Before the Cornish X took over the meat industry, about the 1950’s, certain breeds were the prime commercial meat birds, New Hampshire, Delaware, and certain strains of White Rocks. I lost the link in a computer crash, but I saw an advertisement from the 1930’s where a certain strain of Delaware could reach 4 pounds in 10 weeks. Cornish X can easily beat that at 6 weeks, so you can see why the Cornish X took over.
By strain I mean that a breeder has enhanced certain traits in the flock that make them different from other flocks. Say one breeder works on reaching a nice butcher size quickly versus someone working with the same breed enhancing egg production. They may be the same breed but productivity is very different.
With chicken genetics, unless someone continues to breed for certain traits every generation, those traits can be quickly lost. Since the bottom fell out of the market for anything except Cornish X for meat in the mid 1900’s, people quit breeding those breeds and strains to be meat birds. Now they have become mostly dual purpose birds from any hatchery, good for egg production and decent for meat, but not that much better (if at all) for meat than some other dual purpose birds.
Some of the traits good for a meat bird are color so you can get a pretty carcass when you pluck, good feed to meat conversion rate, early maturity so they put on meat at an early age and are not just bones, a suitable light to dark meat ratio, a certain temperament so they can grow up together in a flock, and whatever else. You generally want a decent egg production rate since you want the breeding flock to lay enough eggs to hatch, but egg size isn’t important as long as they hatch and there are enough of them.
Breeds from hatcheries are not bred for most of these traits. Hatcheries are in the mass market business, not specialized to produce these birds on a large scale, and their prices reflect that. There are a few breeders, very few, that are breeding certain strains of these meat breeds to get back to the original meat bird characteristics. One of the forum members, Eggheadjr, has done quite a bit of work to try to identify them. Last I heard he was happiest with a certain strain of New Hampshire.
Other than the Cornish X, there are certain types of birds that have been developed as meat birds. They don’t put on meat as quickly as the Cornish X so they are less prone to the medical problems the Cornish X can develop. They are generally better for raising at pasture instead of just standing around eating what you feed them. They go by a few different marketing names, many of those names including the word “Rangers”. They ae not true “breeds” but are “types”.
Unless you find a strain of birds from a breeder that is working on breeds that reach butcher age early, there are no “breeds” that meet your goals as I understand them. I don’t know what you consider butcher size, but if meat production is your goal, you’d probably be happiest with Cornish X or Rangers.
