Return of Dual-Purpose Chickens

Dual-purpose chickens are the classic backyard breeds. Farmers, like my grandparents, kept them to produce both eggs and meat for sale, until the introduction of commercial hybrids developed solely as layers or solely as broilers.

In commercial production both hens and roosters are raised as broilers. But for efficient egg production, layer hybrid lines are lightweight. The roosters, therefore, are basically useless since they don’t lay eggs and don’t produce much meat. So they are eliminated at the time of hatch — what a waste!

In recent times consumers have caught on to the rooster issue and are putting pressure on industry to find a better way. One proposal has come full circle — the return of dual-purpose breeds.

Dual-Purpose Chickens

Often sneered at by commercial producers as no-purpose chickens, dual-purpose breeds are a compromise between efficient (meaning cheap) egg production and efficient (meaning fast and cheap) meat production. Dual-purpose hens eat more, generally take longer to lay, and produce fewer eggs than commercial layer strains. The roosters take longer to grow and make less meat than commercial broiler strains.

But dual-purpose breeds lay better than meat birds and grow faster and bigger than layer hens. Their main attraction for those of us who lean toward sustainability is that you can hatch chicks from your own flock, keep the pullets as future layers, and put the surplus cockerels into the freezer.

Most breeds in the American and English classifications are dual-purpose. Many others, including some of the breeds typically considered ornamental, are equally versatile.

Some breeds are slightly more efficient than others at producing eggs. They are usually breeds that are less likely to brood. Other breeds grow larger and are therefore meatier. These characteristics vary from breed to breed, and also from strain to strain within the same breed.

Some dual-purpose chickens are hybrids. They include the Black Sex Link and the Red Sex Link, the chicks of which may be sexed by the color of their down. However, if your purpose in having a dual-purpose flock is to hatch your own future layers and broilers, hybrids are not the way to go, since they do not breed true.

Dual-Purpose for Commercial Production

In Europe — where the push is on to ban the disposal of day-old layer-strain cockerels — one of the proposals under consideration is to use dual-purpose chickens. One of the breeds they are looking at is the English Ixworth, a decades-old breed once use for commercial production.

Germany, where the ban on disposing of male chicks started, is also looking at developing an improved dual-purpose hybrid that is more efficient at producing both eggs and meat. Among the breeds being studied for this breeding program are the white Plymouth Rock and a fairly recent import into North America, the German Bielefelder.

For commercial use, one of the challenges of using dual-purpose hens for eggs is that they get fat too easily. And obese hens stop laying eggs, as backyard chicken keepers find out after feeding their flocks too many treats. On the other hand, one study determined that dual-purpose chicken meat is better than that of conventional broilers.

The Dutch firm Kipster is already using dual-purpose chickens to commercially produce both eggs and meat. Kipster first opened in Holland 2017 and now operates in the United States as well. They not only keep the cockerels for meat, but also harvest the hens after their first full laying cycle.

Kipster now sells eggs under Kroger’s Simple Truth brand. At my local Kroger a dozen eggs currently sell for between $6 and $8. Given the high price of layer ration these days, that’s probably not unreasonable.

I like that industry is finally catching on to the versatility of dual-purpose chickens. Lots of backyard chicken keepers could have told them years ago, if only they had been willing to listen.