Quote:
What she said.
Any purebreed is going to be disappointing compared with a Cornish Cross; or any meat bird you are used to seeing in a grocery store. It's likely every chicken you've eatn in your life was a Cornish Cross. 42 days is a very standard slaughter age for commercially raised broilers.
I have slaughtered White and Barred Rock roosters at around 16 weeks. They dressed in the 4-5 pound range. But as you hit-on, the breasts aren't very thick. You can only eat so much Coq au Vin per year. I just send my roos to auction now and can get $5-$10 bucks for them.
For backyard purposes, there are a lot of problems with the Cornish Crosses and mortality. There are dozens of threads about that in here.
You hit on another point, though. Yes you absolutely can raise your own Cornish roosters to breed against any hen in your flock (except the Medeterranean breeds). You will get better resulsts with the most basic backyard cross than with any purebred chicken out there.
What she said.
Any purebreed is going to be disappointing compared with a Cornish Cross; or any meat bird you are used to seeing in a grocery store. It's likely every chicken you've eatn in your life was a Cornish Cross. 42 days is a very standard slaughter age for commercially raised broilers.
I have slaughtered White and Barred Rock roosters at around 16 weeks. They dressed in the 4-5 pound range. But as you hit-on, the breasts aren't very thick. You can only eat so much Coq au Vin per year. I just send my roos to auction now and can get $5-$10 bucks for them.
For backyard purposes, there are a lot of problems with the Cornish Crosses and mortality. There are dozens of threads about that in here.
You hit on another point, though. Yes you absolutely can raise your own Cornish roosters to breed against any hen in your flock (except the Medeterranean breeds). You will get better resulsts with the most basic backyard cross than with any purebred chicken out there.
