Creating A Self-Sustaining Meat-Bird Flock

[kizanne]

I should have mentioned it is also one of many reasons I don't do CX cause I like to keep my meat on the hoof instead of in the freezer. Anyway the freezer is full of grass fed beef. I still have a giant CX bird in the freezer from our batch in the spring of this year. I look at the amount of space it takes up and think I have to defrost and eat that bird. One it will eventually freezer burn and two I have another 1/2 a cow coming in January and I need that space. It takes up like 4-6 meals worth of beef. It is hard though cause I didn't like the CX flavor as much as any other bird I've tried.

 

[milleryardchx]

Im crossing delaware over white rock then raise some of them and try and find a white cornish to put over them we will see

 

[Rabbitman2012]

The 'art' of skinning is laziness. I don't want to pluck or scald. I like have little to no equipment needed for my processing . My set up and tear down are 5 to 10 minutes so I can just do a few when I run out in the fridge.

Thank you for this information!!!

 

[WalkingWolf1]

I should have mentioned it is also one of many reasons I don't do CX cause I like to keep my meat on the hoof instead of in the freezer.

This is one of the reasons we like the FR so much. There is some variablitity in their "grow-out" rates and it will give us a month or so to process the lot instead of having to do it all in a week. Here is a link to our FR experience. Up to this point we have hatched a few FR X FR chicks with about 1 doz more in the bator. We now have the FR penned with a CX roo and we will be collecting eggs in a couple of weeks. Updates to follow.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/698833/freedom-rangers

 

[katierosew]

I ended up with 3 Cornish X's by accident in my first batch of chickens, so I had to quickly figure out what to do with them once they reached 8 weeks of age and full size. One hen I processed myself by plucking the feathers, but the other two my husband did by skinning them. My husband deer and turkey hunts, and he processed the Cornish X's like he would field dress a turkey. He skinned them, removed the innards, and cut them up all in about an hour. Whereas it took me a solid three hours to process my chicken by plucking the feathers and removing the innards. If skin color other than yellow/white seems weird to eat for you, then I would definitely recommend skinning them (and it is SO much faster).

 

[FaerieChicken]

My latest time-consuming project is figuring out how to create a Self-Sustaining Meat-Bird Flock! I have researched and understand that it is relatively easy to purchase Cornish X chicks from a hatchery and then raise them to processing weight but that isn't my ultimate goal. I want to produce those Cornish X chicks on my own with the help of a Cornish chicken and a Plymouth Rock chicken. Does anyone have experience with this? Should the hen be a Cornish hen or should the hen be a Plymouth Rock hen? What about the rooster? Please share with me your experiences, thoughts, and ideas!

OH MY GOSH the cock in your avatar looks like 1 I have right now that I am planning on covering my Jersey Girls and my Cuckoo Maran girls

He is a Slow Growing Broiler I got with 3 others, he was the smaller of the 4 and chose to keep him for breeding to create a sustainable backyard meat flock!
Oh and of course in this pic he is pretty young, about 16 wks, he is much more handsome now!