Characteristics In a meat bird

[dustponds10]

I just decided to make a different post as some have asked what characteristics and purpose I desire.

I have the facility for numbers up too 300-400 birds but I’d just like to feed my family home grown chicken.

I’m looking for:
Double breast
12-18 week growth rate
Mobile to free range
Keep breed stock for following year.
6-8lb dressed out. (I’d like as large as I can get but 6-8 can be y target)
Hardy. I live in Wyoming.

Thank you all for your help on my other post leading to me asking the correct questions.

Picture is of one of my old birds and genetic stock I still play with some.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Oh that bird's tail is lovely.

Rangers are likely your best bet

 

[CNJ]

A Cornish x paired with a Red Ranger or Big Red Broiler might work. But you will have to limit the amount of feed the Cornish X chicks eat at one month old and let them free range.

 

[iwltfum]

I'll second the rangers and just buy hatching eggs or day old chicks - alot cheaper in the long run, but if you want good heavy stock that can breed true I would go with orpingtons or australorps. Or something similar that is a heavy breed with good cold hardiness that has been proven to breed true without the need to infuse new genetics over time. Most new england "heritage" breeds would be suited to your purposes as well. Other than RIRs.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

While I have not owned them myself, by reputation and the postings of others here on BYC, a good Ranger line is likely your best bet. As a wise poster has said, "Eat the one's you don't want to eat, breed the ones you do want to eat."

Too many of the New England Heritage breeds are basically egg layers at this point, courtesy the commercial hatcheries - without the fast growth you want, or the double breast.

For both good and ill, the CornishX is so feed efficient, so fast growing, and so provides what American's want in chicken - a bland, textureless, cheap protein - that efforts to improve the meatiness of other breeds were largely abandoned. Its only relatively recently that has changed, with renewed focus on potentially self sustaining, truly dual purpose birds that can thrive in more natural, less commercial battery conditions.

Which brings up a consideration you might want to give more though to. Sustainable, largely free-range, self replicating flocks are intended to provide a steady stock of meat throughtout the year. You are always incubating, always growing out, always putting eggs on table, and always culling birds as they "age out" - again, for table. You don't need a huge flock to maintain stable numbers and still be resilient to the whims of fate.

Without linking (again) to my culling project, I will offer that I can incubate 12 eggs every three weeks +/-, have nine make it to size (allowing for disease, injury, failures to hatch, etc) and still take three birds a week for my own use at table. One bird is always an older hen, sausage or stew. Two birds (usually) are young males for table. I still have so many eggs most of the year that I can sell them for eating, hatching, whatever. ...and I can control numbers by deferring incubation, by deferring culling, or by culling extras, depending on my needs - while the large numbers of eggs daily means I can select just the largest (and lightest, personal preference, makes candling easier) for future generations.

Multi-hundred bird management for meaties is used to do a couple of mass rasing, mass butchering, mass freezing efforts - works well commercially, or for people with very short growing seasons and lots of freezer space. It works best when people simply order hatchery provided day old chicks (and enjoy that economy of scale) at need, rather than maintaining their own breeding flocks. If you go that route, and don't want the CX, which are not suited to free ranging, some of the "slow-growth" or "big red broiler" lines, which sort of blend CX-like characteristics and Ranger characteristics would be a better choice - with your massive facilities being free for other purposes much of the year.

 

[dustponds10]

A Cornish x paired with a Red Ranger or Big Red Broiler might work. But you will have to limit the amount of feed the Cornish X chicks eat at one month old and let them free range.

Thank you. I think I’m going to stay away from the Cornish cross.

 

[dustponds10]

While I have not owned them myself, by reputation and the postings of others here on BYC, a good Ranger line is likely your best bet. As a wise poster has said, "Eat the one's you don't want to eat, breed the ones you do want to eat."

Too many of the New England Heritage breeds are basically egg layers at this point, courtesy the commercial hatcheries - without the fast growth you want, or the double breast.

For both good and ill, the CornishX is so feed efficient, so fast growing, and so provides what American's want in chicken - a bland, textureless, cheap protein - that efforts to improve the meatiness of other breeds were largely abandoned. Its only relatively recently that has changed, with renewed focus on potentially self sustaining, truly dual purpose birds that can thrive in more natural, less commercial battery conditions.

Which brings up a consideration you might want to give more though to. Sustainable, largely free-range, self replicating flocks are intended to provide a steady stock of meat throughtout the year. You are always incubating, always growing out, always putting eggs on table, and always culling birds as they "age out" - again, for table. You don't need a huge flock to maintain stable numbers and still be resilient to the whims of fate.

Without linking (again) to my culling project, I will offer that I can incubate 12 eggs every three weeks +/-, have nine make it to size (allowing for disease, injury, failures to hatch, etc) and still take three birds a week for my own use at table. One bird is always an older hen, sausage or stew. Two birds (usually) are young males for table. I still have so many eggs most of the year that I can sell them for eating, hatching, whatever. ...and I can control numbers by deferring incubation, by deferring culling, or by culling extras, depending on my needs - while the large numbers of eggs daily means I can select just the largest (and lightest, personal preference, makes candling easier) for future generations.

Multi-hundred bird management for meaties is used to do a couple of mass rasing, mass butchering, mass freezing efforts - works well commercially, or for people with very short growing seasons and lots of freezer space. It works best when people simply order hatchery provided day old chicks (and enjoy that economy of scale) at need, rather than maintaining their own breeding flocks. If you go that route, and don't want the CX, which are not suited to free ranging, some of the "slow-growth" or "big red broiler" lines, which sort of blend CX-like characteristics and Ranger characteristics would be a better choice - with your massive facilities being free for other purposes much of the year.

Hey I appreciate this. I have quite the amount of space but really only want to do a couple haves of around 25-50 birds each hatch. Then cull down to the birdd that I prefer or select as the ideal focus for meat. Inreally just want to raise my own meat for my family. Your plan sounds great but I am in Wyoming and cannot do a revolving door type of system. It’s just too cold and the grow season is extremely short. I have facilities but I don’t want to limit them to just birds again.

Here’s a question. I have cages, not battery cages, larger pens that could easily hold a hatch of 50 chick for at least a month. Then separate them to the other similar cages in less numbers as to not crowd. Auto water and feeders that hold plenty of feed for days. Would the rangers or other big red meat birds produce better meat if confined instead of free ranging? Would gain more efficiently?

 

[dustponds10]

Oh that bird's tail is lovely.

Rangers are likely your best bet

Thank that bird was a Spencer Hackle line bird. Not many out there anymore. Glad I still have the blood

 

[CNJ]

Here’s a question. I have cages, not battery cages, larger pens that could easily hold a hatch of 50 chick for at least a month. Then separate them to the other similar cages in less numbers as to not crowd. Auto water and feeders that hold plenty of feed for days. Would the rangers or other big red meat birds produce better meat if confined instead of free ranging? Would gain more efficiently?

Meat birds make a lot of poop, most people use chicken tractors and move them daily. However, I have raised Cornish cross in a 1 inch screen floor coop with out any problems at 8 week harvest, any longer than that their leg shanks start showing abrasion from sitting all day.
There are a few advantages for raising meat birds in a screen floor coop. The first advantage is most of their poop falls through the screen, so they are not sleeping on it. Another advantage is when it rains and gets muddy, they stay dry . Lastly, it doesn't have to be moved like a chicken tractor.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Would the rangers or other big red meat birds produce better meat if confined instead of free ranging? Would gain more efficiently?

"better" is a loaded word.

In Theory (again, I've not tried this myself), you will have less texture, less flavor, and faster weight gain/time in a confined bird. However, to the extent that their behaviors have a genetic component, you may have more flock behavioral problems in confined spaces. Abundance is a social lubricant.

My question is how, with a short grow season of moderate climate, you are going to grow your flock size up to have enough for mass cullings, and then shrink back down again at seasons end, keeping enough birds to repeat the process? Hatching 12 eggs every three weeks, it took me more than half of a year to go from 18 birds to over 80 (yes, I did some culling along the way) before paring the flock down some. The birds you hatch in Spring won't be reliable layers till fall, so your ability to produce eggs to hatch and cull is limited by the number of layers you overwinter, and the number of incubators you dedicate to hatching.

Maybe if you have one roo, 9-10 hens, and you are filling a new 12 egg incubator every other day or so (so the hatchings aren't too far staggered) to get the head count you want? You may already have all the equipment on hand, with your facilities. Otherwise, could be a significant upfront investment in additional incubators, which will be dormant most of the year.