Chickens!

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm looking into rearing chickens for meat. Potentially silly question but can you rear chickens for the dual purpose of eggs and meat, or are there specialist breeds for each?

Also, rather than buying in day-old chicks, is it possible to buy in poults so they're easier to look after? I'm probably looking at buying in about ten a week to start with - what sort of age would it be best to buy them in.

 

[Blue]

loads of breeds are classed as dual purpose, including the different coloured Sussex breeds, many rare breeds, wyandottes, plymouths etc etc

you can buy pullets/point of lay chckens, around 18 weeks old. You will probably have to fetch these from a breeder (whereas day-old chicks can be "delivered")

have you kept chickens before?
when you say "buying in ten a week" ... how many are you hoping for all together?!

 

[Rebelodicus]

I'm looking into rearing chickens for meat. Potentially silly question but can you rear chickens for the dual purpose of eggs and meat, or are there specialist breeds for each?

The words you may be looking for may be "Utility Birds". I have a Buff Orpington that is supposed to be one ... there are several others iirc. Light susseex ? Plymouth Rock as Blue says. There are some "special" breeds for the table ... engineered.... Don't live long. Not intended to. 04 The egg layers are more obvious/common. but are bred to the point where it would be a miracle if they went broody. Those "layers" breeds would die out if it weren't for human incubation.

You certainly have me intrieged about what you are doing .... I'm a noob and very uneducated relative to 9 tenths of this forum.... What is the need for ten a week ? you got me there.....

 

[Anonymous]

Table birds are usually required to have a fast turnaround, so day olds are about as much as you can buy.

I live in France, so I don't know what hybrids you have readily available in the UK. But I am getting commercial naked necks and "cendré" They boys make good table birds at 12-14 weeks, and the girls do fine as egg layers - though they could also be table birds if you kept them on growers rather than switch them to layers like I do.

I'd advise looking for a medium growth hybrid, if you don't want to wait 26 weeks or so for a dual purpose cockerel to reach table weight. Fast growth hybrids I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, I like my food to be healthy

I'd say 10 birds a week is a heck of a lot, unless you are planning on feeding the 5,000! Also, unless all your birds are strictly for home use, then you have to slaughter in an approved manner (i.e. stunning before slaughter) before you can legally sell them (and I'm sure many other legal hoops to jump through too)

btw, "poults" are turkey chicks, older chicken chicks are normally just refereed to as "growers"