Chicken boarders

[Madchook]

I have just seperated off some of my hens in a new house to be the breeders for next yr. I was wondering what my chances are of keeping a large hubbard girl on her legs? I am not feeding adlib and they are now on grass / my weed patch and I will be letting them FR when the Indian Game chick is a little bigger so I am hoping this will stop her growing too fast Is it a matter of growing them slowly and then they will be ok as their body will be strong enough, or will it happen whatever at some point? These are my first hubbards and she is pretty large but flies and jumps ok-the other one that is a boy (but has some grey feathers???) is half the size which is odd (wondering if it isn't pure).

Also, I have put Hubbard 'Dorothy' in with my only Indian Game hen 'Rose' and they have been adopted by Bacon the Red Dorking who will make a decent cross too I think. I have either 4 IG roo chicks to choose from, or 3 Cuckoo Marans - I have been thinking the IG obviously but I'm not really sure. And do I just go for the biggest? I am never good at choosing! Or maybe I should wait and buy in an Australorpe boy when they are mature?! What would you experienced table bird breeders do? I guess I need to consider the size of the boy for the Red Dorking too??

Thanks if you read this, I know it is a bit confusing!

[Redwing]

I had three cuckoo marans boys that I grew on for meat, they produced a reasonable amount of meat but dark meat and they were quite unfriendly and aggressive. If I was you I would probably keep an IG boy in the hope of producing something with more breast meat, he should go well with the girls you have too

 

If you feel the girls are suffering a bit with his size you can always separate them for a while. I think the cockerel on River Cottage was an IG and he was crossed with a Dorking for meat

 

My only hybrid bird is a Sasso table bird that I couldnt bring myself to cull, she is a great character and is very large but as we keep her with pure breeds she has lost the meat bird 'sitting around doing nothing' habit and is quite active so she is ok, she is 18 months old now and going strong, she threatened to go off her legs a while back but we put her on a diet and kept her on the move more and now she is fine

 

Hubbards are one degree more commercially intensive than Sassos though so you may struggle more but its definitely an option, just be prepared to step in if she is suffering

[TAJ]

Wernlas recommended crossing a Cornish Game male with a Dorking female for a good meat bird, but I haven't tried it. Even my slower growing colour yields meat birds wouldn't have lasted as breeders - they were fine on their legs and laying well but so heavy by 8 months that their breathing was really bad when we got any warmer weather - in the end I decided it wasn't fair to keep them as clearly they werre not designed for a long life.

 

Tracy

[bronze]

I have some two year old hubbards who are doing fine. They manage to make it up the cube ladder and one even went broody recently

[Jools]

I'd definitely recommend Indian Game as the male half of the mating for meat birds. They produce a lot of meat and are tightly feathered without much fluff, which makes plucking much easier (so the husband says!)