Red or Black broilers? Slow cornish?

[EmsoffLambs]

Hi, I bought 16 slow Cornish, 2 Delaware pullets, 5 hatchery choice guineas, and 2 hatchery choice turkeys from Privett on July 12. They ended up sending me 2 extra slow Cornish, 1 extra Delaware (don't know sex), and 1 extra guinea. They arrived in excellent shape a day early and I haven't lost a single one.

I've got them all together in the brooder, getting unmedicated 21% protein feed. The slow Cornish are outgrowing the Delawares by leaps and bounds and are even quite a bit larger than the turkeys (who started out bigger as chicks)! I've never had Cornish X, so I don't guess I know what a lazy bird is like, but my slow Cornish seem as active as the other birds they're with. And their poo doesn't seem any worse either??? Perhaps they just aren't as bad as the Cornish X.

I also have some 12 week or so old dark Cornish and brahmas. They were fed a lower protein feed all along, so I'm sure that has a bit to do with it, but they couldn't compare with the slow Cornish either on growth or muscling.

 

[Motherhenandflock]

greyfields: Do you need to be a member to order those birds? I have a hard time negotiating around the website.

 

[pawtraitart]

Slow cornish looking good, eh? I was thinking about ordering from Privett next spring. They have red broilers, too.

 

[JacobsRewardFarm]

Took the plunge. Ordered 50 st. run red broilers. I'll let you know how it goes. They'll be pastured, and I'm hoping they are heartier than the standard Cornish x. It's blinking hot here lately. Don't want to bake my chickens before they are butchered!

 

[UncleHoot]

Quote:
I'll be very interested to see how this goes. I like to experiment, so if it goes well, I might consider getting some next year.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
If you mean Freedom Rangers, then no. They've been redoing their website recently... and you know, I phone them all the time. The couple selling them is from England, so I love to hear their voices.

Try this one:

http://tinyurl.com/3dfce3

 

[JacobsRewardFarm]

OK. My red broilers are almost 3 weeks old now, and I can't wait to get them out on pasture - they are messy! At least they are more messy than my Delawares were. I'm cracking up because they really eat like machines, and of course, the poo is proportionally deeper

.

I am getting a kick out of their huge tree-trunk legs and their sumo wrestler stance. These birds are definitely meaty. Any idea how you get a Red Broiler? When they arrived, they did not all look alike. And as they feather out, some are darker, some are redder, some are more buff... the amount of feathering to date is very different as well.... interesting...

Here's the biggest guy of the batch:

More updates as they occur... hopefully, out to the pasture this week.

Cindy T.
Parker, TX

 

[pawtraitart]

Thanks for the update!

 

[EmsoffLambs]

I'll go ahead and give an update on my bird too...

Slow Cornish: We've butchered several at 6-8 weeks. At 8 weeks, they are about 5 lbs. live weight and well filled out. Very tasty. Zero mortality out of 16 birds. They are quite friendly, really, though still pretty active. They will range the yard pretty well.

Dark Cornish: At 4 1/2 months, their carcasses pretty much indistiquishable from the Slow Cornish, although a bit tougher. Meaty birds, but slow growers. Zero mortality out of 6 birds.

Deleware: We aren't going to butcher these pullets, but just for a comparison, at the same age and on the same feed, they weight half what the Slow Cornish pullets weigh (2 lbs. vs. 4 lbs.).

Light Brahmas: We've only butchered one, but he as pretty skrawny. I got them because they were supposed to get so big. Well, it takes a LONG time for them to get that big. They are bigger, but lighter than the Dark Cornish of the same age.

Conclusion: I'll never bother with heavy cockrels for meat again. They just grow way too slow. And I've had no health problems at all with the Slow Cornish. To me, they're the way to go.

 

[EweSheep]

We ordered Red and Black slow Cornish from Ideal Hatchery
and we were disappointed in the butchering....they didnt gain as much as the Cornish X and they didnt skin out as well. And they took in a little more extra feed to fatten up to seven lbs and two and three weeks later than the Cornish X.

We will NOT be ordering those red and black slow broilers....we will keep ordering those white Cornish X;s.