Just processed my first round of Meaties

[just2rosey]

I am pretty happy with my first batch of meat birds. I purchased 6 Cornish Rock cross chicks from Tractor Supply on March 7 th, just to see if my family would like them better than the DP I processed last year. I butchered them today at 7 weeks. The pullets weighed 4.5 lbs dressed, and the biggest roo weighed 6 lbs. Not to bad. I was pleased that mine did not have any of the nasty hard lumps of fat I see in grocery store birds, I skinned them to make processing faster.

I am not sure how I feel about the Xrocks. I hate the way their bodies feel when I pick them up, so squishy and gross! They are so much dirtier than my DP chicks. I have another 13 chicks growing, they are nearly 3 weeks old now. This second batch is much messier and stinkier than the first. I moved them to the barn today because I couldn't stand the smell from my indoor brooders any more. I have been cleaning the brooder daily and they are still disgusting, the first batch wasn't anything like these.

I have raised them organically, and 7 weeks is a quick return for the investment. I haven't decided yet if I want to raise them again or not, they just gross me out on may levels. We raised Cornish Rock crosses when I was a kid ( 30 some odd years ago), and we used those as dual purpose. We often kept back a few of the pullets as layers. I would love to find something equivalent to those, today. Does any one have any suggestions? I would love to hear them.

 

[Beekissed]

Maybe you could work on why these birds have smelly feces and that might take away one of the gross factors for you. Some people feed probiotics to rectify this situation and it works. It worked for me...I've been using UP/ACV in the water since day one and also fermenting their feeds. No smells in my coop....just chickeny goodness. There feces look just like a regular bird's..formed and normal, little smell involved.

Also, they aren't "mushy" if fed once or twice a day on regular protein percentages and allowed to forage on free range...mine are 5 wks now and forage from daylight to full dark and travel all over 3 acres. A good half of them won't even come into the coop for a meal when it's fed but still go to bed with bulging crops. When picked up they feel like a firm DP bird...no mush at all.

I know this breed has propensities for overeating and genetics to lay on heavy, thick muscle layers but, if we don't exploit that, they turn out to be great birds that act much like other chickens, only hungrier. That hunger makes for some great foraging skills...none of my DP flocks ever foraged as diligently as this batch of CX I have now.

Mine are clean and white, they groom themselves appropriately and they don't lay down all the time like everyone says...too busy running to and fro after bugs and worms to lie down for long. My last batch were clean and beautiful right up until processing at 11 weeks, still foraging, still very mobile all that time and I had 100% survival. They had good finishing weights and the meat was excellent, tender and tasty.

It's not the breed's fault that everyone is taught to feed them like pigs and pen them so they cannot get exercise...it is all in how they are managed, just like any chicken. I find them delightful, healthy, active and clean....easy to raise and even easier to process with huge yields of meat compared to the DP.

 

[bj taylor]

if you feed them twice a day instead of free choice, how do you know how much to feed?

 

[Beekissed]

How much do you know how to feed your laying hens? You feed them enough that they eat their fill and when they stop, there isn't much feed left in the feeder. If there isn't enough and they are still mooching around for food, you add to it. If there is some left over, then you know you can cut it down a little. They can only eat enough to fill their crops and then even CX have to stop long enough to digest. When they stop, they've had enough...they will wander away from the feeder and either lie down for a quick nap or they will head out to the pasture to do a little hunting. Either way, that tells me they had enough feed for that meal.

I guess if someone just feeds out of continuous feeders they never really know when a bird gets full, do they? All of my birds start at the same time and pretty much finish at the same time, so I can tell just how much feed they eat in one setting. That is...except for the ones that don't stay in or near the coop long enough to come to a meal...there are quite a few that don't care when that trough gets filled, they'd much rather eat the raw proteins they are finding.

 

[just2rosey]

Bekissed, you bring up some interesting points, but they leave me with more questions. Will your meaties raised free ranging live a few years or do they die at a few months like I always hear about meaties? I have heard today's meaties will grow to large for their legs and eventually can't get up by 12 weeks or so, supposedly they never make it to breeding age. Our Cornish Rocks when I was a child didn't do that, we free ranged them with our other barnyard mixes, they lived for a few years, and were pretty good layers. Can yours do that? Because that is what I really want, they were the perfect DP bird.

I haven't tried probiotics, I could give that a shot. I don't mind limiting their feed a bit, they are eating me out of house and home. I have been feeding mine free choice just like I do with my Amerauacana chicks. Even my city boy husband can tell this second batch is much messier/stikinkier. I can smell ammonia from their feces, which I have never noticed from any other chicks. I have not let mine free range, but they do have a large coop and run. It turned off colder and this batch hasn't been out yet. I have had a problem with hawks stealing my white/light colored chickens, so I haven't let either batch free range. I haven't lost any chicks this year, meaty or DP, I do well brooding chicks. I have a portable pen with a cover I can start putting them out in that and letting them graze during the day. I would love to cut down on how much feed they take in.

There are learning curves to everything, I just have a bit more to learn about meaties. Thanks for your input.

 

[Beekissed]

Bekissed, you bring up some interesting points, but they leave me with more questions. Will your meaties raised free ranging live a few years or do they die at a few months like I always hear about meaties? I have heard today's meaties will grow to large for their legs and eventually can't get up by 12 weeks or so, supposedly they never make it to breeding age. Our Cornish Rocks when I was a child didn't do that, we free ranged them with our other barnyard mixes, they lived for a few years, and were pretty good layers. Can yours do that? Because that is what I really want, they were the perfect DP bird.

I haven't tried probiotics, I could give that a shot. I don't mind limiting their feed a bit, they are eating me out of house and home. I have been feeding mine free choice just like I do with my Amerauacana chicks. Even my city boy husband can tell this second batch is much messier/stikinkier. I can smell ammonia from their feces, which I have never noticed from any other chicks. I have not let mine free range, but they do have a large coop and run. It turned off colder and this batch hasn't been out yet. I have had a problem with hawks stealing my white/light colored chickens, so I haven't let either batch free range. I haven't lost any chicks this year, meaty or DP, I do well brooding chicks. I have a portable pen with a cover I can start putting them out in that and letting them graze during the day. I would love to cut down on how much feed they take in.

There are learning curves to everything, I just have a bit more to learn about meaties. Thanks for your input.

I don't know how long these will live...never really thought of keeping them around but you sparked my interest and I may keep a couple and see how long they can comfortably live. My sister has had some for the past 2 years now but the foxes finally got them. They've been breeding, laying and free ranging in all that time.

My last batch were butchered at 11 wks but not because they had to be...simply because I had planned on eating them instead of adding them to my layer flock. They were foraging and very mobile clear up til then, so I imagine they would have gone even further. They were climbing a ramp into the coop several times a day and free ranging all over an acre of not so level ground and they were fine...no leg problems.

I don't offer free choice to my layers, so the CX had to eat what was fed each evening and they foraged all day for the rest of their diet. Could be why others see such a difference in their CX that they raise with DP breeds is because they feed their DP free choice~which CX just can't leave alone. Of course they are not going to forage and they are going to get big..the food that is the easiest is what they will consume and if it is unlimited, why not eat it all the time?

I'm not saying that CX are a sustainable flock bird....I have no experience with that. All I'm saying is that they don't have to be this horrible, self-destructive breed that is so gross to raise if one just manages them differently for the time they are here.