Crowing in meat birds

[Heartsopenwide]

How often do meat birds crow before they need to be butchered? We have done Cornish Cross, but want to try a non “Frankenstein Chicken” this time.

 

[Isadora]

We raised a few batches of freedom rangers last summer for meat. We typically butchered them around the 12-week mark. The last couple weeks was when we started to hear most of the crowing. It was not incessant, but consistent. We didn't have the birds close to the house so it didn't bother us at all, regardless.

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

I kept mine long, I think the freedom rangers were crowing about 14-16wks. It may vary though.

 

[NatJ]

How often do meat birds crow before they need to be butchered? We have done Cornish Cross, but want to try a non “Frankenstein Chicken” this time.

It will mostly depend on how old they are when you butcher them.

If you butcher them young, like Cornish Cross, then there will be little or no crowing.
(Any other breed will be much smaller than Cornish Cross at 8 weeks old, but they are all edible at any age, and young ones are more tender than older ones.)

If you raise them for 4-6 months, you will have LOTS of crowing for quite a while before they are butchered. (They will also be bigger but less tender than if you butchered them earlier.)

You can mostly avoid crowing if you just butcher them when it starts, no matter what age that is (most likely 8-12 weeks, but some breeds may be earlier or later. Small breeds usually start sooner than large breeds.)

 

[Heartsopenwide]

It will mostly depend on how old they are when you butcher them.

If you butcher them young, like Cornish Cross, then there will be little or no crowing.
(Any other breed will be much smaller than Cornish Cross at 8 weeks old, but they are all edible at any age, and young ones are more tender than older ones.)

If you raise them for 4-6 months, you will have LOTS of crowing for quite a while before they are butchered. (They will also be bigger but less tender than if you butchered them earlier.)

You can mostly avoid crowing if you just butcher them when it starts, no matter what age that is (most likely 8-12 weeks, but some breeds may be earlier or later. Small breeds usually start sooner than large breeds.)

Do you have breed recommendations? We want to avoid CC...very few hatcheries offer females, and only a few breeds. So, straight run seems to open more doors to options if I can just kill them when they crow and still taste great (you almost make it sound like killing before the 9-14 week makes them taste better anyway).

 

[NatJ]

Do you have breed recommendations? We want to avoid CC...very few hatcheries offer females, and only a few breeds.

My mother really likes White Rocks. I don't have a personal favorite, because there are many pretty breeds that seem to grow at similar rates. In general, I would try breeds that mature early (lay eggs at an early age), because they will grow faster too. The ones that lay eggs late will typically grow more slowly as chicks.

I would suggest you order several breeds, with multiple birds from each.
Then see how they grow and how they act.
Weigh them at some point (maybe 8 weeks, if you want a consistent age.)
Then choose which ones are best for your purposes, based on what you find.
(Making notes is helpful for remembering later, even if the "notes" are just updates here!)

For meat, you will care which breeds are heaviest at butchering age, which are often NOT the ones with the biggest mature size. You may also care which breeds have bigger breasts, or meatier hindquarters, depending on which parts of the chicken you like better. (Cornish Cross have giant breasts. Most other breeds look skinny by comparison, but there are still some differences between breeds.)

Males will reliably be heavier than females of the same breed, so when comparing weight between breeds, try to keep it to same-sex comparisons.

straight run seems to open more doors to options if I can just kill them when they crow and still taste great (you almost make it sound like killing before the 9-14 week makes them taste better anyway).

Yes, there are definite benefits to butchering them young.
The only disadvantage is that you have less meat per bird, so you have to spend more hours butchering to get the same number of pounds of meat.