Orpingtons As A Dual Purpose Breed

I've mentioned that one of the reasons I chose to raise English Orpingtons was not only for their beauty, but because thus far, they have proven to be very good layers, and meat for the table as well. They've also been docile and easily contained in our yard fence, which matters in our area.

I had a couple of boys that had wry tail. It's a disqualification at shows, and a defect that you don't want to pass along, so they were culled.
Hopefully I won't see any in the next generation. It's an actual deformity of the spine, and the pictures are to help anyone learning. It wasn't noticable until probably 4 months, and got worse as they got older.

So, of these two boys that were processed, one was going to be my backup rooster so that was disappointing. You can see in the pictures that he was shorter, and heavier fleshed than the other boy.
I have kept his brother as my main boy, who is in one of the last pictures. He and the heavier boy were from a brother of the rooster I used for breeding the following hatches. Their dad was mean as a rattlesnake, so I'm hoping that particular trait wasn't passed along lol.
Mom cooked one in the crockpot, and I slow-simmered the other and made noodles...they were very good. This one was 4.5 lb.s at 5-ish mo.s old (after processing)so I imagine that the other was 5 lb.s or more.
I hope this will encourage anyone who's interested to raise your own food if possible, to share info on why culling for wry tail is necessary, and to show those interested that this line is table-worthy.