Does commercial feed affect meat?

[Folly's place]

It's at least in part because of the distance between 90+% of our population in the USA, and how our food is produced. Not to mention that few people have any ideas about 'Mother Nature' that haven't come from cartoons!
Meat and eggs grow in Styrofoam at the grocery store, so the least expensive is the best, right?
I see it here too; 'I'd never kill one of my roosters' regardless of temperament, but the same folks buy chicken at the store and restaurant all the time.
Rant over...
Mary

 

[FortCluck]

It's at least in part because of the distance between 90+% of our population in the USA, and how our food is produced. Not to mention that few people have any ideas about 'Mother Nature' that haven't come from cartoons!
Meat and eggs grow in Styrofoam at the grocery store, so the least expensive is the best, right?
I see it here too; 'I'd never kill one of my roosters' regardless of temperament, but the same folks buy chicken at the store and restaurant all the time.
Rant over...
Mary

I was just saying that to someone the other day when they told me that they could never kill a chicken... I told them, don't you buy meat at the grocery store? Ummmm HELLO!!!! I have a friend that actually will only eat store-bought eggs even though her mother has a layer flock. She said that she won't eat those eggs because she knows where they come from Chicken breasts grow on a magical tree that farmers pluck

 

[Folly's place]

We are not a logical species...

 

[FortCluck]

we’ve raised 2 batches of Cornish type. Butchered at 7.5-8 weeks old. Yum! Even though it is “similar” to store chicken with appearance and size, the taste is much better than store bought. The only dual purpose we butchered were accidental cockerels at around 15 weeks old. They were tough and stringy and “flavorful”, but we didn’t know we should age them, and my spouse put them on the grill -so 2 things that contributed to less deliciousness. We currently have 2 BJG, and 2 Dorking males. We will butcher one of each this winter, around 20-24 weeks of age to try out their meat. It will be interesting to see how they taste. Those 2 are with the flock now. The Cornish type we keep separate from the regular flock.

I would also keep Cornish away from my regular flock, they are just messy birds. I've seen videos of them and that's why I am not doing them for meat, I will just use my dual purpose birds.

I crossed my Jersey Giants with red sex links and Delaware. I'm anxious to see how they grow.

 

[Acre4Me]

Would you be able to let me know how the Jersey Giants are taste wise?

I was told that you should age them anywhere from 2 to 5 days.

yes I can. I’m curious bc the BJG are slower growing, and we have some that are 20 months old -quite big, and saw that they grow but don’t fill out until later. At 11 months of age our BJG rooster was weighed and was just shy of 11lbs. He is bigger now, but haven’t weighed him since then. So curious about quantity of meat along with taste texture.

We’ve aged 3-4 days for Cornish and they are great.

 

[FortCluck]

We are not a logical species...

We never got the logic gene... Well some of us did. I'd rather know where my meat came from and what it's been eating rather than trusting some big corporation. I say that but I don't even eat meat My family does though and I really care about what they put into their bodies.

 

[FortCluck]

yes I can. I’m curious bc the BJG are slower growing, and we have some that are 20 months old -quite big, and saw that they grow but don’t fill out until later. At 11 months of age our BJG rooster was weighed and was just shy of 11lbs. He is bigger now, but haven’t weighed him since then. So curious about quantity of meat along with taste texture.

We’ve aged 3-4 days for Cornish and they are great.

I have one rooster that grew incredibly large and I think it's just a fluke, but all of these chicks come from him. Maybe they'll be big like him. He's only 6 months and double the size of my Delaware.

 

[Acre4Me]

I have one rooster that grew incredibly large and I think it's just a fluke, but all of these chicks come from him. Maybe they'll be big like him. He's only 6 months and double the size of my Delaware.

We went to a poultry show recently and from a distance there was this huge black bird...a BJG? But not the right shape! I made a bee-line to the cage to read the label. It was the most ENORMOUS Australorp *cockerel* I had ever seen!! Yes, the tag indicated cockerel (under a year). Massive, broad, although not particularly tall -seemed a fluke, wonder how big others from same line are?

 

[FortCluck]

These are my two... Our local Farm orders from a hatchery and you put in your order through them then pick them up at the farm. I asked for to BJG pullets, yeah I got roosters. I didn't want to get rid of them because they've been really great and they are very kind to our girls.

My Delaware probably looks dead in this picture but she is in a hole

 

[Folly's place]

Nice! Love the big birds!
Mary