Done With Meat Birds

[LilyD]

we are gettin the brahmas soon. I am anxious to get them going and plan to breed them for eggs and dp. hope that the culls from breeding will give us good reasonable roasters. I am not sure but it seams that brahmas are more dark meat than breast meat.

They definitely do have more dark meat than breast meat. You are not going to find any DP birds that will compare with the CRX you can get from the store but I think that the breast meat on the Brahmas is a decent amount. If I cook a roaster for my family of three (myself and two guys with hollow legs lol) we eat about 1/2 the chicken and there is 1/2 left for sandwiches for the week, so I think even though there is less breast meat there is still plenty of meat to go around.

 

[Shellz]

Anybody here? Well, I just bought some (18) hatching eggs from a breeder up north. They are a rare breed, but were bred for meat on the homesteads of Belgium many years ago. They are the Belgian Malines. The roosters get to 11 lbs at maturity, the hens 8.8 lbs. I've seen these remarkable birds & so far I'm impressed! His rooster is 13 lbs! Big boy! Anyway, they have a lot of down feathering underneath, which is said to help distribute fat more evenly throughout the muscles. Not in pockets like most birds. The hens are very good layers, laying right through winter. These were the ultimate DP birds before the CX nearly ruined them! I have high hopes this will be the only breed we'll ever need! I'm on the June Hatchalong if anyone wants to follow my progress. Chicks should be hatching June 30/13.

 

[Island Roo]

Anybody here? Well, I just bought some (18) hatching eggs from a breeder up north. They are a rare breed, but were bred for meat on the homesteads of Belgium many years ago. They are the Belgian Malines. The roosters get to 11 lbs at maturity, the hens 8.8 lbs. I've seen these remarkable birds & so far I'm impressed! His rooster is 13 lbs! Big boy! Anyway, they have a lot of down feathering underneath, which is said to help distribute fat more evenly throughout the muscles. Not in pockets like most birds. The hens are very good layers, laying right through winter. These were the ultimate DP birds before the CX nearly ruined them! I have high hopes this will be the only breed we'll ever need! I'm on the June Hatchalong if anyone wants to follow my progress. Chicks should be hatching June 30/13.

I'm on a similar path to get some meat without using industrialized frankenbirds.

I just put 42 Mistral Gris eggs in the incubator. I hope to get some broodies before they hatch to adopt the eggs / chicks.

 

[Island Roo]

They definitely do have more dark meat than breast meat. You are not going to find any DP birds that will compare with the CRX you can get from the store but I think that the breast meat on the Brahmas is a decent amount. If I cook a roaster for my family of three (myself and two guys with hollow legs lol) we eat about 1/2 the chicken and there is 1/2 left for sandwiches for the week, so I think even though there is less breast meat there is still plenty of meat to go around.

I like the brahmas for meat too. Great dark meat. Not as breast but soooo good - we treat that like a delicacy.

 

[Shellz]

Yes, the Mistral Gris are a good alternative to franken chickens. However, they are too large to breed themselves. This can be overcome by cross breeding with another heritage bird. Good luck!

 

[Island Roo]

Yes, the Mistral Gris are a good alternative to franken chickens. However, they are too large to breed themselves. This can be overcome by cross breeding with another heritage bird. Good luck!

My rooster is a brahma. Do you think keeping a Mistral Hen for him would give good results?

 

[knjinnm]

I'm on a similar path to get some meat without using industrialized frankenbirds.

I just put 42 Mistral Gris eggs in the incubator. I hope to get some broodies before they hatch to adopt the eggs / chicks.

Can you post pictures of your Mistral Gris?
Thanks,
JAC

 

[Shellz]

My rooster is a brahma. Do you think keeping a Mistral Hen for him would give good results?

You know what? It was recommended that if I wanted to create my own meat breed from the Malines, I could bring in a LF Cuckoo Marans hen. I suppose a brahma rooster to the Mistral hen could work. I'm no expert here, by any means, but it sounds like a very interesting combination. I'd like to see how that works out!

 

[Island Roo]

Can you post pictures of your Mistral Gris?
Thanks,
JAC

Sure - this is my first batch. Here they are at -18 days. I'll post more when they are bigger

This thread has pics of chicks and adults
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/683888/mistral-gris-meat-birds/20

 

[shanmaria1]

Date                Amt            Reason                 # Birds       Cost/bird


11/19/10       $65.00       Chickens                       27                $2.41

11/19/10       $5.32       Heat Lamp                       27  

11/19/10       $5.89       Pine Chips                        27  

11/19/10       $129.00    600lbs 20% feed                27  

11/27/10    (3 dead chicks dehydration?)        24  

12/18/10    (2 dead chickens)                           22  

        
Total          $205.21                                       22                $9.33



That seems like a lot per chick?? We only paid 1.17 per chick befor all of the feed and bedding.... I didn't factor in heat lamps or housing because that is an investment and is reusable. We are going to try fermenting feed next go around as to bring our cost from 7$ per bird down some.