[coco colin]

Help! I'm an Englishman who has been living in the Philippines for 15 years with a fantastic filipina wife and  10+15 year old sons.When, 17 years ago,we got married it was our intention to live in England and for 3.5 years we did! However It became obvious
that a better life could be had in the Philippines.(Just Background)
                                                                            The question I would ask is : - We mainly farm pigs (60 Sows),around 6 months ago we started growing Hubbard chickens from day old chicks bought from an accredited Hubbard distributor. We now find that they (In response to local "conditions")  can/will not supply more than 1500 per month. Could we breed from our existing  birds and  effectively get "F2" hybrids? Please don't laugh at my ignorance, I was wondering if they are like GM corn ! We do already have a new 3240 egg incubator plus hatcher and 20 plus acres of land. You can see we're quite serious and we will find a way past the limits being imposed by our suppliers, one way or another! (Give us the tools..............)
                                                                                                   Any advice would be greatfully received and I would be very happy to phone landlines in England if this would help.

[joyfull]

Hi cc, welcome to the forum. Sorry I can't help answer your questions as I have never bred or kept hubbards but hopefully someone will be along soon to help 

[Foxy]

It is quite complex breeding from F1 hubbards as the parent or foundation stock are kept in very controlled enviroment and are the only "pure" stock available,normally kept under lock and key, hybrids are quite complicated genetic development and companies are keen to protect their investment -plus their hatching capacity is in tens of thousands.

The other problem is the fertility of your meat birds, as well as the fact they are not really designed to live past 14 weeks, and due to their "design" aren't much good at the treading. Saying that it doesn't mean you cant, might be better to put a good healthy dual purpose breed to your meat hens like a light sussex or cornish game for example, meat will be less and kill weight will be achieved later, but a good heathly bird nonetheless.

Do you free range your birds? sounds like a commercial set up you have???

[coco colin]

Hi Foxy and joyfull
                               Thanks for your speedy replies! Firstly I would like to point out that I am more than willing to buy more day old chicks from the present supplier, they can't or won't supply me! Certainly I don't intend to deprive the Hubbard company of income,but also.....Perhaps I should explain our operation more fully, we run our farm paying higher wages than  usual and sell direct to the local population in our own shop at very  competitive prices !(read cheaper) This I suspect is the reason for our difficulties with supply of chicks. Yes I must agree that we are really a commercial operation,I hope that this is not going to bar me from this site! We do have great difficulty in getting information and supplies here in a fairly remote part of the Philippines. Your suggestion of "  light sussex or cornish game " can only be a dream for us, or to put it another way,if only. We keep our birds in a barn type operation and they have 1.5 sq ft each with top quality commercial feed and unlimited clean water.We have a special arrangement with the  National Meat Inspection Service which allows us to harvest both pigs and chickens on our farm and indeed have probably the cleanest farm on the whole island,thanks to Agita and Vircon S !We have our own plucking machine and a good supply of refrigeration and freezing capacity.We have constant power interruptions for which we have to have  our own generator.The incubator and the water pump need to run when required,we can pump 12000 lt per hour so supply is ample even during droughts, the well is 140 ft deep and the tank holds 30,000 lts. As we live in a lightly populated area we are pretty much left alone. Today I found out that our chick supplier is switching to Cobb chicks,not yet sure which ones. Thanks for your suggestions and I will certainly give them a try,I never thought about being "designed" for a shorter life,  this could well be a problem. I'll have a look around for other breeds but I'm not hopeful.

                                                                                            Regards coco 

[GrannieAnnie]

Colin I don't know what you would get if you breed hubbard to hubbard, but I'm sending you a PM re another possible solution!

[coco colin]

Hi folks,
             I'm really sorry to have intruded onto your site and would like to thank everyone for their replies. Obviously your site is for more hobbist activities and I wouldn't want to offend anyone so, thank you once again and now the fat lady has sung !

[iwantanallotment]

 :blink:  I wouldn't call the folks here "hobbyist", Colin!  A lot of us (myself included) are backyard keepers mainly for eggs, yes. But a lot are also very serious and incredibly knowledgeable about poultry.

I thought Foxy's advice was spot on. Even I know that meat birds aren't suitable to breed from, because their life span is necessarily short due to their composure.

Sorry you were disappointed with the replies, but the advice was sound IMHO.

Best of luck anyway, hope you are able to source some dual purpose birds.

[coco colin]

No,no.  I'm very sorry if my last message was seen as  derogatory to hobbists. It was certainly not meant in that light,also the advice about the intended lifespan was something that had just not occured to me. Please, I wouldn't want to offend any site user and the reason I felt that this was not quite the right site for me was perhaps the commercial growing of chickens is likely to upset people who possibly see their chickens almost as pets.Sadly here in the Philippines people still go to bed hungry, lots of them!
We try to redress the balance in some small way. For sure your site members know a lot more about chickens than my wife or myself! (It wouldn't be difficult).The bright news is that we have now located a larger supply of Cobb 500's and we are told that these are better then the Hubbards,we shall see!

[coco colin]

One other thing, When I was 15 I had an allotment near Brentwood in Essex so I was a good boy once upon a time! 

[newatthis]

One other thing, When I was 15 I had an allotment near Brentwood in Essex so I was a good boy once upon a time! 

where abouts in brentwood, i to grow up in that area .... small world

[GrannieAnnie]

And my OH Brian lived in Brentwood once and grew up in Billericay!

[trinacooke]

I was born in Wickford, and took my driving test in Brentwood! perhaps not the best thing to remember a town for though LOL 

Still in Essex but a bit more ey by gum now though! right in the sticks in Great Wigborough! mum and dad are still in Wickford (right near Billericay).

Essex Girl and proud of it 

Trina x

[Foxy]

Coco I dont think anyone is offended! There is such a varied group visiting the forum which makes for interesting and sometimes very amusing reading!

[purplebat]

I was born in Wickford, and took my driving test in Brentwood! perhaps not the best thing to remember a town for though LOL 

Still in Essex but a bit more ey by gum now though! right in the sticks in Great Wigborough! mum and dad are still in Wickford (right near Billericay).

Essex Girl and proud of it 

Trina x

I used to live in Wickford!!!! moved there when i was 3 and moved back to suffolk when i was 9. how is the old place?

[coco colin]

Brentwood,ah those were the days! My allotment was next to the railway tracks,on the east side. Maybe now a "development", well it was there 53 years ago! Trina, I also passed my car driving test at the second attempt (shook hands with the man with the red flag), BUT passed my motorcycle test first time,very proud, except that within 30 minutes had written off my Lambretta by hitting a 10 ton truck ! Doh! I worked at Ilford Films as well. This was all in Brentwood.
               Hi, iwantanallotment, I never said or even implied that the advice was wrong,I simply thought that the site was for people who had a closer attachment to their animals.
Maybe using "hobbyist" was the wrong word and I apologise for any misunderstanding.
            As Brentwood aroused such interest how about Cape Town? I lived there from 1965 until 1971,any takers,or dare I mention Cebu,Philippines? I wouldn't be shocked because I once met someone in London who lives in the same Philippine village (Pop. then 3000) as me: and in 1969 in London unbeliveably I met a guy I was working with in Cape Town. We worked for the same company but in different buildings and were both on holiday! 
                  REMEMBER-- It's hard to beat a person who never gives up