Bantams as meat birds

[Derricktrnr]

While our family is already enjoying a small mixed flock for eggs, I've been tossing around the idea of raising some alternative poultry for meat. We unfortunately, do not have room to grow a decent sized chicken flock dedicated to meat. Quail seem to be more trouble than they're worth considering you only use the breast meat. So, we've settled on bantams.

So which breed? We'd like to stay away from hybrids if at all possible. Has anyone raised bantams for meat? What worked and what didn't?

 

[KrazyChromatics]

im doing that now, but ive tried several breeds and cant find one i really like, so far i have a pair of blue rosecombs and i have to say i keep staring at the hens breasts

looking promising ... but my rooster flew out the window 2 days ago and is living like a wild turkey, i tracked him yesterday with the dogs and its litterally like hunting wild fowl, the dogs point him out and he flushes and FLYS away.... dang.... ill catch the bugger i hope lol then maybe he will stay home lol he really does hate me lol not a people bird at all

 

[tadpole98]

For what little meat you would get I say it would be worth it to buy some cornish or something big. roughly 5 bantams would equal one cornish.

 

[chooks4life]

I recommend banties for meat, as long as you don't bother with show stock. They tend to be beautiful skeletons. Why stay away from hybrids? The best one so far I have eaten is a pekin silkie hybrid. And any of its derivatives with any other breed, lol... The banty breeds tend to impart juicy, tender, well flavoured, easily fleshing genes, the boys are ready to eat at any age, and they are SO feed efficient you can raise many on the same amount a larger breed would take. They're great foragers and tend to maintain a great weight at all times.

I don't mind stocking up the spit with more birds, they tend to carry a higher ratio of flesh to skeleton than larger birds. I don't know how you'd do with the darker meat of silkies, but even the pure black flesh, bone, organs etc is nicely flavoured and used to be considered medicinal. Derivatives often have dark but not black flesh, and it usually carries much more gelatine, which I am a huge fan of. Don't like the drier, blander white flesh of most other meat breeds.

 

[Konra]

We recently processed roosters from our dual purpose flock with the primary goal of reducing roosters, but we were pleasantly surprised how meaty the bantam cochins were. They look perfect for roasting over the fire on a hot dog stick! The biggest problem was they were harder to pluck - bits of black feather seem to get left behind in the (?feather hole) but this was also our first time processing so that could be a lack of skill on my part

 

[KrazyChromatics]

We recently processed roosters from our dual purpose flock with the primary goal of reducing roosters, but we were pleasantly surprised how meaty the bantam cochins were. They look perfect for roasting over the fire on a hot dog stick! The biggest problem was they were harder to pluck - bits of black feather seem to get left behind in the (?feather hole) but this was also our first time processing so that could be a lack of skill on my part

i got 10 bantam cochins from someone who had too many roos, i got them to feed to my dog, they are very meaty, and idk our were SOOOOO easy to pluck, we hand pluck, feathers were finer and just wiped right off, we didnt bother doing the feet, dog doesnt mind lol we call it fiber ^_^ but i kept 2 from them, theres different conformation to them though, for some reason the gold lace has different standards

but i kept a gold lace and a silver lace, the gold lace stands more upright, and is decidedly heavier and the feathers arent quite so dence, but the breast meat is longer, the other one is the "normal" bird but deff has a smaller body mass, hes mostly feathers lol... im going to experiment with crosses and i guess find out when butcher time comes, hard developing a new breed for meat... u have to kill em to find out what the nekkid carcass looks like...

But my favorite part is they mature soooooooooooo much faster, i have banties the same age as some of my standards, the roos are crowing and have been for many months, also showing some breeding behavior...the standards still have a few months of development

oh and its possible they were still young our fist group was like that, use a knife and scrape out the liquid feather... my deducement is that that stuff is premature feather junk... but ive spent a lot of time scraping out the yuk with a knife works great though

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: I use lower perches in the coops so I can just feel their boobs at night, lol. You can feel their drumsticks too but once you get a bit of experience the breast is all you'll need to touch to know how well fleshed they are.

I agree totally about the fast maturing traits and all, I have mixed bantam genes all through my standard flock to make sure they are well fleshed at any age, fast maturing and tasty, juicy, tender-meat carrying. You can breed those traits into full sized chickens very easily.

 

[edgarmongold]

Post a bit old but seeing is best
From left to right
Large fowl Salmon Faverolle
Bantam Black Cochin
Rest are bantam SC Rhode Island Red
Check out the length of the keels on the Rhode Island Red
All 6 to 7 months old

 

[Kiraeh]

I processed an extra bantam Cochin cockerel a while back, I found him meaty, and easy to process. They're cute birds and easy to manage, I think they'd work well at scale.
The silkie suggestion might not be a bad one- they're easier to fence since they don't fly, but they grow very slowly.

 

[rum3002576]

I don’t raise meat bantams on purpose but every year I usually butcher 15 to 20 extra bantam cochin roosters. They are hard to sell so we always just eat them.