Dark Cornish for meat?

[ninjapoodles]

After most of my Orpington flock got massacred by a fox (or fox family) when I stupidly forgot to lock them up one night, my husband felt sorry for me, and without my knowledge ordered me a bunch of hatchery chicks. In addition to replacing my Buff Orps and throwing in a few Cuckoo Marans, he added some Cornish X meat birds.

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN RAISING CORNISH Xs. I don't want to deal with them AT ALL. I want to call the hatchery and substitute something else, something NORMAL, for those 7 Cornish Xs. Of course, at this time of year, no pullets are available, so I'll need to get cockerels.

Would the Dark Cornish cockerels dress out decently as a meat bird? I don't care how long it takes, I'm only concerned with the end product, and that I can raise them along with my dual-purpose birds without having to use different housing/feeding protocols.

Belinda

 

[greyfields]

They will dress out as good eating birds. They just take 15+ weeks to get to the right size.

Before people had developed Cornish crosses, eating purebred Cornish birds was very common. On Heritage Foods USA someone is selling them as a gourmet delicacy for a very high price.

My only question and concern is being purebreds, they will take a lot of food to get to the correct weight. You may be better off just buying organic, free range chickens from a high end grocery store.

 

[ninjapoodles]

I wouldn't normally be messing with them at all, but we need 7 birds to fill out the order, and I DON'T want the Cornish X. And everything available to replace the 7 Cornish X are cockerels only, so it would be something we'd wind up eating anyway. My first "replacement" choice would've been Delaware pullets, but they're not available.

I'm not even sure the hatchery can make the switch at this late date, but it's worth a shot.

Any other suggestions for 7 cockerels that are gonna wind up on the dinner table?

Belinda

 

[greyfields]

Not really, no. If you're going to eat a purebreed, Dark Cornish are the way to go.

 

[ninjapoodles]

(Hijacking my own thread) Would you have any suggestions for processing the extra roos from our dual-purpose birds--like age, feeding, etc.? We'll have extra Orpington and Marans cockerels, which were were planning to butcher.

I don't particularly care that much about dressing them out whole, so the appearance of the dressed bird is not that important to me. We might do a couple whole just to see how it goes, but since these are for our family, for the most part they'll be stored in pieces, and maybe even skinned, since that's how I cook most of the time. (When Alex gets a wild turkey during hunting season, we skin and fillet it.) I'm also thinking of how best to save room in the freezer.

*UPDATE No Dark Cornish available for that order's ship date, so my husband (AGAIN WITHOUT CONSULTING ME) swapped out the Cornish Xs for Black Giant. Black Giant cockerels. 7 Black Giant Cockerels. What in the world am I going to do with THOSE?

Belinda

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
i'm sorry, i almost spit coke on the computer monitor. i can see the hamster turning the wheels in his brain as he's talking to the hatchery as the lady at the hatchery is desperately trying make money on baby cockerals...black giant cockerals...well, black is dark and giant is big so they should be close to a dark cornish....

belinda, i hope you don't take offense, but it was just too funny.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Me: "Why did you pick Black Giants?"

Him: "Because they're pretty."

Well, let's hope someone else thinks so, so we can unload them!

Honestly, since I can't get what I want, and I very much DON'T want the Frankenchickens, I don't much care what they throw in there. I think my husband just looked at all the "large breeds" (he knows I likes me some big chickens) and picked out something he thought was unusual and attractive. Our best show dogs are black, after all!

Belinda

 

[ninjapoodles]

Oh, and while you were posting your response just now? I was actually AT YOUR WEBSITE! I want some of your chicks!

Belinda

 

[greyfields]

Dual purpose breeds aren't all that great, either. It just means they are meatier than a Leghorn.

Giants do not work well, though, since it takes them nearly 2 years to grow to full size.

 

[ninjapoodles]

I KNOW. Honestly, I just hope I'll be able to grow them a little and give away/sell them in the newspaper. The hatchery could have put *literal* packing peanuts in there instead...there just wasn't anything I was interested in having that was available.

That being the case, hubby might as well have something he thinks is pretty to look at--he's putting in an AWFUL lot of work building coops and yards for a mess of chickens and turkeys that weren't his idea to get...