Best tasting heritage breed meat chickens????

[popcornpuppy]

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We cull birds at various ages for various reasons. If the bird is small or does not have morre than 4lbs of meat on it, it's dog food.

This Thanksgiving we had Barred Rock roo, age 18 weeks. Just too many roos in the hen house and someone had to go. The most tender delicious bird I have ever eaten. It dressed out at 4 and a half lbs. Older bird = more meat. Younger bird = more tender.

 

[becky3086]

Ok, how do you use them as dog food? Are they cooked first?

 

[popcornpuppy]

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It depends on how much meat I have, and how long I want to feed it to the dogs. I have 6 dogs, so one bird may be a meal for one night to feed all 6. I do feed my guys raw food from time to time if it can be consumed in 2 days or less......bones and all.
One day we processed 9 birds, so I had to freeze some and I made some "dog stew." I quartered the chickens, cooked them in a pot with water to get the meat off of the bones (cooked bones are bad because they become brittle from cooking and splinter easily). I added green beans, carrots, peas and brown rice. It sounds like soup, but I cooked most of the moisture out. I took the chicken quarters out of the pot and ran the meat through the food processor. This way I can mix it in to the stew and be sure that each portion has an equal amount of meat in it.

I think feeding raw or cooked is personal choice, so I am not going to say one is better than the other. I'm just trying to show the versatility in using chickens to feeds dogs.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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The most meat per bird is the Dark Cornish, The best tasting Cuckoo Marans, largest breast the RIR, biggest leg 1/4's the Buff Orpingtons. If I had to pick one on just taste the Marans without a doubt. If I could have 2 Marans and Dark Cornish

Steve in NC

 

[StevenSRitchie]

We have eaten Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons. We stopped raising Rhode Islands because the rooster kept attacking us and our three year old (now 5). The Buff Orpingtons cockerels were delicious. The Buff Orps were much better than the Reds but that might be because we ate the Buff Cockerels before they started crowing while we ate the Red cockerels after they started crowing and mating with the hens. We noticed that the free ranged chickens definitely tasted better than when the chickens were confined to eat just grains. My wife always boils all dual purpose chickens a long time (even the young cockerels) because their meat tends to be tougher than the store bought ones. The older hens and roosters need to be boiled longer. We just killed two Buff Orpington cockerels and they were delicious. I suppose that all dual purpose chickens taste better when they are killed young. It also matters how the chickens are cooked. My wife always seems to make everything taste better.

 

[homesteadapps]

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Agree, White Rocks too.

Our Buckeyes cockerels usually dress out around 3.5 to 4 lbs between 18 and 20 weeks. THe White Rock are very similar to this too. -- good breeding stock. Not bad for free ranging birds. Hens will lay about 4 to 5 eggs per week

Hens of most breeds will continue to lay after 18 months but the production does start to slowly decline near this age. When using the 18+ month hens as meat you will get the best results cooking them using fowl recipes.

 

[homesteadapps]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Since the heritage breeds have been selected for egg production over meat for the past few decades I venture that there is littel difference in taste between them, provided they consume the same feed.

Since there has been no selection pressure for meat qualities: taste, tenderness, yield, etc. the type of diet and age of the bird will have a greater impact on the flavor and eating experience.


Jim

This has some validity of some hatchery stock and breeds, but is not necessarily true for heritage breeds from breeders. With breeding stock, there will be little difference from the current bird and one 100 years ago for the most part. Breeding chickens are bred to the APA Standards which is about size, shapes, looks, weight, etc..... Breeder stock is the best place to start if you are interested in good sized birds for meat. Now most breeding stock won't lay as many eggs per week as stock that has been bred for generation to lay, lay, lay, but our Buckeyes and White Rocks lay 4 to 5 eggs each weekly free ranging.​

 

[Tracydr]

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Mine are fed raw. I just use the parts that we would eat, in addition to organs. I save some stuff for the stock pot or they would get it all. No guts though. I don't usually feed heads, just a hassle to clean but heads are a favorite animal food. I've noticed when my cats kill a wild bird they eat the head first.
Basically, everything the guts.
They are on a full raw diet, although we cheat and cook the liver because none of my dogs like raw liver. Liver is used as training treats. Their main food is pork and beef heart, pork shoulder, plus about 10% bony meat like chicken, 5% liver and %5 other organs, for which I use thymus.
Right now, I'm raising a bunch of red " packing peanuts" from mine and friends hatchery orders. The ones we don't eat will be used for the dogs food. I much prefer using home raised chicken for them since I don't have to worry about bacterial contamination of the raw meat.

 

[flowerchild59]

I have a really nice marans roo I would like to put over something for sustainable meaties. I am really swing toward getting some delaware hens. I thought about dorkings also, but I know the dels lay better and that would make my egg customers happy too.
Any ideas?

 

[Illia]

Getting to the point, of tests that have actually been done on many, many breeds - People find that La Fleche and Dorkings are the best tasting.


Houdans back in the day when hatcheries didn't ruin them were also considered THE dual purpose bird.




Of the breeds I've raised, I find Araucanas the best tasting. But they aren't "heritage" birds.


I think something people really don't understand though is that when you talk about Heritage birds, it is unfair to say that ANY bird of a breed accepted to the APA before the 60's is considered heritage, because unlike plants (heirloom and the sort) chickens are easily bred, within the same breed, to be very different from each other. I for one, and the ALBC agreed, does not consider a Rhode Island Red or Buff Orpington from a hatchery as a heritage bird. They aren't near as big or meaty as the original (now usually show lines) types which thus doesn't stand up to the term "dual purpose," and their temperament, in RIR's especially, is certainly proof in poor breeding. I know some of you have heard the "anti-hatchery" spiel loads times, but if there is something out of it that is in fact true - It is that hatcheries are not the best source for a truly dual purpose bird. They breed for egg production. That is all.