Keel bone without cartilage

[RiddleMe]

I butchered a batch of mutt cockerels this week, just skinned and took out the breast, thigh, and leg. After cooking, I realized one of the birds had a very long keel bone without any of the usual cartilage at the end. Wondering if anyone else has seen this? Now I wish I knew which one, but I took all the breasts bone in and didn't notice during processing.

 

[Oregon Bresse]

Yes! Some of my birds have keels that are completely bone like this one while others have the cartilage on the end. I'd love to know why there is a difference.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I butchered a batch of mutt cockerels this week, just skinned and took out the breast, thigh, and leg. After cooking, I realized one of the birds had a very long keel bone without any of the usual cartilage at the end. Wondering if anyone else has seen this? Now I wish I knew which one, but I took all the breasts bone in and didn't notice during processing.

Matured/fully matured keel bones don't have the cartilage.
I ate a 1 year old rooster, & he had zero cartilage at the end of the keel.

 

[Amer]

So, that's normal, but keels are just weirdly inconsistent in chickens. There are a lot of birds with plain old deformed keels walking around. I've handled two birds, one a light Brahma and one a Cornish cross, with a split keel. No single bone going down the middle. Two bones going alongside where that would be with a gap in the middle. Very strange. The Cornish cross you would have thought just had an extremely short keel or no keel. It would not pass standards as a meat bird, lol. But it came from a bad place where birds were off feed for a while and a lot of its brethren had physical defects as well, so I'm wondering if there was a systemic issue.
I don't know how those birds survived like that. They acted perfectly normally.

 

[Amer]

Also light Brahmas are weird, in both large and bantams I've held MANY with crooked keels. All hatchery stock. Why the lights specifically idk.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Also light Brahmas are weird, in both large and bantams I've held MANY with crooked keels. All hatchery stock. Why the lights specifically idk.

Mine had perfectly straight Keels.

 

[Amer]

Mine had perfectly straight Keels.

Yeah
It's just really weird that so many at different fairs I've judged had the same issue.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Yeah
It's just really weird that so many at different fairs I've judged had the same issue.

Must be how they were kept. Calcium Deficiency can also lead up to a warped/crooked keel bone.

 

[Amer]

Must be how they were kept. Calcium Deficiency can also lead up to a warped/crooked keel bone.

I think maybe a lot of these people just ordered from the same hatchery.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I think maybe a lot of these people just ordered from the same hatchery.

I've had none hatchery birds with the occasional keel bone warp as well.