Raising meat chickens to make more meat chickens

[drink88]

This is my second post. Still replying to folks that have been a great help in my first forum post. Learned a lot.

My second post: I want to raise meat chickens and never have to buy meat chickens again, and instead make my own.

Thinking of buying 15 Jumbo Cornish Cross from Cackle Hatchery. I'm thinking I will have to let at least a portion of them lay eggs (and hope they go broody - otherwise will incubate myself - which is about 4-5 months, so that I can build up numbers while butchering at the same time.

Does anyone have any experience with this, raising enough at a time so that you can keep the numbers up and butcher? Most of what I'm finding is folks buying in bulk, and butchering them all, and then ordering more the next year. I'd prefer to come up with a system where I'm not reliant one anyone else, as we don't know how much longer we'll be able to buy from others before they make it illegal or whatever.

I'm thinking it's still ok to butcher up to a year, although not ideal for various reasons. But after the process is in place, then I can start butchering around 2 - 3 months.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll try to go into more detail than your other threads.

The Cornish Cross have been developed by selective breeding to very efficiently grow to butcher size in 6 to 8 weeks. They have developed feeding regimens to make that process very efficient. They have been designed to be raised this way for meat. If you keep them longer than 8 weeks they tend to break down because they grow so fast their body can't support them or their heart can't keep up.

One of the big problems is how to keep the parent flocks, the ones that actually lay the eggs these butchered birds hatch from, alive long enough to lay fertile eggs. They spend a lot on research on how to make that happen. They need to restrict the feed enough so they don't eat themselves to death yet eat enough to stay healthy enough to lay hatchable eggs. It is a pretty delicate balance.

Then you have the Ranger types. These were developed to grow fast but live longer and forage better than the Cornish Cross. They can still eat themselves to death but not as bad as the Cornish Cross.

Several people on this forum have tried to keep the Cornish Cross for breeding. Most are unsuccessful but some have managed to get hatching eggs. It is almost unheard of for hens to live long enough to get two laying seasons out of them. People have done this with Rangers. Rangers have problems too but people are generally more successful with Rangers than Cornish Cross.

Some of the more successful people have crossed Cornish Cross or Rangers with dual purpose chickens to develop their own strain of meat birds. The offspring of a cross like this will develop a lot of meat and can still have some of those issues but are usually easier to keep alive. It is not always easy.

Or you can approach this like farmers and others have managed to keep their own self-sustaining flock for thousands of years. Raise dual purpose chickens. These are not as specialized in egg laying as the commercial egg laying chickens but generally don't have the medical issues those chickens are known to have. They don't get as big as the commercial meat birds or Rangers but they don't have those medical issues either. Dual purpose chickens have provided a lot of eggs and meat to small farmers and even some village or town dwellers for thousands of years. I grew up on one of those farms and it seems natural to me.

 

[aart]

I believe it was explained a couple times in your other thread that Cornish Cross birds won't reproduce accurately, if at all. They are cross bred from 4 different proprietary lines of birds to gain muscle quickly(slaughtered by 8 weeks) and rarely live long enough to lay eggs.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Speaking as someone who managed to get a Cx to laying age and bred successfully, the only thing I consistently got out of the offspring was the Dominant White coloration. About half the first gen were bigger/faster growing than the norm, about half weren't. By Gen 2, the only apparent CX still present in my genetic lines was the [explicative] Dom White.

I just had it pop up in a gen 3 I butchered today at age 9 weeks. Male, approx 1.7#. That's it. 1.7#.

Plenty tasty. "Meat" bird? I wouldn't call it such.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I would suggest getting a “dual purpose” breed that leans more towards meat. Many people are happy with Breese or Delaware…I’ve never tried them myself so can’t speak to them more than that. I suspect that with them, like any other dual purpose bird for meat, that you need to be selective where you get them from — most average hatchery birds are going to lean more towards egg laying than meat since hatcheries sell eggs and chicks, not meat.

What I can share is that I am very happy with my New Hampshires from Freedom Ranger hatchery. These particular NH were bred by a gentleman named Henry Knoll for many decades before they ended up at Freedom Ranger hatchery. I have live weights between 6-9 lbs at 13-14 weeks, which is very large for a dual purpose bird.

 

[21hens-incharge]

My only suggestion would be to explore dual purpose breeds.
While slower growing they live long enough to reproduce effectively.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Did you have to significantly monitor/adjust/restrict their diet?

Oh yes. Feed restriction and forced them to free range if they wanted to eat more. The only thing that makes a Cx move is feed a little out ofcreach.

 

[Mrs. K]

I too was going to mention the Delaware - they do make a better carcass, well better than most dual purpose birds.

To the original poster - I strongly recommend you try a few out, instead of going whole hog with one kind or another. I raised dual purpose for years, and even now I have them in my laying flock. The cockerels I get - I tend to process at about 16 weeks - and I use the meat for casseroles or soup.

But the truth is, I love KFC kind of chicken. I want it tender when I fry it. And you get that kind of meat with meat birds...in less than 8 weeks. There is just the two of us on a cattle ranch - a dozen of those birds will feed us chicken for the year easily.

I know you think you want to raise your own, and not be dependent on a company. Well if I couldn't get them, we would not starve - and they are not that expensive...worth at least a few head if you have a separate set up. I don't think they do well with traditional birds.

MRs K

 

[Coops Dad]

I too was going to mention the Delaware - they do make a better carcass, well better than most dual purpose birds.

To the original poster - I strongly recommend you try a few out, instead of going whole hog with one kind or another. I raised dual purpose for years, and even now I have them in my laying flock. The cockerels I get - I tend to process at about 16 weeks - and I use the meat for casseroles or soup.

But the truth is, I love KFC kind of chicken. I want it tender when I fry it. And you get that kind of meat with meat birds...in less than 8 weeks. There is just the two of us on a cattle ranch - a dozen of those birds will feed us chicken for the year easily.

I know you think you want to raise your own, and not be dependent on a company. Well if I couldn't get them, we would not starve - and they are not that expensive...worth at least a few head if you have a separate set up. I don't think they do well with traditional birds.

MRs K

A dozen will feed you chicken for the YEAR?!? I easily eat 4 or 5 chickens a month MYSELF, plus my wife and son will put away another 2 or 3.

My experience is Cornish Cross don't do well with other chickens because they're still just chicks even though they're almost the same size as the layers at a month old and their poor feather coverage, exposed pink skin and lack of mobility make them a target. I mix my CXs with turkey poults and raise them together until it's time to process the CXs, then the poults are integrated in with the main flock. My experience with turkeys shows them to be good flockmates for CXs, not prone to bullying.

 

[Coops Dad]

I hatched out a half dozen Bresse chicks which are 5 months old at this point; I also bought 6 Rhode Island Red chicks from a guy who has a line of heritage birds the same day the Bresse hatched. The Bresse birds are significantly larger than the RIRs, and have been since about week three.