Best meat birds, NOT Cornish cross

[FoodFreedomNow]

I found American Bresse and Bresse crosses (I did AB x Marans) produced very nice, easily-plucked, and large table birds by 4-5 months in a pastured environment (supplementing with fermented feed). I prefer more flavorful birds, and that takes time...but they're worth the wait.

As good layers, Bresse are standout dual-purpose birds, so hens could be kept for egg production and roosters for freezer camp.

I've eaten my fair share of roosters, and even hatchery production breeds like RIR, New Hampshire, SLW/GLW, Australorp, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, and mixes produced very tasty table birds. Again, I attribute some of that to the flavor developing with time and environment. If hyperspeed growth isn't of paramount importance, consider trying (as has already been suggested) dual-purpose breeds.

Best of luck!

 

[speedy2020]

I found American Bresse and Bresse crosses (I did AB x Marans) produced very nice, easily-plucked, and large table birds by 4-5 months in a pastured environment (supplementing with fermented feed). I prefer more flavorful birds, and that takes time...but they're worth the wait.

As good layers, Bresse are standout dual-purpose birds, so hens could be kept for egg production and roosters for freezer camp.

I've eaten my fair share of roosters, and even hatchery production breeds like RIR, New Hampshire, SLW/GLW, Australorp, Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, and mixes produced very tasty table birds. Again, I attribute some of that to the flavor developing with time and environment. If hyperspeed growth isn't of paramount importance, consider trying (as has already been suggested) dual-purpose breeds.

Best of luck!

I am working on Ixworth x Bresse cross and intend to feed them meat bird feed to see how they turn out. The reason I choose meat bird feed to see if they can be 4-6lbs live weigh in 16 weeks.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I am working on Ixworth x Bresse cross and intend to feed them meat bird feed to see how they turn out. The reason I choose meat bird feed to see if they can be 4-6lbs live weigh in 16 weeks.

I haven't raised Ixworth, myself, but I'd be surprised if you didn't achieve your weight goal in your desired timeframe with that cross. Best of luck and looking forward to hearing how it pans out!

 

[speedy2020]

I haven't raised Ixworth, myself, but I'd be surprised if you didn't achieve your weight goal in your desired timeframe with that cross. Best of luck and looking forward to hearing how it pans out!

I am update the Ixworth thread regularly. If you are curious, check it out by searching Ixworth from this site. I started that threat few months back so it is too late to edit and change the tittle.

 

[iwltfum]

Not sure what exactly you don't like about the cornishx, but I decided that my meat bird project was not going to support any part of the commercial poultry industry and so I switched to growing freedom rangers and they are delightful. I landed on freedom rangers because they are bred responsibly, the fact that it's a family owned hatchery, and because we could grow them fast without having to spend a fortune to feed them for months on end. We grow them for 9 weeks and the majority of them weigh between 3-4 pounds by butcher day (some a bit more, some a bit less). They have a decent sized breast, but the thighs are really where the poundage comes from on this breed. Just thought I chime in and give you one more breed to look into in case you were looking for fast growing options as opposed to heritage breeds.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Interesting! Do you know how long it takes them to get to full size? I’m wondering if the amount of extra food it would take to get them to grow would be worth the extra 2 pounds of meat or so!

It takes a LONG LONG time. I have 4 CornishX, who free range plus food at nights. I've kept them far longer than the norm, they just started week 20, and are about 11# each. They've put on essentially no weight the last few weeks as I've restricted their diet further.

My Dark Brahma are sitting at 16 weeks, same feeding, and I would eat my work boots if any of them is over 5.5# (still heavier than my golden comets at the same age, but less than my HH "Rainbows") - which is where my CornishX were at week 9-10.

Its my understanding that they will eventually hit 9#, the Roos up to 11-12#, but "slow to" appears to accurately describe everything about breed. Slow to lay, slow to mature, slow to put on weight, and apparently, even slow to stop laying.

 

[Compost King]

What ever develops the fastest is what I consider the best. Some might laugh at this but I would raise white leghorns for meat before I would raise Jersey Giants. As far as the best non cornish X I would say one of the freedom ranger types, doesn't have to be one of birds with Ranger in their name. I have raised Red Rangers and found them to high quality. If you are looking for a pure bred I suggest New Hampshires from Freedom Ranger Hatchery. Many people recommend Buckeyes or did in recent years but I have no idea where to get a high quality Buckeye, Freedom Ranger Hatchery also has Delawares that are supposedly good for meat and eggs.

 

[3KillerBs]

Do you know how long it takes them to get to full size?

Brahmas can take a couple years to reach full size and their skeletal frame develops before their meat does.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I seem to recall that someone on this forum recently raised Brahma's and another breed. I don't remember the details, hopefully this will jog someone's memory, but they de-boned them at a relatively young age. Yes the Brahma's had a lot of bones and looked bony, but after de-boning they had a little more meat too.

I don't remember details, age, what other breed it was compared to, what strains, how they were fed, any of that. I've been fooled before by appearance, a thick-feathered bird didn't have near the meat on it I thought it would. That's why you need to weigh and handle them before selecting breeding stock.

I've never raised Brahma's so I have no direct experience. I've always avoided them because of their reputation for being slow. Slow to lay, slow to mature, slow to add meat to their frame. I don't know if that was a one-off occurrence or if it would be repeatable. I still do not plan to try them but I'm less sure than I once was.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have Dark Brahma, and wouldn't consider them an efficient producer of meat. Of course, I'm probably doing something wrong, because I also have Hoover Hatchery's "Rainbows", which are quite similar (as I understand it) to the various "Freedom Ranger" offerings, and they are only 5.5# at week 20, and have still noticeable (not prominent) breast bones in their long-ish, leanish bodies. Prior threads I've read suggest I should be about a pound heavier at a few weeks sooner.

Of course, its also possible that I 'm just new to this (true), my expectations are based on the stories that got posted about individual birds (true), my birds have active lives compared to many (true), and my visual references are skewed because the next size up birds in my flock are the CornishX and the Pekin ducks (true).

If I was to raise a strictly meat bird, and wasn't using the Cornish, I'd be sore tempted to just raise Pekins, honestly. But then, I like duck meat. They bulk up fast, though the cX were even faster, if you can believe it - Cornish at 8 weeks and Pekins at 12 were near identical weights, though distributed rather differently on the bone. Orpingtons will be my next experiment in raising to useful size, if it had to be chicken - they have a good reputation for moderate weight at moderate weeks of age.

and I find I need to take MUCH better notes as I continue, as I was very inconsistent on when I weighed my birds (and don't have a good scale set up, either).