difference in Corn. X's & other meat birds?

[OHhappychicks]

I have 5 white pearl leghorn roos that m. mc. sent as extra peanuts. We want to put them in the freezer. Is there a difference in feeding other meat birds as opposed to Cornish X's? I've been reading other sites and stickys, but they pertain to the C X's. Just wondering if there is a difference. We have had them a week today.

 

[buckboy101]

not much difference except their egg descriptions

 

[OHhappychicks]

Should I go ahead and feed them the 22% broiler feed then?

 

[buckboy101]

yes, that is the best feed for them and if you want to you could add a protein supplements

 

[OHhappychicks]

Hey thanks, buckboy101! I see you have 6000 BEES!! Wow! Been thinking of getting some for a couple of years. Will concentrate more on that for next spring!

 

[buckboy101]

No problem at all. I hope everything works out.

 

[Buster52]

The Leghorns will be much slower growing and much more active than your CX, and they tend to be on the very small size in my experience. They will be tiny come time to process the CX at 8 weeks. It will take another 4 or 5 months after that for the leghorns to reach maturity, and even then they will be smaller than your X at 8 weeks.

Flighty things, too. The only thing leghorns are good for is eggs, but they are very very good for that. The best, in fact.

Still, no sense letting them go to waste, if they are cockerels.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Quote:
So in your opinion, I should wait until about 6 months before they go in the freezer? Should I feed them the 22% that whole time, and treat them like the C X's, except for a longer time? Is there anything else I could feed them to fatten them up a little? I really don't mind them being smaller. I don't expect them to be like the cx's. I just want them to be tender and taste good. It's been my experience with freezer roos that they were very tough. I roasted them, but maybe they needed to be roasted longer or cooked ina crockpot to be tender. MIL used to raise meat chicks and she would fry them and they were so good and tender. I have 2 brown leghorn hens that are 3 yrs old and I am still getting eggs from them. They are good eggers, that's for sure!

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
A leghorn? Not really.

Seriously, there is no point in even trying to fatten them up. Too high strung, to small genetically. You also don't HAVE to wait that long and frankly, I'm not sure it makes all that much difference whether it is 4 months or 6. They don't really get that big in any case.

One guy used to post on here swore by them as his only meat bird, though. He fried them, I think. If he is on here he might chime in on his experiences.

Good luck.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

who was that guy? his name started with an M . . . anyway buster's right your going to be trying to fatten a genetically thin bird. Kinda like trying to fatten a naturally thin person, you might make their belly grow . . .
or you could like someone else suggested feed them until they reach adult size, but you will still have a pretty scrawny bird that ate a lot of feed. IMHO butcher when they start to crow - you will get a 1 - 1.5 lb bird perfect for a pot of soup in the crock pot. that's what I do with ALL of my layer culls.