Cackle's Fry Pan Special

We are wanting to do meat birds for the first time and don't really want to do the cornish Xs. We were leaning toward the Fry Pan Special which is all cockerels of Heavy Breed Chicks ( Heritage male poultry). The site does not give any indication of the length of time it takes to get to butcher weight. Anybody every get these?

I have 100 chicks from a frypan special that are going out to pasture next week. I'm planning on processing at 14-16 weeks. Starting with the largest and allowing the smaller ones to catch up. I normally just do Cornish cross, which are excellent from cackle, but this was an experiment just to see what they would look like. I hope this helps.

I have not ordered this but from my experience it takes 14-20 weeks to raise a heritage breed rooster to an acceptable size. I raise White Rock chickens. I butcher the roosters at about 18 weeks. This way they aren't all crowing yet. I didn't like raising the Cornish Cross. They were rather gross to raise. I liked to eat them just not raise them. That is why we do the white rocks. I use them for meat and eggs. Good luck.

flockman said:

I didn't like raising the Cornish Cross.  They were rather gross to raise.  I liked to eat them just not raise them.

 

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LOL! They are quite possibly the ugliest chickens to watch grow. Where most heritage breeds have that awkward looking stage that only lasts for a week or so and then their feathers fill out and are cute again CCs have an awkward looking stage that's lasts basically through the whole 8 or 10 weeks.

Thanks for the heads up on the heritage Roos. I may need to rethink my slaughter dates. Im not sure what ozarkmomma received but I ended up with white rocks, barred rocks, buff orps and RIRs. The rocks seem to be filling out the best so far (5 weeks) The RIRs are quite puny.

travifive said:

LOL! They are quite possibly the ugliest chickens to watch grow. Where most heritage breeds have that awkward looking stage that only lasts for a week or so and then their feathers fill out and are cute again CCs have an awkward looking stage that's lasts basically through the whole 8 or 10 weeks.

Thanks for the heads up on the heritage Roos. I may need to rethink my slaughter dates. Im not sure what ozarkmomma received but I ended up with white rocks, barred rocks, buff orps and RIRs. The rocks seem to be filling out the best so far (5 weeks) The RIRs are quite puny.

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We haven't ordered yet, still deciding what we want to do. The upside of the CCs is that they are ugly so you don't have to worry about getting attached to them.

When you raise "the fry pan special" do these birds offer enough meat to compare to the broilers?

From what I've heard. You should expect 3.5-4.5lb dressed weight on large heritage breeds. Of course that all hinges on many factors but that's at least what I've heard. The upside is supposed to be a more intense flavor and I would presume a much lower feed bill.

I have 50 broilers that are putting down a 5gal bucket of feed every day whereas I have about 75 large breed hens and Roos(I haven't taken the time to count out boys from girls yet) and they all only consume 2gal per day.

I think I'm going to order from S and G next later this summer and try out some of their red ranger. I still like doing CCs too though.

I love my Cornish X...I let them outside with us everyday and they follow us all around the yard and sleep on our shoes...Funny chubby things. They feel like a chicken you want to eat when you pick one up though...Like the cartoon drawings of chickens...that is what they feel like...a cartoon roast chicken...
They are super personable and funny. I wasn't a fan when they stayed in the brooder all day, but now they are out they look so much better...and they actually move now...the first day not so much, but today they were running and jumping...or doing their version of running and jumping...Lol.
I know we have to eat them...but I am enjoying hanging out with them outside these last few days....They are 5 weeks now...
They were gross in the brooder, but now that they are getting out, they have cleaned up a lot...Their stomachs were gross in the brooder because they never got off of them. I do feel like I am probably making them tougher and possibly less tasty, but they're more like chickens...So they might eat a little worse, but they will live a little better. I do notice that they will not forage...They don't scratch at the ground very much, but they do wander all about checking out things...No grass in their diet though...

Aww man they totally get picked on by the pekin ducks though...So funny they share a large outdoor brooder with a partition in the middle so they aren't actually together, but they are neighbors, but they had never seen each other...Anyway when they first met the meat birds are all like hey guys, what's going on? You got some food there in the puddle...? The ducks were all like honk, hiss, pinch...or they just like walk up against them and push the meat birds back...Poor little things.

I think you're probably making them taste better. A more varied diet always adds flavor to the meat. You may just have to keep them around for a few more weeks so they can reach the size you want since they are burning more calories. I raise mine in moveable pens(salatin style). I have kept some in the past as pets and they tend to act more like normal chickens the more I treat them like normal chickens. They even start to forage more. The ones I've kept really like clover. I had one who really wanted to roost but could never get more than a foot or two off the ground. It was always funny to watch her try though.