McMurray Chef's Choice Broiler

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I ordered 15 females in order to produce meat quietly. They are lovely, sweet, curious birds and will be 9 weeks old Friday. I haven't weighed them yet, but they are about twice as heavy and fluffy as the mystery "extra chicks for warmth" who are likely Leghorn cockerels. In comparison to the CRX, they are about as heavy as a 4 week old. I guess they'd be ready for the freezer at about 16 weeks. They love to flutter around, but are a bit too heavy to make it higher than 3 feet. I don't know what went into making them, but they differ from the picture on McMurray's site. There's no barring to the feathers on anybody. They range in color from dark buff to deep red and all have black tail feathers. I've never raised New Hampshires, but they look very similar to pictures I found online.

My biggest problem with them is some like to cuddle. I don't need 14 egg laying pets!
 
Hiltonizer, yes, they do look like the Pioneers I got from MMc last year. I was very pleased wtih them, raised them with my layer chicks. Held back one for a layer, and she became my best laying pullet that year. She's still a good layer, and one of my Roo's favorite gals. The only complaint I have is that she has poor feather quality for a layer. I found that all of the males had the barred feather pattern, while the females were more buff or light red/brown colored, a lot had a few black tail or wing feathers. I'm raising some EE x Pioneer chicks, and they are nice meaty looking birds.
 
I wouldn't risk it....

This is just a opinion about raising meat birds. Being as they are a "mix" bag you never know what your going to get. I guess that's ok but I think there's a better more productive option.

Next is price, those birds are more than double the cost of meat birds elsewhere. I can get all male rangers for like a buck each and I know whet I'll have when they are finished.

If it's just about having chickens I get it, I also understand CX is not for everyone. I just think there are better options than taking mcmurrays rejects
 
When you say "McMurray's rejects", are you referring to the Chef's choice, or McMurray's stock in general? Not to derail the thread, but can you point me in the direction of a decent breeder of dual purpose or non CX meat birds? I'm interested in New Hampshires and Brahmas and am open to ideas.
 
Mama Terri said:
When you say "McMurray's rejects", are you referring to the Chef's choice, or McMurray's stock in general?  Not to derail the thread, but can you point me in the direction of a decent breeder of dual purpose or non CX meat birds? I'm interested in New Hampshires and Brahmas and am open to ideas. 
Click to expand...


I was referring to the chefs choice....

Mcmurray has good stock as far as I can tell, I think they are misrepresenting them a bit is all. The last time i saw chefs choice it was mixed bag roosters. That's why I referred to them as rejects. They seem to have a habit of dumping unwanted roosters on to customers.

There really is no super choice for dual purpose, the compromise is always meat. If these birds produced 5lb carcasses is 8 weeks everybody would be raising them.

I raise chickens as a full time farmer, so I use CX for meat and sexlinks for eggs. We did a test here on the farm, we got a few birds for most of the heritage breeds. 2 or 3 of each kind to see if you find a way to do both, we did this with turkeys as well.

What we found was while egg production was ok it didn't even come close to the sexlinks. The starkest difference was when we processed the birds for meat. They look like over grown quail or something of the like. Razor sharp breasts with almost no meat, forget about the legs and thighs. While they did have excellent flavor there's just no way to market them effectively. People expect a curtain look to chickens, they also want atleast a full meal from one bird. Premium pricing and low yield does not mix well.

Everybody's experience is different and we all raise birds for different reasons. if you want a sustainable flock there's compromise in all areas.
 

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