Cornish VS Heritage Breed or Turken Cockerels

[Turkenqueen]

Hi all! I have a question about Cornish VS Heritage Breed or Turken Cockerels... Is there a difference in meat other than the yield? Obviously I get more meat from a Cornish but I was really curious if there was a difference in meat such as taste and texture? Price difference at all raising them to butcher?
I'm trying to decide if I want to do a larger flock of layers so I can hatch from them (I have a GQF Sportsman incubator so incubator space isn't a problem) and butcher out the cockerels when they're ready or if I'm better off just buying Cornish (they'll have to be shipped in) every 6 weeks to butcher. I have a family of 8 to feed so I need the best and I know how this sounds "least expensive" option possible.

My questions are:
Other than yield, what's the difference?
How is taste and texture compared?
Is there a price difference at all between raising?
What are your reasons for choosing your option?

Any advice is appreciated!
Thank you guys for your help! This is my first post too!

 

[Molpet]

A guy did a study of a few heritage hatchery breeds https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

 

[Parront]

Hi all! I have a question about Cornish VS Heritage Breed or Turken Cockerels... Is there a difference in meat other than the yield? Obviously I get more meat from a Cornish but I was really curious if there was a difference in meat such as taste and texture? Price difference at all raising them to butcher?
I'm trying to decide if I want to do a larger flock of layers so I can hatch from them (I have a GQF Sportsman incubator so incubator space isn't a problem) and butcher out the cockerels when they're ready or if I'm better off just buying Cornish (they'll have to be shipped in) every 6 weeks to butcher. I have a family of 8 to feed so I need the best and I know how this sounds "least expensive" option possible.

My questions are:
Other than yield, what's the difference?
How is taste and texture compared?
Is there a price difference at all between raising?
What are your reasons for choosing your option?

Any advice is appreciated!
Thank you guys for your help! This is my first post too!

Welcome!
I will be honest, you will get the lowest cost meat with a Cornish-X. They convert feed into meat like nothing else. Birds you raise in your own backyard get the best treatment, more space to move around, sun and grass, that the commercial birds never get, so they will taste better than the ones in the store. You can raise them longer to a larger size suitable to your family when you raise them yourself. I used to raise them for 10 - 12 weeks and have a ~10 pound bird, dressed. I would raise them again, but we are at a high altitude and they do not do so well in the mountains, from the things I have read. I do eat layer cockerels, and at 10 weeks they are just crowing and dress to about 1.5 to 2 pounds each. One of them feeds 2 split in half and BBQ'd. They taste good, like chicken! Leaner, and firmer than the Cornish game hens from the store. It will cost you less if you hatch your own, but feeding the roosters costs something, and large males are sometimes a problem of their own. Try some of each, you might like both! With a big incubator, you will have a lot of males hatching!

 

[Turkenqueen]

A guy did a study of a few heritage hatchery breeds https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/

Thank you! I skimmed over it but I will read it in more detail later!

 

[FuzzyCritters]

Cornish cross are the cheapest option. You can get them for $1-3 a chick and they cost less to feed than a heritage bird because you don't keep them as long. Cornish cross only take 8 weeks to reach a decent size (mine dressed out at 4-6 pounds), while an heritage takes 4-6 months to reach a nice size.

Cornish cross fed good feed and raised on grass taste much better than ones raised commercially. Heritage birds taste a bit gamier. It's a matter of opinion which ones you like better.

I personally prefer cornish cross because they can't be beat in efficiency. I would suggest trying both to see which ones you like better. You can also try red rangers or similar broilers, they are a mix of cornish cross and heritage birds.

 

[Turkenqueen]

Welcome!
I will be honest, you will get the lowest cost meat with a Cornish-X. They convert feed into meat like nothing else. Birds you raise in your own backyard get the best treatment, more space to move around, sun and grass, that the commercial birds never get, so they will taste better than the ones in the store. You can raise them longer to a larger size suitable to your family when you raise them yourself. I used to raise them for 10 - 12 weeks and have a ~10 pound bird, dressed. I would raise them again, but we are at a high altitude and they do not do so well in the mountains, from the things I have read. I do eat layer cockerels, and at 10 weeks they are just crowing and dress to about 1.5 to 2 pounds each. One of them feeds 2 split in half and BBQ'd. They taste good, like chicken! Leaner, and firmer than the Cornish game hens from the store. It will cost you less if you hatch your own, but feeding the roosters costs something, and large males are sometimes a problem of their own. Try some of each, you might like both! With a big incubator, you will have a lot of males hatching!

Thank you!

 

[Turkenqueen]

Cornish cross are the cheapest option. You can get them for $1-3 a chick and they cost less to feed than a heritage bird because you don't keep them as long. Cornish cross only take 8 weeks to reach a decent size (mine dressed out at 4-6 pounds), while an heritage takes 4-6 months to reach a nice size.

Cornish cross fed good feed and raised on grass taste much better than ones raised commercially. Heritage birds taste a bit gamier. It's a matter of opinion which ones you like better.

I personally prefer cornish cross because they can't be beat in efficiency. I would suggest trying both to see which ones you like better. You can also try red rangers or similar broilers, they are a mix of cornish cross and heritage birds.

Thank you!

 

[NatJ]

How is taste and texture compared?

I think it's pretty similar IF you butcher them at the same age (not weight).
8 week Cornish Cross vs. 8 week any other breed cockerel are going to be very different sizes.

If you want to raise your own replacements anyway, I would suggest raising them to about 8 weeks, then butchering the cockerels even if they still look small.

Also butcher your old hens when they are done laying eggs. Any recipe that calls for cooked, chopped chicken meat works fine, as long as you simmer the meat long enough before you start chopping.

And if that doesn't make enough chicken meat, then I advise buying Cornish Cross to make up the difference. By the time you consider your time to tend them and butcher them, as well as the feed they eat, they are probably your best bet.

 

[Molpet]

What are your reasons for choosing your option?

I kept a CX pullet and bred her to a random mix heritage roo from FB. I used her sons over br and bjg....and the 3rd generation cockerels dress out around 6 lbs at 16 weeks

 

[Ridgerunner]

Other than yield, what's the difference?
How is taste and texture compared?
Is there a price difference at all between raising?

Cornish X are bred to be butchered at 6 to 8 weeks. They are most efficient if butchered when they are ready, 6 to 8 weeks. This is if you are buying all they eat. If you restrict feed they grow slower but your costs probably go up some. If you pasture them or grow a lot of their feed your costs may drop a little. Different ways to go about it but the Cornish X are the most efficient.

Rangers are somewhat similar but are slower to grow and handle pasture better. Less efficient than the Cornish X but not bad.

Dual purpose grow a lot slower. They cost more to feed unless you rely on them foraging a lot. If you butcher them at the same age as the others the taste and texture will be pretty close but there will be almost no meat there. They are not going to develop the health issues the others can if you delay butchering so you can butcher when you want to, not when you have to. If freezer space is tight or you have schedule problems that could b a factor.

The age you butcher them has a lot to do with flavor and texture. When the hormones hit the cockerels quickly develop flavor. Some people like that flavor, some don't. Those hormones also cause cockerels to develop texture. That means the age you butcher has a lot to do with how you cook them. You can fry or grill a young bird. Different people have different preferences and tolerances but usually around 14 weeks for most people they get too old to fry or grill. You need to use a different method to cook them, usually something slower and moister. You could write a book on that.

Pullets also develop flavor and texture as they age but do that a lot slower than cockerels in puberty.

What are your reasons for choosing your option?

My goals. I like to play with genetics, which means dual purpose chickens. Mine forage for a lot of their food or I grow it so costs aren't exorbitant. Size isn't that important to me. There are only two of us so I can get two meals out of a small pullet. The second meal is soup that I can from stuff I grow. A large cockerel just means I get chicken for lunch a time or two. Dual purpose suit my lifestyle.