Really dissapointed in the breast size.

[Chickenheadmate]

Great roo, none the less!

 

[alexa009]

Why are you disappointed in his breast size? Were you intentionally raising him for the meat table?

 

[Chickenheadmate]

Lol. No.
But I mean, being as he came from GFF, you'd figure he was at least decent.
The grey hen you see next to him, is a little over half his size; yet breast feel the same for both.

 

[aart]

Your expectations may be a bit skewed...
....and kind of confusing for a topic in the meat birds forum.

Layer breeds can vary widely in breast size...
...and none of them are going to be like meat breeds.

 

[Acre4Me]

Certainly handsome in life! How old was this male?

We butchered a few young cockerels, and they were disappointing too, but I think it had more to do with breed in our case, as we had dark brown Leghorns.

Have you ever raised meat birds? We did 1x last year, and what a difference!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I imagine the breast on him was massive in size just thin. That's the nature of dual purpose birds. Some can have more fleshing in breast but you'll never see the double breast unless you raise real Cornish or use CX meat birds.

It's the high expectations we have being raised on commercial meat birds that makes butchering dual purpose birds disappointing. The flavor to me more than makes up for it and of course you need to cook the bird properly to what age it was butchered.

 

[Chickenheadmate]

He's 7 months. Never have. Had a Cx pullet once but a predator got to her before she did much growing.

Certainly handsome in life! How old was this male?

We butchered a few young cockerels, and they were disappointing too, but I think it had more to do with breed in our case, as we had dark brown Leghorns.

Have you ever raised meat birds? We did 1x last year, and what a difference!

 

[Chickenheadmate]

What's double breast?

I imagine the breast on him was massive in size just thin. That's the nature of dual purpose birds. Some can have more fleshing in breast but you'll never see the double breast unless you raise real Cornish or use CX meat birds.

It's the high expectations we have being raised on commercial meat birds that makes butchering dual purpose birds disappointing. The flavor to me more than makes up for it and of course you need to cook the bird properly to what age it was butchered.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The game bird double thick breast that was cornerstone in developing the modern meat bird. Pure Cornish, aka Indian Game and others have it.

 

[mandelyn]

With his breed he'd make up for it in the dark meat thigh. He has a decent shape for dual purpose.

If he did come to the table, you would also notice that he has really thick skin in comparison to some other varieties, which is good for baking so long as you don't puncture it and let the juice out.

He would make some nice offspring for the table if he were bred over rounder shaped hens and not lean layer types.

Once you get used to double muscled grocery store chicken it can seem like the yield from a dual purpose chicken is rather puny in comparison. We raise Marans, Bresse and some others for the table, since I hatch a lot in a hen driven market we go for big boys with large type, the breeder boys selected for their width/depth of body. The difference in flavor/texture sold us on it.

Flavor comes with age, something the Cornish Cross has a hard time reaching since they're ready by 10 weeks. Big and bland, in a hurry... since they didn't get time they definitely need some Thyme. Lemon juice, salt, pepper... not so many flavors needed for birds over 20 weeks. But I'm also one of those people that measures garlic by the full bulb instead of the individual pieces.