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Dorkings are a very slow to mature breed. You won't see any noticeable meat on most of them until they're at least a year old, and real breeding assessment shouldn't be made until they're 2 years old. That said, I just processed and ate one of my Silver Grey Dorking cockerels and the texture...

The NNs are my primary meat and egg birds, with most of my girls laying upwards of 200 X-Lg eggs per year, but I'm also beginning to breed Silver Grey Dorkings as my heritage breed. Although I have a variety of other birds roaming around here, they're basically for additional eggs and...

I haven't posted here in quite a while, but I'm happy to report that I'm continuing to see significant improvement in growth rates and size in my Naked Necks. I still prefer the flavor of birds given more time to grow so I don't typically process any of my birds before 21 weeks, but here are a...

I've selected my first group of serious meat breeding birds. Now I just need to wait until they've all reached sexual maturity. My plans are still to cross my Naked Necks with a Cornish Cross Mix to create a fast maturing and well-muscled group of NNs. Breeding Cockerel: This boy weighed in...

@Beer can raises some really beautiful White Jersey Giants. I'm hoping to get some hatching eggs from him in the spring. I would highly recommend contacting him for info on the breed at the very least. He's very knowledgeable.

A combination of standard layer feed and scratch grains. All of the feed I get is pretty freshly ground, grown organically, and contains fish meal and peas for protein rather than soy. I'm a firm believer that supplying chickens with animal protein makes a difference in development.

I've been instructed by more than one sagacious poultry owner to feed them grains soaked in buttermilk to flavor the meat and fatten them up. I know this is the technique used to improve the French Bresse in France along with restricting their access. Unfortunately I'm not set up in the most...

After a long hiatus I was finally able to get back to processing some of my extra cockerels. Here's one of my Naked Necks, processing out at 5.075 lbs (2.3 kg) at 35 weeks. Normally I wouldn't have waited so long to process, but circumstances demanded it. I'm REALLY looking forward to roasting...

Agreed, but I'll respect @Egghead_Jr and PM the info instead...and probably focus on some other threads for breeding and production instead of this one. The rules here are a bit rigid for my taste.

If you also brine the chicken for 3+ days before using this recipe I can almost guarantee there will be no toughness. I brined my oldest bird (10 mos old) for 6 days and then roasted it this way. It literally fell off the bone.

In case you're interested, here a really good roasting recipe: Simple Slow Roast Chicken Ingredients · 1 teaspoon paprika · 1 teaspoon ground black pepper · 1 teaspoon garlic salt · 1 teaspoon dried parsley · 1 teaspoon dried marjoram · 1 cup...

I had once seriously considered raising either Cornish X or Red Rangers as meat birds, but I just really love the flavor and texture of a "slow-aged" bird. I know the growth rates are less impressive, but for me it's worth it. I still LOVE reading the results of others' experiences and find the...

Thanks for posting the weights. Wow....what a difference from my NNs, which averaged 340 grams @ 4 wks.

My last hatch reached 6 weeks this past weekend and I'm pretty sure I've selected my breeders: Monty: my largest cockerel at 24.8 ounces; He's outpaced every other cockerel I've ever hatched in size by this age. Simon: My largest NN breeder @ 24.02 ounces. Only a little lighter than Monty...

I'm loving how this hatch has turned out so far, with really good growth rates and beautiful chicks. Unfortunately I think my standard luck of hatching more cockerels than pullets is still holding true. I guess I'll just have more chicks for my caponizing project. Here are the 4-week old photos...

So one week ago I hatched out my first attempt at crossing some of my best birds to improve size and growth rates. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome so far and very excited to see how these little chicks change as they grow. Already I've seen the highest growth rates from hatch out of all the...

I use small colored rubber bands when they're chicks, and graduate to multi-colored zip ties when they're older. They're super easy to band and change out as the birds grow and different colored bands can be combined if you have a large flock that all looks alike.

Thank you for the info on the Dark Cornish. I'd really like to cross this breed with my Naked Necks to increase breast meat.

I'm not familiar with those breeders, so I really don't think so. I acquired the majority of my NN hatching eggs from a small breeder in Illinois, and the rest from a breeder/small hatchery in Oklahoma. I know that the Illinois breeder was working pretty hard at meeting SOP for her birds, but I...

I'm posting these pics just to document my "starting place" in my meat breeding, so to speak. These two birds are from my pure Naked Neck Turken line and I selected them as culls early on because of their poor growth. Here they are pre-processing: This is Ruby, a beautifully feathered bird...