jersey giants

[floridapoultry]

If you do go with JGs as a dual purpose bird you will of course want to obtain stock from the largest strain you can. A slow grower like this will give you more flavor which is a plus.

 

[pigfarmer]

Thanx all for the positive feedback. I have become somewhat leery on some of the posts here and elsewhere.
These birds where the predecessor of the flavorless store bought birds we eat now.
I process my own birds, including extra roos from my normal flock... mostly Ameracaunas.
I just did 6 roos this week... comfortably resting in freezer camp, I might add.
They dress out around 4#, and taste great. 5 were 10 months old, 1 was 18 months.

I do plan on smoking some of my birds, after I build my smoker.

Now I need to find a breeder for chicks or eggs.

If I find eggs, gives me a good reason to test out my "new" homemade incubator.

 

[nickie]

I am so happy this question was brought up as I am strongly thinking about adding some giants to my flock... I'm getting pretty excited about raising my own table bird without going the cornish x route.

 

[cwalsh2]

Rhode Island reds, New Hampshire Reds,Delaware's,Barred and white Rocks are all good american breeds with excellent meat bird qualities and flavour. I prefer White Rock or Delaware because of the white feathers give a better looking carcass. It always seems like the yellow leg and skin varieties make tastier stewing hens to me. The older hens that have slowed with the laying have much more flavour than a pullet, and are still tender when they come out of the pressure cooker. Just my Thoughts Everyone has their own Ideas as to what to look for. For me it is yellow skin and a nice meaty body and breast.

 

[cwalsh2]

Rhode Island reds, New Hampshire Reds,Delaware's,Barred and white Rocks are all good american breeds with excellent meat bird qualities and flavour. I prefer White Rock or Delaware because of the white feathers give a better looking carcass. It always seems like the yellow leg and skin varieties make tastier stewing hens to me. The older hens that have slowed with the laying have much more flavour than a pullet, and are still tender when they come out of the pressure cooker. Just my Thoughts Everyone has their own Ideas as to what to look for. For me it is yellow skin and a nice meaty body and breast.

 

[HHandbasket]

1/4 cup of hot sauce? That's 4 tablespoons, might be excessive.

Luckily, a recipe is only a guide. You adjust it to suit your tastes and eating style. I am with you in that I think it's too much, but my DH would probably think he'd died and gone to Spicy Heaven if I fed him that! The spicier it is, the more he likes it. Personally, though, I would think 1 or 2 tablespoons would suffice. The rest of the recipe does sound really, really good though. I think I would probably substitute quinoa for the rice, though. I don't eat rice, and quinoa is a much healthier and more protein-packed substitute that works well for me in dishes that call for rice (I make a slammin' stuffed bell pepper, but that's for another thread all together LOL).

I don't have any Jersey giants, but we are also looking at Delawares. We had a delawegger rooster that was not used for food but sold to a nice family so he could be a good flock leader (I was very happy to hear he got his own flock of ladies), and he topped out at just around 12 pounds when he was 7 months old. Don't know what he would have dressed out as, but he was bigger than any of the other roosters we've processed in the last month or so.

As a matter of fact, he's the biggest rooster we've ever had here on the ranch.

I might have to look into the Jersey Giants, though I've never been a fan of that breed. I don't dislike them and am open-minded. I'll talk to DH, see what he says.

He'll probably let me.... if I give him 1/4 cup of hot sauce to put on em! LOL!

 

[yinepu]

Luckily, a recipe is only a guide. You adjust it to suit your tastes and eating style. I am with you in that I think it's too much, but my DH would probably think he'd died and gone to Spicy Heaven if I fed him that! The spicier it is, the more he likes it. Personally, though, I would think 1 or 2 tablespoons would suffice. The rest of the recipe does sound really, really good though. I think I would probably substitute quinoa for the rice, though. I don't eat rice, and quinoa is a much healthier and more protein-packed substitute that works well for me in dishes that call for rice (I make a slammin' stuffed bell pepper, but that's for another thread all together LOL).

I don't have any Jersey giants, but we are also looking at Delawares. We had a delawegger rooster that was not used for food but sold to a nice family so he could be a good flock leader (I was very happy to hear he got his own flock of ladies), and he topped out at just around 12 pounds when he was 7 months old. Don't know what he would have dressed out as, but he was bigger than any of the other roosters we've processed in the last month or so.

As a matter of fact, he's the biggest rooster we've ever had here on the ranch.

I might have to look into the Jersey Giants, though I've never been a fan of that breed. I don't dislike them and am open-minded. I'll talk to DH, see what he says.

He'll probably let me.... if I give him 1/4 cup of hot sauce to put on em! LOL!

Actually that isn't a lot of hot sauce once you add in all the other liquids..

heck.. cooking that for my husband we would end up adding more after it was cooked!

my main mutt Roo "Jack" has Jersey Giant in his heritage.. he is a beast as was his father, grandfather and his brothers.. we have crossed him with some heritage orpingtons, wyandottes, and we have a few other heritage breed hens to add into the mix... I'll tweak things as I see how his newest batch of kids grow out and see if I need to add back in some more JG blood or not. Nice thing is he has been passing on his beastly genes to his offspring.. they grow fairly fast.. fill out well and have nice personalities. Granted they aren't as fast of a grower as the "frankenchickens".. but I never much liked a bird that would drop dead if you waited a week too long to process anyway .. lol

 

[IowaHeritage]

Right, I had to question the recipe myself as it talks of a 3 lb bird. ( Obvious Typo )

Heck, they are 3 lbs when they hatch ! lol

 

[HHandbasket]

Yinepu,

I have a mutt rooster named Jack also who is similar in coloring/markings to yours. His mother was blue penedescenca/blue ameraucana/black copper marans (they were breeding for olive eggers, but she ended up with a straight comb and lays dark brown eggs). His father is our mottled java/FBCM rooster. I'll have to try to get a good picture of him to post when the rain lets up. The only real differences between your Jack and my Jack are: Mine has a straight comb and a beard (like his mother), and mine has some feathering on his legs (looks more like dirt than feathers LOL). Mine doesn't have any JG in him, though. Oh, and mine IS destined for the roasting pan, beautiful though he may be.

 

[AllenWMiller]

A further comment on a previous post from IowaHeritage/Greg regarding Giants. Giants filled a high demand mark for capons from the turn of the 20th century through the 1950's. It was the TV dinner of the 50's and 60's and nuclear families getting smaller and smaller that did away with the capon market.

Now a slight disagreement will rise when we call a caponized Giant a "poor man's turkey". Nothing further from the truth since a caponized Giant outperforms a turkey every day of the week in size, quality, flavor and juice content. As a youngster on the farm we still caponized Jersey Giants for a dwindling market in NYC and it wasn't unusual to get 15 to 20 pound dressed cockerels to market.

In memory of the old days, we had a Black Giant Capon for Christmas this year dressing out at 16lbs2oz at 1 year 2months old and I challenge every turkey lover to find a better quality table bird. And yes as someone mentioned a black bird has some issues with dressing out due to black pin feathers and if that bothers you go with the White Giant and your problem is solved though don't expect a White to quite reach the size of a Black Jersey.

As for hens, they to remain tender even after several years of laying unlike other laying hens. The reason for this mainly is the temperament of the Giant. As they are neither flighty nor fast moving as a rule they don't overexert their ligaments end tendons and if properly killed there will be no cortisol or adrenaline release which also can toughen the meat. ( I should talk about proper killing methods on BYC sometime as it seems today not many folks now how to dispatch a bird quickly, safely and humanely. Seems people watched too many old shows where grandma cut off the head with a hatchet which ain't kosher! Literally!)

My small flocks tend to be a bit heavy but hens still manage 150 eggs per year and each egg is of large to extra large size. I've managed to get one strain out of 7 to reach the 180 egg mark per year which is where Giants were in the 1920-1950's.

Like so many of you have pointed out this is a "slow" bird with regard to the amount of time to grow. (I'd point out nothing worth eating ever came quick!) On the other side of the fence, however, this bird is really a fast grower because each cockerel if caponized will dress out at 8-10 months and be equal in weight to 3 fast growing hybrids and will have exceptional quality in meat which no hybrid can compete with.