New to Meat Chickens!

[Maleficent265]

I was thinking of getting some meat birds. I’m not sure where to start or what breed to buy. I also imagine I’ll need equipment?

Any advice?

 

[Ridgerunner]

What do you mean by meat bird? Cornish X broilers, one of the Rangers, or a dual purpose breed?

By equipment do you mean housing and feeding or do you mean processing?

Those are pretty broad questions and could go many different ways. If you can narrow it down a bit it would really help.

 

[Maleficent265]

Well... All, actually? I can see how this post was pretty broad now that I’m looking at it again.

I wasn’t sure what the best breed for meat would be. So I was hoping someone more experienced could give me a few pointers or give me a list of their favorites.

I already own 17 laying hens. So, I think I’m okay with the feed and housing department. So when I said equipment, I guess I was looking for processing.

Sorry for all the questions. I’m super new to the idea but it’s something I’m very interested in doing!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Nothing wrong with questions, they keep this forum running. The more the better. And don't worry if it is something that has been asked before. I hate the Search function here and besides, repeat questions are often easier to answer.

You have three basic types of meat chickens but variations within those types. Cornish X broilers are the ones the commercial operations use for the meat you buy at the store. They grow super fast, have a real good feed to meat ratio which means you don't spend as much for feed per pound of meat. They are typically butchered before the are two months old, any longer and their hearts quit or their skeleton breaks down. They grow that fast. You have to buy the chicks, you cannot breed them. They are tender enough that you can cook them any way you wish. You have to butcher them when it is time, you cant wait on them or they start dying. That means you have to have a schedule you can do that plus lots of freezer space.

The Rangers share many traits of the Cornish X but grow a little slower. They are probably a better choice if you plan on them foraging for a lot of their food.

The dual purpose are a lot like your laying flock, I don't know what breeds you now have. The dual purpose grow a lot slower so they don't have the health problems of the Cornish X and to a lesser extent the Rangers. But to get much meat on them you butcher them much later which affect how you cook them. Since you butcher them older the meat can have more texture and flavor, some people like that but some don't. Dual purpose breeds don't give as much meat as the others and the feed to meat ratio is pretty bad unless they forage for practically all they eat. You can bred and hatch you own. You can butcher them more on your schedule, they are not going to fall over and die.

This is intended to be a broad overview from my perspective, there are a lot of details in any of them. Hopefully others will chime in. Hopefully this will help you narrow your questions further. Some of these threads get really long with all the back and forth which I think is good.

 

[RoosterML]

As far as equipment goes that all depends on how many birds you plan on doing.
Also don’t waste your time with a dual purpose bird as a meat chicken.
If you want meat birds buy the chicks. Keep the dual purpose as eggs layers because they stink for meat birds.
Just my .02

 

[Mwillis]

I was thinking of getting some meat birds. I’m not sure where to start or what breed to buy. I also imagine I’ll need equipment?

Any advice?

I have been doing the Cornish Cross broilers for a couple years now two years ago we raised them up to about nine weeks and the meat was a little on the tough side actually it was very tough last year we did them at about six weeks three days and we had the best chicken you could ever imagine it was as good as the stuff out of the store by far and we know what we fed them