Pros and Cons of farming meat birds

[I am the Walrus]

I think that depends on your end goal. If you wanted to also have a breed of chicken to sell hatching eggs/chicks from, you may want to go with one of the large heritage breeds and process any excess roosters or sub par hens. You will end up spending more on feed per lb of meat on a dual purpose heritage breed. But they have the advantages of being able to breed and if you had a market for eggs/ chicks that could help offset the cost.

Dual purpose is the way to go. I agree. Money comes in from egg sales, money comes in from chick sales and sometimes the cockerels come back for free when the buyer returns them months later after raising them with no desire on having a male.
All proceeds off set the feed costs of the entire program. Staying out of the red should be the main goal.
Nothing beats the taste of a young bird. Especially a high quality but low cost bird.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I'd like to add that altitude may impact your success with CX. I tried several times and always had a high mortality rate. I've raised Freedom Rangers for the last 6 years and am very happy with them. They take another 2-3 weeks to reach a good butchering weight (Roosters averaging 5lb dressed, pullets maybe 4.5lbs) and cost me around $2.50/lb to raise, but they've been healthy and active with only a few deaths. They have larger legs and smaller breasts than CX, but as a lover of dark meat, that isn't a problem for me.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

There is a difference in birds. If your going to go by way of "heritage" for meat don't get hatchery birds. Look for breeder stock as they are bred to standard and those standards relate to fleshing qualities. Hatchery birds body type will not compare to the true breed.

Other major differences in breed selection is bone size and coarseness of meat. Dorking is a favored meat bird due to the small bone and very fine grain of meat. Though it's a relatively small bird they mature quickly. Many have the notion you need a large bird to be worthy to butcher. This is not the case and you'd be woe to raise all your birds to adult size for butchering. After 18 weeks the birds are only good for roasting or stew. The younger a bird the more tender it will be and able to be cooked at higher heat. Up to 14 weeks to broil/grill. 18 weeks to fry and 9 months to roast. Older birds are stew and crock pot. With this in mind we can see why the Jersey Giant was a failed meat bird. In reality if the bird was developed in early 1900's it would be extinct but as it was developed later it survived due to a culture of conservation. Other than that it's a failed breed. Asiatic birds, most of the lineage for Jersey Giant, has a course meat. What I'm getting at is Jersey Giant and Brahma or Cochin are not your best meat birds.

There are many breeds out there for dual purpose homestead use. Find a few you'd like to try then narrow it down to one when searching for a good breeder source of those birds. Buckeye, New Hampshire, Delaware, Marans, Dorking...and the list goes on. As for plucking you'll find 12-14 week old cockerels pluck very easy. It's when allowed to age the feathers can be tough to get out. Saddle feathers on a year old cock are not easy. With a homestead flock you'll have plenty of extra cockerels each year for eating. Plenty of eggs year round and you can offset feed costs by selling a few extra pullets and one year old layers. Older birds make the best chicken and dumplings or pot pie. Never let a stew bird boil- the meat will be tough! Simmer at best or use a crock pot. These are the the birds those recipes were made for. Robust savory flavor.

In a nutshell, pick a homestead breed, purchase eggs or chicks from a standard bred flock (breeder) and go with it. You shouldn't have any regrets unless you find you can't get by without the double breast size of hybrid meat birds. If that's the case look into standard bred Cornish.

 

[Mrs. K]

Really I think the advice to try many different is good. I have butchered the dual purpose birds, and while good for stews, soup, and casseroles, not for fried or grilled.

I am trying CX, had very good luck, butchering next week.
Mrs K