Disappointed in our meat birds

[Parront]

Now you know more about those birds than the minimum wage store employee! Those are not meat breeds. Just yesterday I saw some Cornish-X chicks marked down to 2.49 at my local TSC. They will make you some nice dinners @~ 8 weeks old.
I eat my layer cockerels. They are the size you got, that is normal.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Our first disappointment was that they were much smaller than we expected - they dressed out at an average of 2-2.5 pounds.

As others have said, that's not that unusual. There is a lot of misinformation in this world, sometimes on this forum. To me the best way to learn is to try something and see for yourself.

Our second and biggest disappointment was that the meat was very tough. We were hoping to use these for roasting, grilling, and frying rather than just soup or stew.

Did you age the to get past rigor mortis? How did you cook it? I know you see charts on this forum about how you can cook them at certain ages. Those charts don't suit everyone. We all have our preferences and expectations. Dual purpose chickens are going to develop more texture and flavor by aging, especially cockerels that hit puberty. Those hormones make a big difference in texture and flavor when they hit.

We're wondering where we went wrong. Were they the wrong breeds? Wrong feed? Not enough feeders? Too much height for flapping around and jumping to the roosting bars? Too much room in the run? Too hot this summer?

None of these. I think they were just too old for frying or grilling, assumed they were aged to get past rigor mortis. Roasting might be OK.

Thanks for your input! We didn't want to do Cornish Cross for meat birds, but if that's truly the best route to good yield of good meat we might reconsider.

For frying and grilling, the Cornish Cross or Rangers are probably your best bet, especially if you want any quantity of meat. The dual purpose do not sound like a good fit for you.

My typical suggestion for something like this is to try Cornish Cross or maybe Rangers so you can see how they compare for your purposes and in your conditions. Make your decision based on what you see, not what some stranger over the internet like me says you will see. We all have our own goals, situations, and expectations, what works for me might not be a good solution for you.

Do you still have some of that meat in the freezer? If you didn't age it before you froze it, try aging it a couple of days in the fridge after it has thawed to let rigor pass. You can see if that makes any difference.

If you are still not happy and have even more left, I suggest cutting it into serving pieces after aging and put that in a baking dish with a tight lid. Rub it with herbs, I use oregano and basil. Maybe rough chop a carrot or piece of celery. Onion or garlic if you wish. Then bake that tightly covered on 250 Fahrenheit for maybe 3 hours. That's not fried, grilled, or roasted but it may be a way to salvage the meat.

 

[Parront]

If the meat is tough to your taste, you might think about using a pressure cooker. Ageing the meat ~3-4 days is always a good idea, but you could do it as you defrost it in the frig. There are some pages from my pressure cooker book in my signature you might take a look at. The new Instant Pot pressure cookers make it super easy, but they do not have the right times for our home grown birds. My old book is what you need!

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Fresh killed taste different. I do not eat my birds currently… however when I was a kid at my great grandparents they raised and killed their bird… the size was small at the age they started slaughtering them. They used believe it or not white leghorns, this was before the time of the mighty Cornish X.

I do not think the breeds you raised are meat birds. If I were to raise meat birds I would go with a breed more developed for that purpose. Probably Naked Necks, Kosher King, something like that.

 

[CNJ]

My Bresse rooster weighed 4 lbs dressed at 16 weeks, meat was tender. The pure bred females would probably weigh 3 lbs dressed, I did not process them. I kept the females for breeding.

I have two large female Bresse crosses, they were crossed with either a Jersey Giant or Australorp. One is white with light black over tones and blue legs, and one is black with black legs and both would probably weigh around 4 lbs dressed at 16 weeks. I am going to use these to produce broiler chicks. The next step for me is to cross a male Dark Cornish with a pure Breese hen and cross the babies with the two hens I mentioned.

 

[Acre4Me]

We processed a couple of unwanted /accidental males at 16 weeks. We did not know to age them a few days…so we butchered and then immediately grilled them. They were stringy and tough. We fed the rest to the living chickens (they loved the meat).

we have raised Cornish cross. Great feed to muscle conversion, fast growth, great taste. But, they can have health issues, they really need to butchered by 8-10 weeks old, they sometimes just die. They poop a lot. And when I say a lot, imagine a lot of wet chicken poop and at least double what you are imagining. We like to raise them to fill the freezer etc.

We have butchered heritage birds known for their meat: Black Jersey Giant, and Red Dorkings. We butchered around 16-18 weeks. The testicles in the BJG were small, undeveloped bc they are slower to mature. We got a large meaty carcass. The Dorking was also an impressive size. The testicles in the Dorking were developed as expected since he was already crowing for weeks. Dorkings have a lot of dark meat. We butchered, rested a couple of days (in fridge, no brine) then grilled them over an open fire -very tasty and both were tender.

if I were going to buy an easy to acquire heritage breed for meat, my choice would be White Plymouth Rock -I can easily get them, and Rocks are another breed known for good carcass size and meat.

you will find many threads on here also talking about “Red Rangers” or similar “Ranger” types. Meant to be butchered later (16-20 weeks of age) and have a good size carcass. They free range well as they are not as heavy as a Cornish cross.

last thought: feed and age. I’ve read in a few places how getting meat (Cornish cross) chicks in person, just after hatch and beginning to feed them right away will result in a bigger carcass. The thought behind this is that Cornish cross are meant to eat and create muscle, so a 2-3 day delay in getting feed (bc shipped) has been shown to impact their finished size. Studies have been done on the Cornish cross. This might apply a bit to any bird you plan to grow and butcher. If possible, You may want to pick up your meat chicks (including heritage types meant for meat) from the source, rather than mail order or the feed store (who gets their chicks shipped to them).

good luck with your next attempts at growing your meat chickens.

 

[Ted_Harrell]

If you have an issue with raising Cornish cross, maybe you should try something like a New Hampshire, but in the end the Cornish cross is probably what most of us grew up eating. Good luck with whatever you choose to do next...

 

[Mosey2003]

Fresh killed taste different. I do not eat my birds currently… however when I was a kid at my great grandparents they raised and killed their bird… the size was small at the age they started slaughtering them. They used believe it or not white leghorns, this was before the time of the mighty Cornish X.

This actually wasn't uncommon, back in the day. White Leghorns used to get to a nice size for a fryer, which is ~2.5lbs off the top of my head (I could be wrong). It wasn't a lot of meat, but enough for Sunday lunch on the farm. As with everything else, when producers focus only on egg production and feed efficiency, carcasses become smaller and less well-proportioned.

 

[Parront]

Fresh killed taste different. I do not eat my birds currently… however when I was a kid at my great grandparents they raised and killed their bird… the size was small at the age they started slaughtering them. They used believe it or not white leghorns, this was before the time of the mighty Cornish X.

I do not think the breeds you raised are meat birds. If I were to raise meat birds I would go with a breed more developed for that purpose. Probably Naked Necks, Kosher King, something like that.

Your Grandparents sound like mine. They ate leghorns, and I eat the layer boys, too. They taste better because they are still older that a Cornish-X from the store, which only live 42 days at the factory farms. They taste better when frozen, and thawed, too.
My 2 pound layer birds are 12-14 weeks old. They are good to eat, you do not need a giant with a huge breast for only 2 old people. Their meat is not as dry as a store bird when cooked all day in the crock pot. A little older and bigger goes in the pressure cooker, guaranteed tender.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Yep in thinking on my first chicken exposure… gg got like a bulk order of straight run, all the boys were destined for the freezer unless a new rooster was needed. Then a few girls were chosen for the coop… all others slaughtered.

Yes they were perfect for fried chicken. GG never “rested” meat… or aged it, even the home raised beef was not aged (fresh beef tastes completely different than aged). They slaughtered and used that day, or froze it ASAP.

Not saying this will be what the average person is used to… but I still think those leghorns tasted the best ever. Chicken I bought from store before just giving up on meat, tasted terrible to me.

Older birds they slow cooked.

If I ever go back to eating meat, I will have to raise it, just do not like what is served and sold. Tastes old, looks old, smells old to me.