Hi all, long term reader, first time poster. I would love to grow some home grown meat chickens to slaughter for the freezer. Does anyone know anywhere that I can purchase birds such as cornish x for a reasonable price close to Victoria. Or has anyone tried to cross bread two birds for the sole purpose of going on the table. Any advice to the keen but novice poultry keeper. Hinga
Australorps were originally bred as a utility breed good layers so they would be a good start , Sussex and Rhode Island Reds also but don't lay as well (egg numbers per yr) . We messed around with this a lot , daughter was keen on showing birds so we ended up with all sorts of breeds . Problems arise with , how much do you want to spend , you will have to cross minimum of two types , a game bird over a large species , then back to a large type to get a better bird . So three breeding pens to maintain so you can breed meat birds , roosters everywhere , back up roosters in case you lose one , hens that only lay a few eggs now an then , you get the picture every pen has to fed $$$ . Sorry im not trying to spoil it for you it is great FUN im just giving you info so you can make wise choices that you are happy with . Now a friend in the show bird world came upon some feed from the commercial meat chicken industry through a mate of a mate you know dodgy brothers , he fed this feed to his game birds and the results in growth rates were astounding , so the birds we buy in the shop are as much about the feed they eat as their breeding . So without the super secret alien based chicken feed we will never match those birds in the chicken shops . Better I think to buy day old meatbirds from the industry and feed them a nice diet until we Wang their heads off , we thought about using commercial hens to breed our own , industry has that covered they get too heavy and their legs wont carry them . All this was from a few years ago now so there may have been some changes . Have a go like I said its great fun WARNING though the poultry addiction is a strong one .
All chickens are edible of course. Light sussex are a good heavy bird and also lay well. Australorps are good tough all rounders. Your local produce supply place should be able to put you in touch with a breeder or you can buy an incubator and eggs on line. Think bigger than just meat birds on the table….. If it is for your own consumption, how many other things can you get chickens to to do for you that are useful? Dealing with food scraps, insect pests, clearing and preparing garden beds etc etc. Eggs of course. You limit the essential chookness of chooks and lose out on many of their functions by thinking of them as just chicken maryland that moves.
Hi grahame. Thanks for your post, I live in Warrnambool soon to be 10acres in killarney. Perhaps your location is a little far away for australorps. Do you reccommend using these as meat chicks...you have tried these before. By the way, your garlic looks amazing. It's an idea I have considered with a part of my 10acres as the soil in killarney is beautiful free draining volcanic soil. How many acres are you on? Keep up the great work. Hinga
I'm in the process of working this out myself. I am gong for a mixture of australorp, rocklorp and RIR. Also going to try the chicken tractor on steroids (for egg production) that geoff lawton talks about as well as 2 smaller pens for breeding up the stock. it will be interesting to find out which way you dedided to go.
