Heritage Meat Birds

[TheRealCliffordWilliams]

We are subsistence farmers. We grow most of what we intend to consume. We grow rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, millets, pulses, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, some spices like coriander, turmeric etc and green fodder for buffaloes. So you see we are trying our best that we don't have to buy bread from the market, under these circumstances it will be outlandish to think that we will buy food for our chickens.

We sell excess in the local market and buy essentials. I hope you understand that farming has never been a profitable endeavour, anywhere in the world. Even huge farms in US run on government subsidies. Here almost all farmers send away their working age sons to big cities so they can earn and send some money back so the family can live a decent life and we are no exception.

Thank you for this perspective.

I grew up in the city (Los Angeles) and always felt that my connection to the world as a human being was deficient. As an adult I have moved to Western Washington to try to transition toward some version of subsistence farming, or homesteading...Raising my own fruits and vegetables led naturally into raising my own meat, and now I have 25 chickens, 6 turkeys, 1 duck, and 2 pigs on my 1 acre home. It has been more challenging than I ever thought to successfully produce a year's worth of food every year, and I can only hope to develop successful food production systems that I can pass on to my children.

I think that it is deeply troubling that humanity has moved away from an agrarian lifestyle and, while challenging, raising my own food has been possibly the most rewarding and fulfilling endeavor I have undertaken. I greatly respect and appreciate families and communities that have continued generational farming traditions -- these past traditions are what I have been studying and learning to inform myself in the present, and I think that traditional farming practices hold an important key to a sustainable future.

Truly the role of the farmer is undervalued in society (and has been for quite a while) and hopefully that will change sooner than later.

 

[Kabootar]

Thank you for this perspective.

I grew up in the city (Los Angeles) and always felt that my connection to the world as a human being was deficient. As an adult I have moved to Western Washington to try to transition toward some version of subsistence farming, or homesteading...Raising my own fruits and vegetables led naturally into raising my own meat, and now I have 25 chickens, 6 turkeys, 1 duck, and 2 pigs on my 1 acre home. It has been more challenging than I ever thought to successfully produce a year's worth of food every year, and I can only hope to develop successful food production systems that I can pass on to my children.

I think that it is deeply troubling that humanity has moved away from an agrarian lifestyle and, while challenging, raising my own food has been possibly the most rewarding and fulfilling endeavor I have undertaken. I greatly respect and appreciate families and communities that have continued generational farming traditions -- these past traditions are what I have been studying and learning to inform myself in the present, and I think that traditional farming practices hold an important key to a sustainable future.

Truly the role of the farmer is undervalued in society (and has been for quite a while) and hopefully that will change sooner than later.

Majority of the farmers in the world are farming because, they have no alternative. However there is also a good number of people who enjoy this lifestyle. I tell you farming may look difficult and daunting, but it's very rewarding and engaging if done properly.

I like how you have maintained a diversity in livestock. There should be farm chickens, farm pigs, farm cows not chicken farm, pig far or
cow farm.

I will dare to give an unsolicited advice. You should always think "hmmm can I do without tractor", "do I really need hay mower", "do I need chicken plucker", "do I really need a milking machine". Also like "why can't I pickle these veggies, why can't I make jams or jelly from these extra fruits", "why can't I just caponize these cockerels and eat when they are mature?" This will take you a long way.

 

[trescloudy]

In my signature is a link to a guy that did a study on a few heritage hatchery.
I process at 16 weeks. Rest a couple days. Hatchery dress 3 1/2 to 4 lbs
I kept a CX pullet restricted diet and exercise long enough to get a few eggs. Used her cockerels to breed to my mixed flock. F3 generation cockerels dress out 5 to 7 LBS

Breeding CX using hens then back crossing to the CX hens at least once should be a start in the right direction. Is that what you mean by F3? Or do you mean 3rd back cross?

F3 would be from an F1 that was inbred twice. Back crossing is when you use F1 offspring to breed back to one of the parent lines or breeds.

 

[Molpet]

Breeding CX using hens then back crossing to the CX hens at least once should be a start in the right direction. Is that what you mean by F3? Or do you mean 3rd back cross?

F3 would be from an F1 that was inbred twice. Back crossing is when you use F1 offspring to breed back to one of the parent lines or breeds.

CX pullet had 3 sons. I used those 3 sons to produce pullets with my existing br, bjg, and bo. Bred the sons to her grand daughters. Bred the grandsons to great granddaughters.
Bred a lav orp rooster to some grand daughters and the Cockerels were puny but the pullets were worth keeping. Bred them back to grandson. Cockerel size was back.
This year I have a dark Cornish rooster I am trying over some my CX mixes

 

[Kabootar]

Throw in some White Rocks and Dorkings in the mix. I hear that Rock - Dorking crosses were primary table birds before the monstrosity called the Cornish Cross took hold of the meat industry.

I have also heard good things about Marans and La Fleche.

 

[Morrigan]

The meat from the heritage birds is tougher, but not in an unpleasant way if you know how to cook. I was worried that the "tough, stringy texture" that people warn of would make these birds only suitable for stewing or braising, but have found them fantastic fried and roasted as well.

It has been an acquired taste for me and my husband. The very first cockerel we processed was a 14 week old barnyard mutt. We, being the total newbies that we were at the time, were shocked out how different it looked from a supermarket chicken. We found it a bit chewy. My husband, in particular, was quite disappointed. That's when I learned about CX, and for the next several years we raised those, and were quite happy with them. I raised them in a manner which led them to being a little more flavorful with more texture than what you would typically buy. I limited feed, and encouraged them to move around a large yard. We also butchered between 8 and 13 weeks, rather than the 5 to 6 weeks of a commercial chicken.

We turned our extra cockerels from broody hens into sausage at first. Then, we started experimenting back with eating heritage birds, as well as some slower growing broilers. This year, almost all of the birds we raised for food were hatched on are farm, either 100% heritage birds or with a heritage rooster (Naked Neck) and slow growing broiler hens. We now love the extra flavor and texture of these chickens, and I prefer it to the CX. Between 11 and 14 weeks, we find we can cook cockerels any way we like. After 15 weeks, we do them as roasters. We also butcher our excess pullets and are pleased that they are still tender enough to fry at 18 weeks.

I think that it is deeply troubling that humanity has moved away from an agrarian lifestyle and, while challenging, raising my own food has been possibly the most rewarding and fulfilling endeavor I have undertaken.

Although there have been some huge benefits to moving away from an agrarian lifestyle -- think of the development of science and arts -- I think the complete loss of connection people now have to where food comes from is troubling. I don't think people have a clue of everything that had to happen, and what kinds of resources needed to be expended, in order for them to pick up that pre-packed little chicken caesar salad kit at their supermarket.

I also agree that growing your own food and raising your own meat animals has been intensely rewarding for me on a personal level. I just finished reading a good book along this vein called "Dirty Life" by Kristin Kimball, that I recommend to those who are interested.

 

[Kabootar]

It has been an acquired taste for me and my husband. The very first cockerel we processed was a 14 week old barnyard mutt. We, being the total newbies that we were at the time, were shocked out how different it looked from a supermarket chicken. We found it a bit chewy. My husband, in particular, was quite disappointed. That's when I learned about CX, and for the next several years we raised those, and were quite happy with them. I raised them in a manner which led them to being a little more flavorful with more texture than what you would typically buy. I limited feed, and encouraged them to move around a large yard. We also butchered between 8 and 13 weeks, rather than the 5 to 6 weeks of a commercial chicken.

We turned our extra cockerels from broody hens into sausage at first. Then, we started experimenting back with eating heritage birds, as well as some slower growing broilers. This year, almost all of the birds we raised for food were hatched on are farm, either 100% heritage birds or with a heritage rooster (Naked Neck) and slow growing broiler hens. We now love the extra flavor and texture of these chickens, and I prefer it to the CX. Between 11 and 14 weeks, we find we can cook cockerels any way we like. After 15 weeks, we do them as roasters. We also butcher our excess pullets and are pleased that they are still tender enough to fry at 18 weeks.



Although there have been some huge benefits to moving away from an agrarian lifestyle -- think of the development of science and arts -- I think the complete loss of connection people now have to where food comes from is troubling. I don't think people have a clue of everything that had to happen, and what kinds of resources needed to be expended, in order for them to pick up that pre-packed little chicken caesar salad kit at their supermarket.

I also agree that growing your own food and raising your own meat animals has been intensely rewarding for me on a personal level. I just finished reading a good book along this vein called "Dirty Life" by Kristin Kimball, that I recommend to those who are interested.

Nice bird you have there in your Avatar. Is it a New Hampshire? There are so many buff hens.

 

[Morrigan]

She was a buff orpington. Just hatchery stock from the first order of chicks I ever placed. She was a really good one, however. The best of the 8 BO chicks I got. Beautiful eggs and great mother. Unfortunately, a bobcat got her when she was 4 years old. I still have one of her daughters, who is sitting broody on day 17, as I type.

 

[Abundant Hope Farm]

I stand by Speckled Sussex having a distinctively superiority in flesh and skin flavor and texture over any other chickens that I have raised in the same conditions and w/ the same rations in the same coop. I suppose they were the Kings table bird for a while for a reason.

 

[Kabootar]

She was a buff orpington. Just hatchery stock from the first order of chicks I ever placed. She was a really good one, however. The best of the 8 BO chicks I got. Beautiful eggs and great mother. Unfortunately, a bobcat got her when she was 4 years old. I still have one of her daughters, who is sitting broody on day 17, as I type.

My first thought was that she is a Buff Orpington, I have never had one, but from the pics I have seen here on BYC, they looked like fluff balls. Maybe she lost some weight sitting on those eggs. I have New Hampshire though, they look quite similar. Buff Rocks also get mistaken for Orpingtons.

I have read that Orpingtons were developed as a dual purpose breed, but I wonder whether there is enough meat under all that fluff.