Turkeys and Chickens

[Bettacreek]

Alright, I just can't decide on breeds. I'd like a semi-fast growing bird, with good feed to meat conversion, but I'd like them to breed on their own. I was thinking about the midget whites, but hell, I might as well just buy cornish x, with all the bigger those turkeys get. I plan to let them range with everything else, and my last broad breasted white turkey was an EXCELLENT forager, but I don't want to facilitate breeding.

As for chickens, I'm thinking possibly marans. I was planning on silkies, but without any further communication from my swapper, I don't think I'm getting them. I figure I can keep a few SG hens around for my pleasure, and raise another breed (with hens and a roo) for SS and breeding purposes. So, obviously I'd like a dual purpose breed, one that's good with foraging (honestly, I think that's a stupid thing to say, because if cornish x can make great foragers, I think ANYTHING can make a good forager). I don't want to hold onto roosters for months on end before being able to butcher them though, and I don't want to waste my time butchering 2lb roosters. So... Any thoughts? Should I just order cornish x and find a nice laying breed for eggs/breeding?

 

[pinkfox]

narraganset, bronze and Bourbon reds all come to mind for a good growing meat turkey that can still breed naturally...

in terms of chickens, theres alot of marans folks around here and while the eggs are pretty there not heavy layers, and "so-so" for dual purpose...
id personally look into the rocks (barred if you like the cukoos), for a good dual purpose bird.

 

[Bettacreek]

I guess marans won't be my best bet then. :/ I wanted something pretty, without sacrificing my needs. I thought marans laid a good deal of eggs, but alas, I was wrong, lol. I would've liked those game birds (thai, etc) but they don't lay well at all and are supposed to be flighty. As for turkeys, well, I've "made my decision". Just picked up three royal palms, a BB bronze and a BB bronze/palm mix. They won't have the BEST meat production, but they're pretty and I can still butcher them out. Plus the eggs will sell really well too. Hopefully they'll do some really good free-ranging to help reduce my cost, since meat production won't be the best. Go figure, I get the one breed of turkey that isn't bred for meat.

 

[pinkfox]

ive heard good things about royal palms, sometimes they need to have thier flight feathers clipped though, im told RP's tend ot be "flyers" (hopping over fences onto the roof ect)
some marans lay very well, but the folks ive talked to here are having production issues...(i was looking into cukoos)
barred rocks will give you the black with white barring of the cukoo maran, with a better meat/egg production
brown leghorns have a similar look (and in my opinion a brown leghorn rooster is prettier) as the black Coppers (the hens of the bronw leghorn are a little lighter) and lehorns are egg machines, (though medeteranian so lay White eggs rather than brown)
I must say i like easter eggers, ive never seen an "ugly" EE and they come in any color under the sun, its always a suprise unless you get form a breeder going specifically for a certain color...and ive found them to be good layers.
you might like orphingtons too, good dual purpose, pretty (fluffy) and generally sweet.

 

[the funny farm6]

I have found that my white rocks are good layers and the roos are good size for butchering out.

Must say that some of my favorites are the ee and cochins.

You can get 25 EE and have no 2 look alike.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm honestly almost tempted to do some of my own experimenting... Cx are sometimes raised and actually bred with other breeds. People have issues with the size, but the one thing I was watching showed the process... VERY controlled feedings of the males and females (seperate feeding systems). If people can get Cx to breed, then why not give it a shot? If I end up with more meat than eggs (from a failed process) then I can always pay $0.25-$0.85 per dozen eggs at the auction until the next flock is old enough to lay... Or eat some of those showgirl eggs, lol. I wonder if it'd truely work that way? I know that they're hybrids, but really, if you can raise them for three years, you could just buy another batch after two or three years, to keep with the closer genetic pattern.

 

[the funny farm6]

A good friend of mine has pure dark cornish hens and pure americana hens all covered by americana roos and she is getting some great cornishX out of them! Drop dead georgous colors (including blues and splash). The roos that she is going to butcher have real wide breasts, but are a taller bird than the norm cornishX. The first offspring hens are very good broodys! They are also laying fools.

She got 14 strait run chicks of the dark cornish and they all turned out to be hens.
They are going to freezer camp this weekend. I will see if she will take pics and get dressed weights.
These were also free range with little to no feed.

 

[pinkfox]

pure cornish are lovely, smaller breast than the cornish x's (the cornish croses typically sold for meat are usually cornish x white rock), but being a game hen they forrage well, do great on little-no suplimental feed, are FAST and they have good long legs (nice drumsticks lol) and grow fast...they mix in the rock to increase the breast size for comercial meaties
i think if you were to get some cornish mixes though, assuming you keep them on mostly forrage...you might be able to?

 

[Bettacreek]

From everything I've read, I thought the pure cornish were slow growers? I swear, my eyes must be going cross from trying to figure out a breed to get, lol. I loved the cornish bantams that a buddy of mine had, they were neat little compact birds. With the Cornish x, I know that people who have had them breed end up with super fast growing birds (very close to the rate of the cornish x original), so I don't see why it wouldn't work, if you were very strict, military-like with the diet. Free-ranging and then a little bit of feed. I need to do some research on the average weight gain of a regular layer (maybe a DP breed?) and then when starting (if I do this), constantly weigh the breeder birds, to make sure that they're not gaining too much, too fast. Males would probably have to be kept on a stricter diet than the females, because otherwise, they cannot mount the females. A lower protein content would probably help as well, but not sure, since I plan to be free-ranging (free protein).

 

[the funny farm6]

I wish you were closer to me I just hatched 45 of these cornish X americana and I have 6 doz more in the 'bator. I could give you some to try!