Ok-Give it to me Straight

[coffeemama]

Well I'm by no means in a hurry, and that's why I inquired about waiting until fall. I know they do not handle heat well, but also didn't know how they would do in the fall. I have done quite a bit of research preparing for the day when I get some property.

I need to search and see what would be an alternative to cornish x-the reason why I leaned toward those is that they seem to be more efficient in food to meat conversion, and they are so quick. My chicken partner may not want to have a breed that takes much longer than the cornish x.
It may be that it's worth the bit of extra time not to have to deal with their death issues and stink. Off to research other meat breeds.
Thanks all!

 

[Redfeathers]

I don't know if I got lucky or what, but I had no death issues, no leg issues, no issues at all. I would say it was a total success. I have a freezer full of big juicy cornish X chickens and it feels great! Tomorrow we are eating two of them for fathers day. mmmm

 

[coffeemama]

Well you enjoy those chickens! I've pretty much decided on the Red Bros, and that we'll wait until it's a bit cooler. That will give us time to get everything set up and ready to go.

 

[featherwood]

We did our first yesterday...what a learning experience!!! We had Blks, Reds, and white Cornish Rocks. The whites were the best!! The reds and blacks were so small by comparison. Several pounds less, hardly any breast. The blacks dressed out horribly, the whites beautifully, and the reds...somewhere in between.

We also learned to not let them watch the others get butchered. The ones that saw the others, flopped and flapped horribly. The ones that didn't see it, hardly moved at all. I can only guess an adrenalin build up in the ones that watched. Hmmm...

Anybody with thoughts on that. We were making a list of things to do different next time as soon as we were done.

We need to minmize the trauma, the floppy ones flapped so hard the flopped right out of the cones and sprayed blood over us. That was just too much to handle.

Any ideas??

 

[greyfields]

The red/black broilers are supposed to take longer to finish than the Jumbo White Cornish Crosses. So your observations are correct, they should have been smaller at an identical age.

 

[coffeemama]

But if you waited 10 weeks for the reds they would be a similar size to the cornish?

 

[featherwood]

All of mine were 12 weeks. We were pushing for the 8 lb + birds as we have 4 kids that eat as much as we do and bean poles!!
LOL. All boys. Ages 4, 7 and 9. Man they can eat!! Even the 4 yr olds can keep up with us!!
I told hubby we will have to convert to turkeys when they are teens. When they are late teens we will have to go with Emu.

My husband is a bean pole too...with a hollow leg!!

Anyway...Only the Cornish Rocks from now on, for us...

 

[greentree]

I will only do FR's from now on..... Greyfields is right , you almost have to do the CRX first to experience it, but I did, then did FR's, and they were SO much more pleasant to work with, then SO much easier to pluck, then SO much better to eat, that there is NO question what chicken I will raise!

We processed at 10 - 11 weeks, and they dressed out from 4 lb, 9 oz, to 5+ lbs.....

Nancy

 

[blue90292]

nancy, did they actually taste better than the cornish X?

 

[jaku]

There is no reason not to do a straight run. By the time they are ready, you can just barely tell the difference between males and females. The weights are equivelant. You gain nothing by getting all males.

I would have to disagree there- I just processed my Cornish X roos. The differences in size were very noticable, as were the big, bright red combs. I'm doing the hens next week.​