Meat chickens - which breed is best?

[Connie White]

Hi everyone, I'm needing some community feedback to see if I got a bad batch of Black Broilers or if they are just a skinnier meat bird. I've raised Cornish Rocks but am now focusing on heritage breeds who can reproduce naturally. I love the Red Ranger (from Cackle hatchery), LOVE my white heritage breed from http://www.sandgpoultry.com/ but my Black Meat boilers (from Ideal) have looked bad (to me) from day 1. They've been healthy..as in alive, but nothing like my other meat birds - it's been months now and I question that they are even meat birds. So, my question is - are these known for their taste or something? Mine are more like layers vs meats. I separated them from the layers today and their breasts are small - I have 13. I didn't know if I needed to get another breeder or if this is just how the breed is.

Thanks for any help on the breed as I cannot find information on them.

Connie

 

[Arielle]

Sorry I can't answer this for you. THough I too am curious. WHat is the white bird that yougot from Sand HIll t oops sand s that you were happy with??

 

[Arielle]

six pounds in 7 weeks is the grwoth rates they claim--- just looked at their site--- guess yours aren't close to that??/ What ration are you feeding?? A broiler ration?? A 22% or 28% protein might be in order to acheive this growth rate.

http://www.idealpoultry.com/item.html

 

[Connie White]

The White Heritage is the group that is just fantastic from http://www.sandgpoultry.com/heritagewhite.html I will order my next group of chicks from them too - I ordered 25, they sent 29, all lived.

I feed all my boilers the same = free range, along with cracked corn, chicken starter, scratch, sometimes gamebird starter/finisher. The Black Boilers don't even have the appetite my others have - my whites and red will run to my car when I come home with feed - I never even see a BB. I've had these for over 7 weeks - there's not one I'd eat right now.

 

[Connie White]

Here's a video from this morning of the Black Boilers - they are only pinned here for a few days as the reacclimate to the new barn area for them - I just put them there last night. otherwise, they've been eating the same thing everyone else has been - and free ranging on plenty of land http://youtu.be/oryQcyikXNk