First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[philipdj]

By RSL you mean red sexlinks?

yup.. does it work..??

 

[GreatBreeder]

yup.. does it work..??

Well if you mean ISA Browns it could be worth it. But unless they're ISA Browns they will not be selecting good meat traits.
If you're trying to sexlink your CX you can create a black sexlink by crossing to Barred rock.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have to agree with the great primitive paper on this.

Anything works when trying to find something to breed with it. However, you want to try and find something more meat type. Look for a meat breed from the 50, or 60's when sustainability was still bred into them.

Between the large hatcheries and the Tysons or golden plumps they too that out forcing us to rely on them for meat stock. That is what we are trying to reverse.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well dual purpose breeds or older meat breeds are out there. Some breeds I was just currious about turned out to have been at one time top sought for meat birds... Sultan is an example that surprised me... Clearly no development has continued in that direction with thr Sultan and same with some breeds once being highly sought for egg layers. Naked Necks are a meat breed. Maybe Cochins or Brahmans... Cornish... Some folks have found Saipans nice..
Sort of depends on goals... I suspect too that there may be a texture difference beteeen white skin and yellow skin breeds as white skin ones tend to to be described different meat wise... I need to look into this more though.

 

[GreatBreeder]

A Delaware or Jersey Giant were the broiler breeds back in the day.

@philipdj, it would help to know if you have any breeds avalible other than cx and rsl.

 

[Lynn-n-JimsVT]

Well gang, harvest morning has come and gone now. That was a busy morning.

Here are the take aways:

8 birds yielded 47.5 lbs of dressed chicken
Largest bird (birdzilla) was 7.25 dressed
Smallest (squirt) was 4.25 dressed
Fire heated scalding pot worked great
Kill cone worked good but need a two by four to push it further out for drip factor
Drill based PVC DIY plucker was a fail (skin ripper or not enough) reverted to hand
Cabela game cleaning kit - priceless
Cinderblocks to raise tables for working level - priceless
You tube processing video that was soooo helpful from weedemnreep priceless
Coolers filled with ice and water (lined with heavy plastic) good call
Realizing your shrink bags are to small (after all have been processed lol) unpriceless
Gallon sized ziplocks for "parted out" birds - priceless

For the first time I think it went really well. Not one sliced intestine or bile problem the whole run.

 

[GreatBreeder]

Nice!

 

[ZachyWachy]

Neat! The feet on the inverted picture look almost cartooned, so weird.

 

[Lynn-n-JimsVT]

Funny you should mention feet, I'm just finishing up peeling the last 7. The others are already in the crock pot making bone broth!

 

[ZachyWachy]

Never heard of that, sounds... interesting.