what kind of chicken to get?

[Beekissed]

My Black Stars, although excellent layers, don't seem to have a broody bone in their bodies. The NHR, WR and Aussies want to do the broody thing a lot and my Doms don't know what broody means. So, some of the breeds don't seem good for regenerating the flock but big, meaty gals all the same.

I'm culling my BOs for just the reason Pat described...big, meaty gals, not the greatest egg layers, who eat a lot. They don't do the broody thing either. I was kind of hoping to cross my BOs with my PR roo to get a pretty, meaty bird but, though they get the most breeding, they don't lay or brood well.

 

[jenlyn9483]

I have my own meat bird project going on. I have Dark cornish hens. They matured fast, are excellent layers and excellent setters. I WANT MORE OF THEM! I'm looking for a standard cornish roo to breed them with, WLR would be awesome. Currently I have them with my Cuckoo Marans. Marans are suppose to have excellent taste and they are a large bird. Im growing out my first chicks now. They are MaranX Cornish. The chicks look like the cuckoos with larger breast. I will let yall know how they taste compared to Regular ol brahma or RIR roos as soon as I try them. I have one SLW X Cornish pullet that I got off the first batch she looks just like a SLW with big breast. I am going to keep her for further meat bird breeding. I have cochins and Marans but the rest of my birds are pretty feed efficient. I gave up the sexlinx and orpingtons just for the same reason as yall. Now I have the egyptians and love the leghorns, americauanas, Hamburgs, GameX and buttercups, they lay just as good and as large a egg as any heavies I ever had.

 

[patandchickens]

One solution, if you like the other qualities of a nonbroody breed or line, is to keep a few dedicated broodies -- silkies, OEG or OEGB seem to be peoples' most common choices.

Probably my most feed-efficient hen for laying is my lone Golden Campine. She is an excellent layer, even in winter, and because she is small (leghorn sized, but more decorative ) she does not seem to eat much. She is, however, as with many of the small-bodied white-egg layers, completely whackadoodle. Which I consider a serious minus. I don't need chickens flying into walls everytime I walk into the coop

Pat

 

[lorihadams]

I want a good layer and after having a broody hen this summer I definitely would like a broodier breed so that I can continue getting chicks without having to invest in an incubator or ordering more from a hatchery. We wanted to get away from eating commercially raised meat and I just wondered if there is any breed that I could butcher at about 12 weeks. If I order them now, then that would put me at the end of November for butchering which is chilly here (usually in the 50s) but not too cold for processing. We usually don't have any problems processing the turkeys or deer we kill.

I like brown eggs, they seem to go over better around here. I have red sex links now and they were debeaked and they seem kind of skittish lately. I definitely want a friendly breed with the kids and dogs around.