Faster growing?

RForbes

In the Brooder
5 Years
Jan 24, 2014
39
2
41
Hi,

We've been raising white chantecler for a couple years now. This summer was the first time we really raised a batch for meat for the winter. We incubated two batches in the spring thinking by fall they should be ready for the butcher. But this is now almost mid-december and they are far from big enough.

Apart from meat kings for obvious reasons, which chickens would be the fastest grower so we don't have to wait forever for them to grow? Sorry if this was probably answered before..

tks
 
Anything other than Cornish Cross or Freedom Rangers will not appear the same when slaughtered.

Heritage type birds will have much thinner breasts and bigger redder legs.
 
Thanks for that, I guess to specify I was lead to believe that meat kings (are they cornish cross?) can only be obtained through in our case like the Farmers Coop, and the eggs are already injected with something, I can't remember if it's hormones or antibiotics, so please someone correct me if I'm wrong. So I was wondering if there was another 'non tampered with' chicken - as I want them as healthy and organic as possible - that would grow faster than the Chantecler. We chose the Chantecler for our layers because we live in Eastern Canada and they are a winter-resistant breed. Forgive my ignorance I still have much to learn and thanks
 
The vigor in growth you see in the meat kings, the cornish cross or rangers is the fact that they are hybrids. Their fast growth and oversized muscle is achieved through selective breeding, not hormones or genetic modification. There's a boatload of misinformation out there.

You can order meat chickens from pretty much anywhere. TSC have them every year as well as red rangers. Your local feed stores will get them as well. Start talking to your feed store guy around Feb/Mar time frame and you'll probably be able to special order what you want for their spring run at no extra cost. They may or may not tell you the hatchery they order from.

You can order from any online hatchery pretty much anytime, but you'll want to pick the milder seasons for the least stressful shipping. You'll also want to call ahead to the post office to let them know exactly when they should expect them. My post office was willing to call me the moment they arrived and allowed me to come and pick them up during off hours. The chicks were all healthy when they arrived.

If you want to stick with dual purpose birds, New Hampshires, White Rocks, and Delawares are a few that have a decent sized carcass in 16 weeks.
 
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cornish x are excellent, we bought some at the farm supply store and in 2 months even on just the start and grow instead of the more expensive broiler feed and free ranging we processed and got bigger birds than the store bought whole chickens, we will see how they are older, we kept a hen that is now 10 months old and laying eggs , one day I went out and was like dang someone added a turkey in there, she could only grow so tall so now she's just getting wider, right now she's weighing in about 15-18 lbs and still up and moving but gonna have to be proccessed soon
 
Thanks guys, I know they are a hybrid but I though I had read somewhere when I did some research, that the eggs and/or chick were injected with something before being shipped out, I just want to make sure that whatever breed I choose for the meat is not tainted in any way, that's my big issue. But we'll have to do something as these take way too long to grow. Thanks again for the tips and info, much appreciated
 
As Nupe said, lots of erroneous information out there.
The only thing injected into eggs would be vaccinations for Marek's, etc..
Hormones haven't been used in poultry since experiments in the '40s.
Antibiotics and arsenic are used but only on farms that grow them out, not in chicks or eggs.
 
Glad to hear that. Might have to rethink everything, thanks so much for the info
 
As Nupe said, lots of erroneous information out there.
The only thing injected into eggs would be vaccinations for Marek's, etc..
Hormones haven't been used in poultry since experiments in the '40s.
Antibiotics and arsenic are used but only on farms that grow them out, not in chicks or eggs.

Quoted to emphasize the truth of this. It's all selective breeding, not hormones or steroids.

How big are your cockerels? I'm thinking they're as big as they're going to get, at this point. It's just the reality of dual purpose birds, the carcass looks nothing like a CX.
 

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