Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[buffalogal]

Quote:
It would only be a decent reference if the different breeds were all hatched at the same time, raised in the same pens, fed the exact same way, and butchered at the same time by the same person. Otherwise, it's just anecdotal evidence consisting of a photographic gallery of dead bird parts.

 

[KenK]

Isn't 99.9% of all the information posted here anecdotal?

All I'm about is this, I got these chickens, x many weeks later this is what the carcass looked like, they tasted good or not.

I do think it would be useful to see what my cockerels, raised under my conditions, look like compared to somebody Else's raised under their conditions. Maybe I need to change my bloodlines or my conditions?

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

everyone flocks are raised under different condishions id like to think that my birds have it pretty good but they are not up to being a show bird not by a long shot but for my wife and i we are raiseing our birds for our own eggs and for our own meat yes we would love to have our chicken dress out with big breasts like the meat bird lines do but we know that with our birds thats just not going to happen but at least we will have eggs to eat and enuff meat for the 2 of us if we find out that we need to cook more than 1 chicken for a meal that would mean that something isent right we dont have bantys if we want to have some larger chickens then we will get some jersey giants but as far as i can see with our flock we just started with day old chicks on may 3rd and id say with the size they are now they would make for a really good meal but these are our starting point and with a few more years to breed these up to what we want they should work out great

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
Ken, "Great" references aren't anecdotal, that's why they're considered to be a reference as opposed to just a good story or even a good story with pictures. Anyone can say this is my bird, of X breed, dressed out at so and so many weeks and weighed X pounds, but unfortunately, it's the nature of the media that whether deliberate or not, it's (to put it nicely) conducive to a bit of exaggeration. There are so many variables involved from hatching to cooking that without direct, side by side comparison of different breeds raised in identical circumstances all you have are pictures of dead birds. On one of the breed threads I follow, someone posted a picture of their plump, juicy looking cockerels roasting on a spit. Those birds looked considerably better than the one you posted, which might at first blush cause one to wonder "Wow. What am I doing wrong that my birds don't look like that?" Fortunately, the poster also mentioned the weights on other birds from that flock, which were at least a pound and a half too heavy even for a mature male of that breed. So now, instead of wondering what you're doing wrong, you're just left speculating; are they really purebred X, or perhaps crossbreed? Maybe they were older, or the others aren't quite as large as the poster thought? The point is, while questions like that are kinda, sorta interesting, there's no way that's going to be "useful' to anyone. Basically, all you end up with is "My dead bird pictures are better than YOUR dead bird pictures".

 

[Lee]

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[KenK]

A Sussex cockerel hatched April 27, 2011. I wish I had remembered to weigh it but did not. For reference though, this is a big skillet.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

That looks delicious! I just finished a post show snack on a 13wk Ancona cockerel spatchcock. We just took Reserve Champion Large Lowl at Little Rhody with a pullet. You know, in chickens it pays to be female....

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

that chicken does look like good eats im hopeing to have some of my own for eatting by next fall but im still thinking about running 1 batch of meat birds next spring just so i can fill up the frezzer for the summer cook outs and give my birds time to build up my flock some

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Greetings! I was recently contacted by someone reading this thread for a photo of a dressed bird, but I can't seem to figure out how to include a photo in a message response. So, I thought I'd post it on the general thread. I can't stress enough that it has been our experience that good meat comes from breeding to the standard and culling both with eye (visual assessment) and hand (feel of the bird):

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Beautiful! Just went back and re-read parts of this thread. It's a good one!!!