Cornish X -vs- Standard Breeds -- which best for me?

[greyfields]

Quote:
I want to say it's the presence of myoglobin in the muscle which makes it appear red. It's needed for the muscles to utilize the oxygen in the bloodstream.

Personally, I prefer dark meat, too. That's why I raise Christmas goose and ducks, rather than boring turkeys. My customers agree!

 

[lynxpilot]

When I set up to process, it's sort of an ordeal because I store the equipment between batches, so it's a lot easier to get it all done at once. For meat, we've done Jumbo Cornish Cross exclusively, so I can't tell you anything about doing cockerels (or expired layers). Our first time ever, I was busy with the job and didn't get a chance to butcher until 13 weeks. They were absolutely huge and slightly tough. We processed about half of them as whole birds and cut up the remainder. With such huge birds, thawing out a whole bird and having to cook the whole thing was like a Thanksgiving dinner and I regretted not cutting them all up. On the other hand, I should have butchered them all at about 8 weeks too. We still do Jumbo Cornish Cross (and I'm experimenting with White Rocks this year), and for the last couple years, I started at about 7 weeks and did them all over a 3 week period (7, 8, and 9 weeks old). That worked out perfect. As we get better at processing, I'll probably keep the operations tighter and tighter and do the entire lot at 8 or 9 weeks old.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

From what I've read it seems there would be more than an hour more work a week to keep the Cornish Xs rather than standard breed cockerels. It seems that they would need more frequent attention daily to insure they had sufficient food & water and that they weren't up to their knees in poop.

Also it seems that they need special feed, and plenty of it. Is this true? What do y'all feed your Xs? I raised this last batch of standard cockerels on regular start & grow and switched them to layer pellets at 20 weeks. This is what all the other birds in the yard get to eat, I'm afraid it would be an inconvenience to have to go out for different feed.

These cockerels ate about 1/2 lb of feed & drank about a pint of water apiece per day. Plus ate all the grass in their tractor each week and got handouts of PBJ crusts, apple cores, and leftover mac & cheese.

They are kept to themselves so they aren't bothering the hens and don't fight much amongst themselves. At about 12 weeks they kept pulling each other's tail feathers out, and there were a few who were mistreated more than others. I did them a favor by butchering them first ;-)

They also "keep" well, allowing me to process a few a week and the older ones just get more meaty with age. Yesterday I took 2 that were 22 weeks & after resting 3 days were simmered slowly over low heat in a stockpot for about 2 hours. The meat just melted off the bones & was nice & tender. I separated the light from the dark meat & seem to have the same amount of both.

I wish I could get the rest of the family as interested in raising & processing meat birds, if so then I might also try breeding them too. As it is, I do about 90% of the work (even though they do 90% of the eating!!)

The next time I order chicks for meat, could I add just a couple of the Cornish Xs to the order & raise them with the other standard breeds? Or are their needs so unique that they'd need to be separated right from the start?

I appreciate everyone's imput here, I don't know anyone else in my area raising these Xs. Thank you for the great education!

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
Birds intended for meat should be fed a broiler starter/finisher. Meat birds are just given one feed from beginning to end and there is not need to switch to a developer or grower. The protein in these are 18-20% depending on the brand.

If you're fattening cockrels using starter, grower and then layer you are really shorting them of their potential. There is simply not enough protein in a developer or layer to put meat on either a broiler or a cockrel (which are too skinny as it is).

I had an arrangemenst last year with another farmer. If I could catch his cockrels which come in his crops of hens (roughly 5-10% will be mis-sexed) I could have them for free. So, I went and got about 10 of them and put them on the broiler food immediately. I went and picked up the second batch just two weeks later (ones we weren't sure were pullets or cockrels the first time). The size differential between the two groups, even after only two weeks, was astonishing.