Keeping meat birds

This is our first year with meat birds. It might be a silly question, but if a person keeps a couple hens, and doesn't butcher them, will they eventually lay eggs, that can be hatched?

We have a couple gals around that were spared on butchering day, because we had company come out, and they never ended up loosing their heads. These girls are now a week short of 4 months old. They don't know that they are meat birds. They waddle around with the rest of the chickens, going in and out of the house. Yes, they aren't as fast as the rest of the chickens, but their legs aren't giving out or anything, and they seem healthy. I noticed a rooster trying to breed with them the other day, and it set me to wondering if a person could hatch out eggs from them and if you would get a decent sized eating bird out of it.

Heaven help me, but I think I am almost starting to get attached to these heavy bodied soft white gentle girls. Yes, yes, I know they need to go, and they probably will soon. But it did make me wonder...

We have butchered pullets that were at the point of lay, so pretty sure they will lay eggs.

Yes, you would definitely get eggs, and they should hatch just fine, and would grow into birds intermediate in size between meat birds and your rooster.

A few years ago I had some basic white meat birds, I accidentally got at auction. I had them for 10 months before dad butchered them. They ran around free ranged with the rest of the flock. They did lay large white eggs. I didn't try to hatch them though.
I think the Freedom Rangers would be great birds to try and breed.

I have heard that the freedom rangers have a recessive dwarfing gene built into their 4-way-cross lineage, which would mean that breeding the production birds together would give 25% dwarf offspring.
This is just hearsay, but it is from a reliable source. Does anyone else know about this?

Silkieb they will lay eggs if they are able to get to the right age and stay healthy. I had a friend that used them to improve his White Plymouth Rocks in Australia. He wanted more size and better shape and the meat birds helped him get there.

Yes, they will lay for you. I have kept some back before. They are not the best layers, but the ones I had kept to that point laid very big brown eggs every second or third day. I had one that even laid triple yoker eggs!
My intension was the same as yours. I wanted to breed my own meat birds. However, mine did not make it through the winters each time I tried to keep some. They all ended up the same way, face down on the floor dead from a rooster. They always seem to be the favourites of roosters! I think their hearts give out on them. They can't handle all the attention!
With that said, If you raised some broilers from chics and didn't feed them like meats birds, they would probably have healthier hearts and not be so prone to problems! Maybe if you keep them away from real aggressive roosters as well.
Let us know how you make out!

I wanted to do the same thing. One of neighbours tried to do it last year, but her birds died. She said they were fine as long as they had heat and at least 12 hours of light. Once she took the light away they died pretty quick. If you could get some fertile eggs from a cross with a good fast growing large roo, I would love some of those eggs. I wanted to try crossing the meat bird hens with large fowl cornish to see what happens. I just don't have time this winter to baby the hens through the winter.

Well, those two girls are still kicking around. Yesterday, I was astounded to see them launch themselves out of the chicken pop door. Yes Launch. I almost thought I seen a spark of intelligence shining in their eyes as they first studied their landing pad, then come thundering down. One actually made it almost 5 ft before she crash landed on top of a brahma, knocking the brahma literally for summer saults. The meaty girl did a chest plant, getting them both covered in mud. And I actually seen one running, errr or shall we say waddling at a rather 'rapid' speed today to get out of the way of the guinea fowl. The rooster reeeeally likes these girls. At times they accept his advances, and others they make their get-a-way. They really don't know they are meaties. They have even worked their way up in the pecking order.

They will be 5 months old in a few days. People who see them are surprised that they actually like the way they look. The picture doesn't really do justice to the size of the gal. The kids really love them. They are nice and calm.

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Same bird. Muddy from the roosters advances.
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