best rooster breed?

[shadowbanned]

Hi, I am wanting to start a good dual purpose flock. The hens will be various dual purpose breeds like australorp, RIR, orpington, barred rock and jersey giant.

Now for the rooster.... I want the offspring to be good for meat. I was considering using a jersey giant for the rooster but I don't want the offspring to lose too much in egg production or consume so much feed either. I've thought about starting with a barred rock rooster and crossing it with one of the other breeds and then using one of them as the rooster. Then the offspring would be 1/4 jersey giant.

But then what about the future? They don't live forever. How would I get a new half and half rooster? Should I just let them all give me these hybrids and breed them when the original heritage breeds get old? Would that cause problems?

Am I over-thinking all of this? Lol

 

[FunClucks]

Where do you plan to source your chickens from? Most large commercial hatcheries optimize their breeds for egg production, regardless of their original purposes

Since you want to breed for meat, is there a reason you're not starting with a dual purpose breed already optimized for meat? Check out the offerings at Freedom Ranger hatchery. They have a number of promising options. I've heard very good things on this site about Freedom Ranger's dual purpose New Hampshires optimized for meat, and just got a bunch of them and the White Rangers. Very happy with them so far, though they're young yet.

 

[shadowbanned]

Where do you plan to source your chickens from? Most large commercial hatcheries optimize their breeds for egg production, regardless of their original purposes

Since you want to breed for meat, is there a reason you're not starting with a dual purpose breed already optimized for meat? Check out the offerings at Freedom Ranger hatchery. They have a number of promising options. I've heard very good things on this site about Freedom Ranger's dual purpose New Hampshires optimized for meat, and just got a bunch of them and the White Rangers. Very happy with them so far, though they're young yet.

Yeah, that's exactly my dilemma. I've heard the dual purpose breeds from the hatcheries still don't give much meat so I was thinking of crossing them with the jersey giant to get more meat out of them but I still want a lot of eggs too. A good dual purpose breed would sell like crazy where I live! I want it to lay like an australorp but have more meat so i figure why not breed them to a JG lol

I got some silkies from them so maybe I'll have a look at their other breeds then.

 

[FunClucks]

Yeah, that's exactly my dilemma. I've heard the dual purpose breeds from the hatcheries still don't give much meat so I was thinking of crossing them with the jersey giant to get more meat out of them but I still want a lot of eggs too. A good dual purpose breed would sell like crazy where I live! I want it to lay like an australorp but have more meat so i figure why not breed them to a JG lol

I got some silkies from them so maybe I'll have a look at their other breeds then.

You might look on this Forum for what folks have had success with in the past. A lot of folks have tried to breed dual purpose for meat, or to create "meat mutts", hatchery birds or mix birds with better meat production. There's a number of ways to start. Personally, I'd recommend not doing a Jersey Giant, as they tend to grow their frame the first year, and flesh out during the second. For a dual purpose meat bird, you want meat on their frame fast, preferably no later than about 5-6 months. After that point, the meat toughens up as the bird gets older, which limits your cooking options, and your return on investment decreases, since they put on less meat the older they get compared to the amount of food consumed. Don't get me wrong, a chicken of any age is perfectly edible, but you may not always want to pressure-cook your chicken to make it tender enough to eat.

I've heard Breese, American Breese, and Dark Cornish be used as meat mutt starting roosters (among others), or to optimize for meat as their own breed, but it can take a while to get those meaty enough just banking on genetic variation in a closed population. Also a number of folks have bred in CX or 3month broiler lines into their meat mutts by restricting the feed or protein level of the hens as they were growing (so they would stay healthy), and using them to produce mixed chicks, and have been pleased with the results.

 

[shadowbanned]

You might look on this Forum for what folks have had success with in the past. A lot of folks have tried to breed dual purpose for meat, or to create "meat mutts", hatchery birds or mix birds with better meat production. There's a number of ways to start. Personally, I'd recommend not doing a Jersey Giant, as they tend to grow their frame the first year, and flesh out during the second. For a dual purpose meat bird, you want meat on their frame fast, preferably no later than about 5-6 months. After that point, the meat toughens up as the bird gets older, which limits your cooking options, and your return on investment decreases, since they put on less meat the older they get compared to the amount of food consumed. Don't get me wrong, a chicken of any age is perfectly edible, but you may not always want to pressure-cook your chicken to make it tender enough to eat.

I've heard Breese, American Breese, and Dark Cornish be used as meat mutt starting roosters (among others), or to optimize for meat as their own breed, but it can take a while to get those meaty enough just banking on genetic variation in a closed population. Also a number of folks have bred in CX or 3month broiler lines into their meat mutts by restricting the feed or protein level of the hens as they were growing (so they would stay healthy), and using them to produce mixed chicks, and have been pleased with the results.

Thanks for that advice. I definitely don't want to feed giant meat chickens for over a year.... I'll look into the other breeds you mentioned.