Leghorns

[thedevlins]

My husband and I will be getting 25 Leghorns in 6 weeks for meatbirds. We are very new to this! Are Leghorns good meat birds?? What age should be slaughter??

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Oh man.... you guys are in for a treat... they are horrible meat birds but not all is lost.

Feed them a high protein diet about 28% and try to restrict their movement as much as possible.... use a chicken tractor maybe? The thing is they need to be butchered before 16 weeks or they will start to fight and be aggressive towards one another.

They do make good fryers at about 12 weeks, not much meat but they do taste good.

Good luck....

 

[Bossroo]

What Jeff says. The Leghorn is without a doubt the best egg layer in the world. They are also very flighty and among the worst meat producers in the way of time and amount of meat produced compared to the best Cornish X meat bird our industry can produce. They are meant to be butchered at 6-8 weeks of age . They are also among the worst egg layers ever as they may not live to egg laying age due to their extreame meat producing ability in the shortest time possible due to being selected for that trait for over 60 years.

 

[FarmerRob]

Are you getting these from a hatchery? If so, a hatchery should have told you that these are bad choice for meat production. If these are culls from a factory layer farm I think they would be best used as compost. Conditions in that type of facility are pretty bad and the condition of culls is not going to be a pretty sight. They are going to be on the scrawny side at best--and could be sickly as well.

If your order is 6 weeks out, perhaps you can still cancel it (unless you want to receive 25 of the best white egg layers you could get.)

Order a free catalog from these guys. You can get an education in the different types (as in purposes) and breeds available.
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com

Of course enormous amounts of information is available right here, also for free.

If you really want some nice meaties get an order of the "colored range chicks" from JM Hatchery. These chickens were developed in France to meet the high standards of the Label Rouge program.
http://www.jmhatchery.com

I hope you can get it worked out.

 

[cassie]

Some people actually prefer leghorns as fryers. Back in the dark ages when I was a kid people would order straight run chicks. The pullets went to the laying house and the males were fattened for meat. They are small, but they are tasty.

 

[thedevlins]

We found out they are not Leghorns they are White Rocks. Is this a better option for meaties?

 

[cwc362]

Quote:
Yes , Thank goodness - We were all feeling bad for you because we thought you were getting leghorns for meat birds!! White rocks are much better than leghorns and the hens are still decent layers if you keep any. Go back to # 2 post and contact Jeff (Brunty_Farms) He can give you a bunch of great advice on different types of meat birds. I think he does this for a living or at least part of his living. I've read a ton of his posts and if I were raising Meat birds - He would be the first person I would want for a mentor.