I'm only aware of two places to get decent colored broilers: JM Hatchery and S & G poultry (
www.jmhatchery.com,
www.sandgpoultry.com). Anyone else claiming to have various colored slower growing broilers are probably actually selling the roosters of layer breeds, or at best, they are selling a lesser hybrid.
Now that that is out of the way, go here to read all about the Colored Range Broilers from JM Hatchery:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=122611
Many of us have raised these birds with varying degrees of success. Just understand that these are 11-12 week chickens. Don't plan on processing them at 6-8 weeks, or they will be very small. This aspect has led to confusion in the past, with more than one poster expecting that they would be as large as a 12-week old cornish cross, but with much better livability, and that's simply not the case. At 12 weeks, they will probably be about the same size as a 7-8 week cornish cross, depending on how they are raised.
If you let them free-range very much, they will grow even slower. I'm currently growing 150 of them in 2 separate 10x12 pens.
I believe the taste is superior, but you'll notice that the legs are a bit more stringy than you're probably used to, simply because they are older. The meat is also less tender, but I don't think it's a huge difference. In fact, you may not even notice the difference unless you're eating it side-by-side with a cornish cross.
When I started these, I didn't have ANY chick feed (crumbles), so I just dumped some of the regular broiler feed (mash) into a feeder, then figured I'd pick up some crumbles after work. I kept the crumbles in a separate feeder, and they preferred the mash by about 3 to 1. Both were 20%, but since they didn't eat the larger corn pieces in the mash, I'm sure the actual consumed percentage was a little bit higher.
Here's why I wanted to raise these again:
They eat grass. Yes, cornish cross chickens will also eat grass, but these guys REEEAAAALLY eat grass! I put them outside at 16 days, and was amazed to see how many of them were content to munch on the grass, even when new feed was dumped into the feeder. If you believe, like me, that grass-fed animals are better for you, then these are the ideal pastured meat chicken.
They're also more visually pleasing. In fact, it's almost a shame to have them processed, because they are such nice looking bird. Cornish Crosses get ugly fast, and stay ugly until about 6 weeks, when they take on the typical "bowling balls with heads" features.
Downside: They start to crow somewhere around 10 weeks. I only raised a handful last year, so I don't know how bad it's going to get this year, having 150 of them, and with roughly 75 crowing. I won't have an answer to this question for another couple of months.
