Shellz, heheh, I know all that about Cornish Rock crosses - am just noting their harvest age - how early it is. Whether we like it or not, it's a benchmark. I know many European born people who hate our chickens because they are bland and have no chicken flavor. This is because they're harvested so young. However, letting a non-caponized male bird grow too long creates other problems: toughness and weird flavors.
This is all hard to sort out, and I don't want to make anyone upset. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know.
Some heritage breeds are harvested later, but at 19 weeks? I usually see a figure of 14 weeks talked about. I wonder if for some breeds 19 is too long?
Right, with heritage breeds we have to accept scrawny carcasses that look more like pheasants than the plump, freakish supermarket birds (we're now used to). I don't mean to cause trouble - I'm just wondering if the 18 to 21 week harvest figure is too generalized - and perhaps wrong for some breeds? And yes, past a certain point you must go to stewing (slow cook) to break down tough flesh and mellow out flavors that have become too strong.
19 weeks is essentially five months age, and that's pretty old for a non-caponized male bird. Capons were often harvested at that age (four to five months), back when this was more popular (say 100 years ago) - and we might conclude it was because 5 months was really too old for most breeds if not caponized. Maybe, maybe not. A Capon, without male hormones, doesn't grow connective tissue like a roo - and therefore doesn't get tough - and can be harvested up to 8 months (or more, but it usually doesn't make sense because they stop growing around 8). Flavor also stays better in a capon (they aren't aggressive and may put on weight faster).
Now the Wyandotte was okay at that age, but the Dorking wasn't. Could be the fault of the hatchery, the line of Dorking they have. Could be that the Dorking just developed faster - developed connective tissue. Did you bake or roast it? Was it tough and grainy? Did it have a strong flavor that wasn't desirable?
I'm only asking because I don't know how to process your comments with other stuff I've read on Dorkings. Dorkings supposedly win or do really well in taste tests (where several heritage breeds are all cooked the same way), time after time. Of course, the hatchery may have a bad line of Dorkings. Some birds get bred for show qualities and lose practical ones. Who knows?
Did you say it was an SG Dorking? Is that Silver ... or is SG the hatchery?
Hope you're able to get rid of him did you try relocating him last time? (I read the first 16 pages so I dunno what happened after you trapped him) I don't have any birds yet but I know we have foxes, hope they aren't as persist ant as that one. I feel bad for them though because they literately have almost no where to go here we used to live in the country but they've cut down all the forrests in my neighborhood.
