Broiler Meat Birds: To Brood Or Not To Brood

[Arielle]

thiese are helpful numbers

 

[Oakdale Farm]

We raised our first batch of a dozen CornishX this past spring. They are pretty stupid (which is saying something for a chicken), but they are very tasty!

We have plenty of space, so our flock was raised outside in a large pen (a 100ft roll of snow fence staked around) with a moveable hoop house inside the pen which they could go into for shelter. These birds are not huge foragers. But, by moving the feed and water stations around, they learned to move about and could do it just fine. They lived through late spring snow storms, rain, cold and then the early heat of our June. They fully feathered, and looked fine.

I did have guidance from a friend who raises them for sale at his farmer's market. He told me to restrict the feed, and force them to move. He was right. No desert after supper for these chickies!

As a farm boy, I'd like to share that these are meat birds. They get big, and don't move unless they need to. Just like a big hog, or a fattened steer, they get lazy. They eat, sleep and do other natural things - a lot! They are opportunists who do the least to get by. If food and water is at hand, then 'mission accomplished' as far as they are concerned. They're not looking to join an exercise club or go on an adventure. They just want to eat and relax. But they are healthy, happy, and capable of surviving. We raise them exactly because they produce a lot of meat quickly and efficiently. We as their care takers want them to be completely happy and contented and stress free right up until the end. And we want the end to be swift and suddenly unexpected. That makes it all right and good and it makes the meat that much more delicious.

We dressed our batch at about 10 weeks because we wanted them a little larger. They looked like little turkeys. We averaged about 9 lb. per dressed bird. 'Colonel Sanders' our huge proudest rooster, dressed out at a little over 12 lbs. He was huge! No broken legs, no bed sores, no problems. Just a huge lazy dominant chicken bred to produce meat. Boy did he produce meat!

We have other chickens which are much more interesting. We will raise Cornish rocks again next spring for the freezer. Our Wyandotte is pretty and fun, but they are not so much on the table. Breeds are selected for certain traits. Selected. Nothing GMO about it. Just plain old God engineered luck-of-the-draw cross fertilization - with selection and management by the breeder. We enjoy joking about Cornish rocks being 'nuclear frankenchickens' but they are just another breed. Enjoy it for what it is - or not - but just because someone doesn't like a particular breed it shouldn't take away from someone else having the pleasure of their own experience.

 

[cassie]

Thank you for your thoughtful post. I would give you an ovation if I knew how.

I heard someone describe the Cornish as feathered bowling balls with legs. I liked that description.

 

[fireflyhatchery]

. This was my last group of for the year so I got them nice and large. 27 at 10 weeks. Clean healthy and delicious tasting. Had the simple shelter with an electric netting fence boundary.

 

[lhamid]

I have never raised Cornish but I did raise Freedom Rangers and they do act like 'normal' chickens, also put on weight fast. They eat like pigs and poop like horses. I am now raising Poulet Bleu, relatives of the famous French Bresse. They are not hybrids, they breed true. My flock of breeders are almost 2 years old and very healthy. Also they are excellent layers! The meat is beautiful and succulent. The roosters were harvested at 16 weeks were decent sized (a bird easily fed 4 people). Poulet Bleu are my bird of choice for a really great meat birds and lots of big eggs to boot

 

[Jack Speese]

I take a middle of the road stance here. A friend who had a commercial broiler house once gave me 25 or so chicks out of his flock, and they were indeed exactly like what others said, i.e., the closest thing to a "vegetable" that an animal could be. They did indeed spend most of their time lying down (anywhere, as has been said) and were mere growing machines. However, I also raised a flock of Cornish roasters from Murray McMurray and they were indeed more like "normal" chickens. They would forage, and although they didn't grow as fast, the end product was just as good, just took a little longer to get and yes, probably more feed. So from my own experience I feel that both extremes are true. For a home broiler flock, I would definitely recommended the slower growing, ranger types. I never tried chicken tractors but I think that would be an excellent way to raise them...they could forage yet be protected from predators. I simply raised mine in a coop with a large pen like I did other chickens.
If you want meat, esp. for fried chicken where you need to slaughter them at a younger age while they are still tender, I do feel that broiler breeds have it over regular breeds, even large ones like Plymouth Rocks. The genetics for double breast muscles makes a difference. You just don't get the meat in the right places on other breeds, not even large ones. Even raised to roaster age they are still "chicken-chested", i.e., you can feel the keel bone and they just don't ever develop the breast meat like a broiler. I don't raise broilers anymore and I usually end up giving away my older hens when they are past egg-laying age. Right now I have a mixed flock of 8 Red Stars, 6 barred rocks, 4 buff Orpingtons (my "Golden Girls"), two mixed blue Andalusian hens, and a Rhode Island Red Rooster.

 

[SmokinChick]

LET THIS THREAD DIE! Please read the first post.
The OP doesn't want to know or care what you raise. He/she wrote a nonsensical statement. It is a statement base on nothing. The only purpose is to divide and anger.
Let it go!

 

[fireflyhatchery]

I take a middle of the road stance here. A friend who had a commercial broiler house once gave me 25 or so chicks out of his flock, and they were indeed exactly like what others said, i.e., the closest thing to a "vegetable" that an animal could be. They did indeed spend most of their time lying down (anywhere, as has been said) and were mere growing machines. However, I also raised a flock of Cornish roasters from Murray McMurray and they were indeed more like "normal" chickens. They would forage, and although they didn't grow as fast, the end product was just as good, just took a little longer to get and yes, probably more feed. So from my own experience I feel that both extremes are true. For a home broiler flock, I would definitely recommended the slower growing, ranger types. I never tried chicken tractors but I think that would be an excellent way to raise them...they could forage yet be protected from predators. I simply raised mine in a coop with a large pen like I did other chickens.
If you want meat, esp. for fried chicken where you need to slaughter them at a younger age while they are still tender, I do feel that broiler breeds have it over regular breeds, even large ones like Plymouth Rocks. The genetics for double breast muscles makes a difference. You just don't get the meat in the right places on other breeds, not even large ones. Even raised to roaster age they are still "chicken-chested", i.e., you can feel the keel bone and they just don't ever develop the breast meat like a broiler. I don't raise broilers anymore and I usually end up giving away my older hens when they are past egg-laying age. Right now I have a mixed flock of 8 Red Stars, 6 barred rocks, 4 buff Orpingtons (my "Golden Girls"), two mixed blue Andalusian hens, and a Rhode Island Red Rooster.      

is a Cornish roaster the same as a Cornish hen?

 

[Megaputz]

I just left my aunt/uncle to drop off some roo's. There were a dozen cornish x in the coop that were 12+ weeks old. They all had angel wing, were half the size of my meat birds which are 10 weeks. Half could barely walk and one was severely crippled. After seeing their meat birds I had questions...what kind of feed? protein %? The same questions when I saw his laying hens which all looked tiny. Some of the birds were chicks I had given them from eggs I had hatched last Easter but their birds were half the size and had not matured at the same rate. Feathering was not complete, combs and waddles were still small, roo's not crowing.

They keep their birds in coops. The cornish live in a 6'x8' room. The other birds have a 15'x15' run and a 8'x12' coop. My run is 50'x40' with a 16'x8' coop. I have free ranged the cornish x, ducks, and other chickens since day 1. I put the chicks outside in a chicken tractor with a heat lamp and during the day they had free run of the yard. Have had no deaths or leg problems. I only had 18 cornish but they act like chickens... just a bit clumsier. Two of my birds did develop angel wing... that may be my fault... since I bought the cornish in batches of 6 about 2-3 weeks apart I kept them on starter too long. Free feed 24/7.

Is this a feed/exercise issue? If the birds are penned and not allowed to exercise and they get bored. Have heard that if the protein level are too high it outpaces bone growth and that causes leg problems. Lock an animal in a room and if all it can do is eat, sleep and peck at it's siblings...
Back to the feed. My aunt/uncle get their feed from a local granary. Personally I don't buy from them because the product is so inconsistent. Every time I opened the feed bags it would be a different mix of grains and at times powder. I wonder if the feed and protein levels play a big role in raising healthy meat birds and egg layers?
The cornish I saw today were not fit for butcher and death would be a blessing. It's hard to understand how people who have raised chickens, pigs, cows etc could see this as normal but he did and got defensive when I asked about protein percentage in the feed and age. The birds were just so small and so many crippled... can't get over it. The largest 2 were half the size of my cornish and they just got smaller and half couldn't even get up to get out of the way. Not from being too fat but because of leg issues. That compared to watching my cornish 'joust' with each other and the barred rock roo's in the yard every day. My birds are not as active as my barred rock and araucanas but they sure get around and are active.
The mass deaths, crippled, deformations are the result of poor animal husbandry not the breed. Change the feed and living conditions. What you are doing is clearly not working. What is frightening though is people don't know the methods are wrong. They assume it's the breed, if 5-10% of the birds drop dead before two months... it's normal.
Sorry if you wanted the thread to die but what I saw bothered me. Asking questions bothered him. He's like 70 and has been doing it for years and I'm just a dumb kid. best way to show him is to bring a couple of birds over for processing and invite him over to see the coop/run. Set an example and show how for the same cost/time a person can have larger, healthier birds. Some great pictures guys.

 

[martin erasmus]

hi yes i suppose you get some people that raises broiler/ross for the money only and others do it under umane conditions for money i am one of the latter ones i stay in south africa / gauteng/west rand and you cant believe how difficuilt it is for me to get broiler/ross breeding stock i own a fair size incubator and am buying fertile eggs every week. Any one out there that can assist
MARTIN