Meat question: Dorkings and Dark or White Cornish

first read my BYC page..

2nd, highly unlikely you'll ever find a breeder of LF white cornish, let alone one who'll sell you some birds.

I just processed 4 dark cornish last night. Comparing them to delawares that were raised along side, there is not much difference provided you get all those pin feathers out. I only plucked the breast of the dark cornish in an attempt to increase visibility while teaching my wife how to skin chickens, which I do 98% of the time.

Anyways, my overall impression of dark cornish is "pleasantly surprised." There is no mistaking their carcass for any other chicken I have processed in the past (Delaware, Buff Orp, Rhode Island Red) as they have 2x+ the white meat. Their leg quarters were also quite large. The dark cornish were from McMurray.

I also do house my bantams separate, but out in the open they mingle and I don't have any problems. My bantam cochin roo tries to get with the full sized ladies, but they get freaked out and take off with him riding on their back. After that a bigger roo comes running and chases him off (repeat).

The were 20wks old. Skinning was tough to figure out, as I wasn't pulling hard enough the first couple times I tried it and ended up using the pull and cut type method. It took forever! Now I make a cut just under the keel and pull everything open on the under side. I usually separate the skin into two sections, front and back by cut/pulling around the mid section. The front comes off like a t-shirt. The bottom sometimes needs some help from a knife along the back (its really attached back there) which I then use as a handle. I cut around the pelvis and open the cavity. I loosen things up a little and then pull by the skin/handle and all the guts come out attached. It took a while to figure out how to get everything disconnected, but when you do, it just comes right out. I use a sharp boning knife to do this btw.

I am usually making chicken soup/dumplings so whole bird in pot for a couple hours. Remove meat and bones back in pot for another hour or so. Skim and strain and add meat back to soup and finish w/ noodles/veggies/dumplings. I have started using white meat like I normally do as the yield on the dark cornish is so much more. I have also marinated and grilled leg quarters and ground dark meat and mixed w/ soy and ginger to make small meatballs which i cook in boiling asian type chicken based soups. Oh, I have also used feet in stock, but its a pain to scald and peel them (or I am bad at it).

I keep my bantams seperate, but would guess you could mix them with other birds if crossbreeding didn't matter-- or they all were to be slaughtered.