Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

[ShrekDawg]

Do the birds still bleed out the same way without a head versus cutting the jugular?

I personally don’t feel comfortable with the jugular method, it’s not quick enough for me and something that has stuck with me for far too long looking back than any other kill method.

Yeah, that’s why I feel like I’d prefer to just cut the head off or do the broom stick one. I worry I wouldn’t do it right with a knife and they’d suffer. Or even if I did do it right, I just feel like it takes a while to put them in the cone, find a good spot on the neck, cut it, etc. and I feel bad.

I think I’m too much of a softie

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do the birds still bleed out the same way without a head versus cutting the jugular?

Yes

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Hello everybody!
Oh my goodness, I just found this and spent way too much time reading through all of it today. (ok, most of it..it's very long)
Such good information and helpful to know my idea of trying to cross some Red Ranger types with broader heritage types isn't that far off base.

Does anyone have any information or experience with the Red Rangers from Hoover Hatchery? I think they are calling them Rudd Reds.
https://hoovershatchery.com/ruddranger.html

I did not know about the Moyers specialty broilers until page...um, yeah...
However Hoover has some of the heritage breeds I was thinking of adding for the same shipment dates. Not set to ship until June so easy to cancel or change at this point and/or look elsewhere.

I started a thread over here-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/meat-mixes-what-have-you-tried.1363550/

Quick highlight is I've done RR and CX many times on my previous farm with great success. Things are a little different on my new place and I'd like something more sustainable now.
Currently have -
1 Australorp roo and hen- 1 yr olds.
10 Sapphire Gem layers (rock types but rather light) 7 months old
1 EE type

All bought for egg laying. Doing meaties again didn't hit the equation until about a month ago. Was going to just work with what I already had until I took a good assessment of everyone and decided I need to add some size and better meat properties to the mix.

 

[jolenesdad]

Hello everybody!
Oh my goodness, I just found this and spent way too much time reading through all of it today. (ok, most of it..it's very long)
Such good information and helpful to know my idea of trying to cross some Red Ranger types with broader heritage types isn't that far off base.

Does anyone have any information or experience with the Red Rangers from Hoover Hatchery? I think they are calling them Rudd Reds.
https://hoovershatchery.com/ruddranger.html

I did not know about the Moyers specialty broilers until page...um, yeah...
However Hoover has some of the heritage breeds I was thinking of adding for the same shipment dates. Not set to ship until June so easy to cancel or change at this point and/or look elsewhere.

I started a thread over here-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/meat-mixes-what-have-you-tried.1363550/

Quick highlight is I've done RR and CX many times on my previous farm with great success. Things are a little different on my new place and I'd like something more sustainable now.
Currently have -
1 Australorp roo and hen- 1 yr olds.
10 Sapphire Gem layers (rock types but rather light) 7 months old
1 EE type

All bought for egg laying. Doing meaties again didn't hit the equation until about a month ago. Was going to just work with what I already had until I took a good assessment of everyone and decided I need to add some size and better meat properties to the mix.

In looking into some more production aspects I’ve had long and really fruitful conversations with the North American sales lead for Hubbard. (I learned a long time ago you never know how much you’ll learn just from asking.) I have been sort of but not totally but maybe (hehe) interested in the potential to invest in parent stock to raise on farm to hatch from and raise the parent stock in a more natural fashion. It’s typically a massive investment, with gigantic minimum orders, but I’ve been talking about the potential upsides of getting some of these parts of the supply chain back into smaller farmers hands even though it would be a less profitable enterprise for Hubbard with smaller orders, it could really change the landscape.

Anyway, Hubbard is responsible for the genetics of ALL the red broilers in North America. For all the red broilers, Murray McMurray has the fastest growth rate. It has to do with which lines Hubbard and the hatchery use to develop the grandparent lines.

To answer your question, the moyers royal red birds, freedom ranger color yield, Murray mcmurray and Hoover’s Rudd ranger are all fairly similar with Murray taking the ultimate growth prize. For economic concerns, that matters a lot as you scale up production, but not quite so much on a smaller scale.

the Murray mcmurray ginger broiler is like the Imperial broiler from Moyer that several of us in the thread have raised.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

In looking into some more production aspects I’ve had long and really fruitful conversations with the North American sales lead for Hubbard. (I learned a long time ago you never know how much you’ll learn just from asking.) I have been sort of but not totally but maybe (hehe) interested in the potential to invest in parent stock to raise on farm to hatch from and raise the parent stock in a more natural fashion. It’s typically a massive investment, with gigantic minimum orders, but I’ve been talking about the potential upsides of getting some of these parts of the supply chain back into smaller farmers hands even though it would be a less profitable enterprise for Hubbard with smaller orders, it could really change the landscape.

Anyway, Hubbard is responsible for the genetics of ALL the red broilers in North America. For all the red broilers, Murray McMurray has the fastest growth rate. It has to do with which lines Hubbard and the hatchery use to develop the grandparent lines.

To answer your question, the moyers royal red birds, freedom ranger color yield, Murray mcmurray and Hoover’s Rudd ranger are all fairly similar with Murray taking the ultimate growth prize. For economic concerns, that matters a lot as you scale up production, but not quite so much on a smaller scale.

the Murray mcmurray ginger broiler is like the Imperial broiler from Moyer that several of us in the thread have raised.

Thank you!
I found Moyer's page and looked over their specialty broilers and am thinking the Royals (red or grey) would be the bird for us because we prefer more white meat. However I'm wondering if the structure of the Imperials (bigger thighs and more dark meat) equates to a more active bird that can lead a normal life. Like the pictures of your Imperials behaving like typical birds.
Logically one would think smaller/less meaty legs but bigger breast might correlate to mobility issues, where as the opposite being true of the Imperials. However, just a guess.

The info you have shared, as well as others, about the ability of the red types to live longer is encouraging. And like yourself I would much prefer to see more small farmers being in the mix. Beyond that I'll keep mum about my thoughts concerning Big Ag. (all big ag, not just poultry)
Nearly all my previous meat birds came from hatcheries in OH because they were close to me. At the time Moyers (who I had heard of before) was still quite a bit smaller and not doing the business they appear to be doing now.

 

[FortCluck]

I use a PVC pipe cutter on chickens in a kitty litter jug cone. I have metal cones but most of my birds are too big. I move the dead bird to the metal cone to finish bleeding out, so the next bird can use the homemade one.
I have 2 sizes of metal chicken cones, never used the medium size.
Heritage Turkeys I use Sharp loppers in a BBB cone. The BBB didn't fit in that cone either.
ETA I put electrical tape around the ankles so they don't escape

We are trying to figure out a way to do our turkeys because we just got six white broad-breasted turkey poults.

My husband is making some sort of contraption

 

[jolenesdad]

We are trying to figure out a way to do our turkeys because we just got six white broad-breasted turkey poults.

My husband is making some sort of contraption

My friend that does turkeys just makes a cone out of hardware cloth..... maybe?

 

[FortCluck]

My friend that does turkeys just makes a cone out of hardware cloth..... maybe?

He was going to take a plank and put a cone on one end and then have screws or something on each side on the other end so he can take wire and secure the head down.

It's hard to explain but it made sense because he made a drawing of it.

I don't know how he went from I don't want to do meat chickens to let's have every type of meat bird

I guess some of it might be my fault because I'm the one who hatches them, but I honestly didn't think he would take me seriously yesterday when I said grab the turkeys I was on the phone with him when he was at Tractor Supply.

 

[jolenesdad]

Thank you!
I found Moyer's page and looked over their specialty broilers and am thinking the Royals (red or grey) would be the bird for us because we prefer more white meat. However I'm wondering if the structure of the Imperials (bigger thighs and more dark meat) equates to a more active bird that can lead a normal life. Like the pictures of your Imperials behaving like typical birds.
Logically one would think smaller/less meaty legs but bigger breast might correlate to mobility issues, where as the opposite being true of the Imperials. However, just a guess.

The info you have shared, as well as others, about the ability of the red types to live longer is encouraging. And like yourself I would much prefer to see more small farmers being in the mix. Beyond that I'll keep mum about my thoughts concerning Big Ag. (all big ag, not just poultry)
Nearly all my previous meat birds came from hatcheries in OH because they were close to me. At the time Moyers (who I had heard of before) was still quite a bit smaller and not doing the business they appear to be doing now.

Yes you’re right. The royals have more mobility issues in my experience. They exhibit more typical Cornish behaviors, like the two steps and plop on their bellies, not as much movement. They just do like 6-8 steps and then plop. Lol.

It’s really about trade offs to your specific situation. If you’re processing yourself, I would absolutely go with imperials and take them to 13+ weeks. You’ll have just as glorious breasts, a lot pinker, longer and flatter, and about equal weight. They won’t be the mammoth breasts of a 12 week Cornish, but.... those are scary to me.

my husband prefers white meat and I like the fact I can take the imperial longer and it is still totally mobile and healthy, albeit quite a bit less cost effective compared to a Cornish. I’d rather feel good about the mobility of the birds, but as we have discussed in this thread, that’s a definite luxury. They all have their place.

 

[jolenesdad]

Also @SnapdragonQ your avatar eggs are GORGEOUS!!!