Meat chicken

[rjohns39]

I find the meat to be very amenable to whatever seasoning I wish. I put herbs and spices in the brine too, boil and lemon and put it inside right before going into the oven, piercing it with holes to let the lemon juice flow out of the lemon and tenderize the meat. that said, CX do not have a strong poultry flavor, so if you are looking for that, there are other breeds that grow more slowly. I've found the COBB 500 CX to be the best balance of rate of return on food while still maintaining a pretty good degree of pluck and health. so many of the other CX strains are just virtually inhumane to try and raise in the back yard, they end up with so many problems.

I raised out 500s last year, next year I want to do a side by side with 500s and 708s.

 

[Birdinhand]

I raised out 500s last year, next year I want to do a side by side with 500s and 708s.

let me know how that goes! I hope you start a thread on it so we can keep up on the results. the COBB 500 has been so vastly better for me that I've been reluctant to try anything else, but surely, new and better is always possible. For me, the key is being able to pull back on the protein when I see the droppings go hypertonic and then increase again as able. that and deep litter mulched wood chips.

 

[Saya]

I don't mean to come across as jaded, but IMHO, the best plan for that bird is raising the water and food so it has to stand to eat, do a 12 hours on twelve hours off feeding routing and cull it at 8-9 weeks. it's unlikely that it will do well as an adult. it's possible to get a year or two out of them with a lot of special attention, but it would be a lot to do for one bird. it would have to be kept separate etc and even then, will eventually die prematurely because the cross was created for super fast initial growth, not longevity or egg laying.

I completely understand what you are saying. Do you know all the meat chicken name by breeds so I don't get one of them again. They are beautiful chickens.

 

[rjohns39]

Cornish, Cornish Cross, Cornish X, CX, Cobb 308, Cobb 500, Cobb 708 and there are others. Red Rangers are also meat birds--but are slower growing. There are many more names and strains out there. Unfortunately, I've found most folks at TSC or the feed store don't seem to know the difference. There is a heritage Cornish chicken--but its on the watch list for the livestock conservancy and not likely to show up in a feed store.

Edited to add: Sorry, we kind of hijacked your thread.

 

[Birdinhand]

I completely understand what you are saying. Do you know all the meat chicken name by breeds so I don't get one of them again. They are beautiful chickens.

yeah, as rjohns39 says, there are lots of strains that are all referred to as cornish cross. they all look essentially the same, white, start out yellow and cute and soon after then the differences show up. the COBB 500 stays pirky, runs, scratches, duals and all the things we love to see in chicks and stays pretty active given the right environment up to about week 5-6, then even it starts getting heavy. it's at this point that poop management becomes critical, they are growing full tilt and taking on a tremendous quantity of weight. getting them through this stage to harvest with minimal suffering is one of my aims and I'm getting decent at it. I would give it a go with the one you have, and take note of its pros and cons and who knows you may get hooked by the challenge and want to try asking specifically what strains are being sold by a given destributor and as you learn you can add your voice to those of us who are working to find the right balance between productivity and humane treatment/good quality of life.

 

[andreanar]

TSC employees sometimes have no idea what they are doing with chicks. They just had baby chicks in again a few weeks ago and I was in there and heard a family letting their kids pick out chicks. The kids were choosing from the meat bird bin. The employee said nothing to them. I went over and talked to the parents, asked them if they wanted meat birds...no they wanted a small backyard flock of hens for their family to get eggs. Ugh. They put all the chicks back and I helped the little girls pick out nice female chicks from the right bins.