Newbie

[Trish1947]

and SAUSAGE! (old birds). If the sausage recipe works for pork, it will also work for chicken, with one caveat. Chicken fat doesn't get as firm as pork fat or beef fat, which can result in inferior texture in the sausage, and considerable fat rendering out during cooking, leaving the casing filled with a mealy (still tasty) meat mix. Recommend using pork or beef fat when adding some to bring up the total fat content of the recipe. Also recommend pushing it as lean as you can - if your recipe calls for 8# of ground pork shoulder and 2# of fat, use 8# of old chicken meat (the connective tissue and more fibrous meat of the thighs and legs in an old free range bird are good things here) and 2# of pork fat. Now divide the whole recipe by four, and prepare it once as a trial - 2# chicken meat, .5# pork fat, 1/4 of the called for spices...

Adjust to personal preference before scaling back up.

Wow!! Never thought of that.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wow!! Never thought of that.

Is what BYC is for, sharing experience and research.

 

[Morrigan]

Although keeping Cornish X alive long enough to breed is very difficult, it is pretty easy to do so with one of the slow broiler varieties, like Red Rangers, Freedom Rangers, etc. If you are interested in a self-sustaining meat bird flock, this is a direction to consider.

For the last couple of years, I've been breeding a slow broiler hens to a Naked Neck Rooster and have been very happy with the offspring as both layers and meat chickens. This year, I replaced my original NN rooster with one of his offspring who was crossed with a slow white broiler hen. Junior is growing out nicely, and I'm very excited to breed him to some slow broiler hens this spring.

As far as sausage . . . I love chicken sausage and have been making it for years. Generally I find that processing the meat along with all the chicken fat and skin from the bird makes a lean, but tasty sausage. Last year, I added in 10% pork fat, which made for a delicious, but slightly too rich sausage (for my taste at least).

Best way to find out what works is to experiment.

 

[CNJ]

so how do I prevent them from getting to big and heavy?

At about one month of age separate three chicks, males usually grow faster and bigger, so you might be able to tell by their size and comb. You need to feed these only once a day, let them get their fill and take out the food. Also, keep comparing their size to the other chicks that are fed all day. Their growth should be slower.

I am not sure what you will get when breeding brother and sister together. It takes about 5 months for the hens to lay eggs.

I did not separate my breeders until 8 weeks so they got really big and are now having leg problems at 6 months. I kept only hens and bred them with a Dark Cornish and Bresse rooster. The first 3 eggs in my incubator were small and were fully developed, but they died in their shell. I have 4 more in lock down, I hope I get some to hatch.

I have 3 hens, they lay one or two eggs every other day. I recently gathered 10 eggs and just put them in another incubator. I have 3 incubators with small batches going on.

I also, have 4 seven week old baby chicks running around that I will use to set my Cornish x line. They are a cross between a Dark Cornish Rooster and a White Plymouth Rock hen. Three chicks are white with brown feather marking and one chick is brown. They all have pea combs and they are very hyper active, more so than their parents were, but they are growing like regular chickens. These will make great parent stock, they have nice body confirmation with their breast meat features.

I just need to infuse the Dinosar DNA from the Cornish cross home bred chicks.