Broiler Meat Birds: To Brood Or Not To Brood

[Evan2408]

Written below is my take on the "Broiler" breed of meat birds and why I will never, ever use them again:

They are terribly disgusting creatures that poop constantly and lay in it as if it were a comfortable bed. Their white feathers turn yellow, if they even develop which in most cases they do not because they are engineered to grow at such a rapid pace. They are not a natural breed of chicken. They are genetically modified by scientists to make the most meat grow on a bird in the shortest period of time and with the least amount of food possible. At six weeks old, they can barely stand up so they end up just laying down all day and create what we call "bed sores." By the time they are ready to be culled (eight weeks) they can barely even stand and it is the best thing possible for them at that point. If people want to raise chickens for meat I suggest they don't use broilers, white rocks are a far better choice. They can be raised like a normal chicken and be with the rest of the flock. Unlike the broilers who if you put outside, don't even know how to be a real chicken. If you have anything else to add to this please feel free to comment. Thanks

 

[angel8035]

I think the "terribly disgusting creatures" are the humans who breed birds this way. These animals are prisoners in their own deformed bodies. In our society, the bottom dollar always wins out over an animal's welfare.

 

[bigredfeather]

Well, a couple of things. First, they are not genetically modified. They are simply a hybrid which is a cross of different breeds. If raised properly, they do act like normal chickens. This pic was taken last Wednesday when these birds where at almost 8 weeks old.





As you can clearly see, they are fully feathered and clean as can be. Not one bird in there had any trouble walking. As a matter of fact, when I move the tractor ahead (I move it everyday) they all race to the front to snatch up crickets, mosquitoes, or any other bug that may be present. Then they search the area for the greens that they like to eat. Sounds like something a normal chicken might do. You suggest using a White Rock? So you want to use twice as much feed and more than double the grow time to get a bird with more bone and less meat. If you had a bad experience raising a batch of Cornish Cross, don't blame it on the breed. If raised properly they aren't as you have described in your post. They are capable of being active and healthy if given the chance. Posts like this aren't fair to others trying to decide what breed of chicken to raise for meat because it just isn't accurate.

 

[Bossroo]

Written below is my take on the "Broiler" breed of meat birds and why I will never, ever use them again:

They are terribly disgusting creatures that poop constantly and lay in it as if it were a comfortable bed. Their white feathers turn yellow, if they even develop which in most cases they do not because they are engineered to grow at such a rapid pace. They are not a natural breed of chicken. They are genetically modified by scientists to make the most meat grow on a bird in the shortest period of time and with the least amount of food possible. At six weeks old, they can barely stand up so they end up just laying down all day and create what we call "bed sores." By the time they are ready to be culled (eight weeks) they can barely even stand and it is the best thing possible for them at that point. If people want to raise chickens for meat I suggest they don't use broilers, white rocks are a far better choice. They can be raised like a normal chicken and be with the rest of the flock. Unlike the broilers who if you put outside, don't even know how to be a real chicken. If you have anything else to add to this please feel free to comment. Thanks

Please prove with published peer review scientific papers the statement that the Cornish X were " engineered " and " gentically modified" . Genetic Engineering technololgy simply did not exist when these birds were first selected for meat production use. Scientists did select superior performing parent stocks from existing chicken stocks and bred the resulting birds in a 4 or more line cross to yield this superior performing terminal meat bird. The rest of these statements are simply NOT true. How come BILLIONS of these birds are successfully produced per year by commercial producers as well as many good folks on this board in their own backyards ( including me, after raising other breeds for over half a century) ?

 

[annageckos]

You should read this thread, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-your-cornish-x-meaties-tractors-do-not-count. These meat birds are free ranged, aloud to run and eat grass and bugs and sound like they do well.

 

[SmokinChick]

TROLL! Added to ignore list.

 

[PotterWatch]

Your title is rather misleading. With vitriol like that, I would expect it to read something more like "Broiler Meat Birds: Freaks of Nature No One Should Raise." At least then, I would have known not to bother opening and reading it. Now that I have, I would like to say that broiler chickens are how you raise them. If you raise birds in an indoor space and never allow them to explore the outdoors like commericial guys do, then yes, you will raise a lot of poor-looking and possibly sick birds. However, if you raise them free-range or in tractors that are moved often (and not packed with too many birds), you will find them to be strikingly similar to your other chickens. Ours scratch, peck, dust-bathe, and forage with almost as much gusto as my layers. They are nice looking birds once they get past the awkward feathering-in stage. As bigredfeather said, they are not genetically engineered, but selectively bred. Big difference.

Some of the thousands of broilers I have raised:

 

[ChocolateMouse]

While I agree that improperly kept broilers can cause issues.... You're giving an unfair assessment of these birds, probably based on your own ignorance on how to raise them safely.

I've not been keeping chickens a long time but I did my research. I restrict feed. I introduced them to grit, bugs and greens at two days old. They had space to RUN in their brooder. They were hunting bugs that flew around their heat lamp at a week old.

Now at three weeks they are outside in a small tractor. They are showing none of the "typical" health problems of the breed. They are feathering out nicely and are so healthy they are trying to fly! (And succeeding I might add!) They are trying so hard that one of them broke their blood feathers open whacking it into the wood on my tractor and got a fair bit of a cut too... And showed no sign of even knowing it was injured. Two days later it's in perfect health again.

These birds RUN and JUMP and FLY when I come over with their feed. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I wanted a more "foraging" bird but with how great these birds act I'm not really seeing a reason to change over to a slower-growth animal until I have a lot more space.

 

[donrae]

Disgusting........Engineered

................not a natural breed

..............genetically modified

..............least amount of food

....................bed sores? seriously?.................

Want to be this person had 25 CX crammed in a hundred square feet max, indoors, and it was a horrible, horrible life for the birds?

 

[Natalijaasbj]

First of all....
People! please, I thought we have a right to express our own opinion about certain aspects of raisng meat flock on this forum. I guess I was wrong. These days you have to be politically correct... even discussing breeds of chickens people like or do not like.
I have to agree that when you, Evan, wrote that CX are "terrible,disgusting creatures" it sounded...well... cruel. And I agree with Angel that this is NOT their fault that people made them like that. I think I would say it is "terrible, digusting" what people are doing these days to produce their "meat" quickly. Nevermind that the birds ' organs fail because of unnatural quick growth. Nevermind they are barely moving before "harvesting" and many of them have half-naked bodies and can not walk still being a "chick" age.
I never thought about it ( I am new to chickens) until yesterday when I saw the big flock of almost ready to "harvest" CXs. Now... they were raised in perfect conditions( I myself am a customer of this farm - I got my heritage birds there), so I know these people who run this farm and how respectfully they treat all of their animals.
My 6 y.o.son saw this flock of CX's and ran to see them. And I did not like what I saw...They were SO different from my heritage flock - they looked like bunch of barely moving old and tired chickens. Many of them had skin exposed. Some of them were laying down. That was NOT a pretty picture I have to say. I felt sorry for these birds. I will never ever raise them after what I saw.
Again, this is my opinion. Does not matter if you have the same opinion on the issue or not, we should feel free to express our disagreements.
Natalija