Heritage Cornish for meat?

[Blain87]

I am considering raising heritage Cornish chickens for meat and was wondering if anyone had experience with this breed?

Age when butchered?

Amount of meat? Do the breast compare to the Cornish Cross?

Temperament? Can I raise them with other breeds or will they bully?

 

[Fairview01]

Search for a post by a member called fatdaddy about Cornish. He hasnt been active for a long time but his thread on sustainable Cornish is an incomparable wealth of information. Be prepared to read for awhile.

At 8 weeks I suppose they could be butchered as smallish single serving Cornish game hens. Anytime after 12 weeks really if you have them on a good ration but they're probably a 16-20 week bird for good weight after dressing. If you want white they are hard to find. No hatchery I know of sell the whiten large fowl Cornish.

As far as temperament in a mixed flock they are easy going and usually near the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[Blain87]

Search for a post by a member called fatdaddy about Cornish. He hasnt been active for a long time but his thread on sustainable Cornish is an incomparable wealth of information. Be prepared to read for awhile.

At 8 weeks I suppose they could be butchered as smallish single serving Cornish game hens. Anytime after 12 weeks really if you have them on a good ration but they're probably a 16-20 week bird for good weight after dressing. If you want white they are hard to find. No hatchery I know of sell the whiten large fowl Cornish.

As far as temperament in a mixed flock they are easy going and usually near the bottom of the pecking order.

Great! Thanks for the info!

 

[Fairview01]

These are some of mine. In the second pic the one on 2x4 is just shy of eight weeks. Good size and conformation. Also its a cockerel. If he doesn't fizzle he will become a big influence in my breeding program.




The last 2 pics are a rooster I acquired. A bit of dirty bird when I received him but he has cleaned up real nice now that he is no longer taking dirt baths in red clay. Fat Daddy got me addicted to these birds.

 

[Blain87]

These are some of mine. In the second pic the one on 2x4 is just shy of eight weeks. Good size and conformation. Also its a cockerel. If he doesn't fizzle he will become a big influence in my breeding program.



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The last 2 pics are a rooster I acquired. A bit of dirty bird when I received him but he has cleaned up real nice now that he is no longer taking dirt baths in red clay. Fat Daddy got me addicted to these birds.

Thanks for the reply! Do you use your Cornish chickens as meat birds? If so how is the quanitity and quality of meat? At what age do you prefer to butcher?

 

[Fairview01]

Thanks for the reply! Do you use your Cornish chickens as meat birds? If so how is the quanitity and quality of meat? At what age do you prefer to butcher?

Havent eaten any yet. This is my first year so with only starting with just 5 birds it was all about hatching every egg dropped to establish a 3 pen spiral breeding program. I had a little more than a handful of very late hatchers that I donated to a 4-H member. They were to small to eat and I needed the room.

Based on my experiences with processing some culls and broilers out of my laying flock there was no comparison to that tasteless Tyson chicken sold at wally world. It wasn't as tender but I know now chicken doesn't have to taste like shake and bake. Can't wait until I have culls this year.

 

[Fairview01]

I'm sorry. I try to breed to the sop. Not because I show but because there are so few WLF Cornish out there. So as I'm growing them out of a chick has an obvious defect, they are put down. Feed is expensive. I look at them everyday.

 

[archeryrob]

How about a follow up, if you have a minute? I an trying to consider how fast cornish develop for processing and weather or order them or black broilers as a laying meaties flock.

 

[Fairview01]

How about a follow up, if you have a minute? I an trying to consider how fast cornish develop for processing and weather or order them or black broilers as a laying meaties flock.

To my knowledge there are no commercial hatcheries that sell the white heritage cornish. Heritage cornish as opposed to Cornish Rock xs can take 2x long to reach processing size. 3 months or more depending on diet. The advantage of heritage cornish is they are sustainable.

 

[Mosey2003]

The problem with heritage Cornish is they're so hard to get ahold of.