Red or Black broilers? Slow cornish?

[pawtraitart]

Has anybody tried the red/black broilers or slow cornish meat birds? I see that Privett Hatchery has them. Thoughts on either of these? Thanks.

 

[greyfields]

I have not tried those. They're probably double crosses of some sort with a cornish as terminal sire. If the strains aren't too over selected for growth, they could be heartier than your standard jumbo Cornish X.

I've mentioned it several times, but I haven't got much of a response. I think maybe I'm only one of few backyard people raising these. But I have had zero mortality on my 50 Freedom Rangers after the 1st day. I'm really pleased.

http://www.freedomrangers.net/

 

[mlheran]

pawtraitart -Sorry, I have no answer for you since I'm wondering the same thing!

greyfields -How well do they grow, dress, and taste?

 

[pawtraitart]

I've never heard of those! What kind did you get? I see they have 5 varieties. Give us the scoop.

 

[greyfields]

I'm raising grey rangers (naturally) and gourmet black. The greys will finish at 81 days, the blacks 21 days later. I expect them all to finish around 5 lbs dressed, but will let you know more detail. In general, they are putting on weight nicely and are also extremely active. They're always trying to fly out of the tractor and stay quite busy scratching and foraging.

In the UK and Canada, part of being "organic" includes husbandry practices. Chickens for meat must be 81 days old prior to slaughter in order to be organic. Therefore, slower growing, broad breasted meat breeds are being developed. Because, can you imagine it, at 81 days your standard Cornish X would already be dead from a heart attack. I usually have 25% mortality on meat chickens, so finding these has been very rewarding.

 

[silkiechicken]

25% mortality on reg cornish cross seems so high! But I guess if you are raising them in large numbers it is easier to lose track of the health of one bird. I've raised thoes in batches of 4 and out of the past 10 years, with about a dozen each year, and I've only had one die on me at 8 weeks... on the day of butcher! I bet it heard me talking about how good he was going to taste and it gave him a heart attack!

But a bird that moves around in life would be great. Maybe some day when I decide to go shipping route, I'll try a few of thoes. I normally pick mine up at the feed stores since I can get them on weekends and there is none of that dreaded lost at the post office dramas. Plus I bet thoes look much happier than the cornish panting to stay alive if temps go over 70 deg.

 

[UncleHoot]

I ordered 21 Cornish Roasters from MM. I raised Cornish Cross from a (more) local hatchery last time around. There are a lot of different variables that may explain the difference, but overall, these chickens seem much more active. I've even seen them roost on the 14" high perch inside their pen. They forage quite a bit more, but they still seem to be growing very fast, although apparently slower than the other Cornish X. According to MM, they take about 2 weeks longer than the Jumbo Cornish X Rock, so I'm figuring about 11 weeks total.

The other variables:
*They had more space when they were chicks in the brooder (3 weeks).
*I sprinkled grass and gave them insects into the brooder.
*They are growing-up with 6 other chickens of various breeds.

Regardless, this batch is much more active at foraging in their pen (moved daily) than my previous batch that seemed to only eat, poop, and sit/sleep. With all the grass they eat, I'm expecting great things this time around.

 

[JacobsRewardFarm]

McMurray is out of the Cornish Roasters. Am I asking for big problems if I put about 50 Jumbo Cornish in my tractor? I'm reading a lot of Joel Salatin currently, and he seems to do OK with Cornish--not sure what variety. I'm new at this and don't really want to deal with a big mortality issue.

My 25 Delawares are doing fine in the pasture, but they'll take 14 weeks to dress out to much.

Anybody have Jumbo Cornish in a tractor with success?

Cindy T.
Jacob's Reward Farm
Parker, TX

 

[mommahento5]

Quote:
How big is your tractor? You would want to have around 1 square foot per bird, so unless your tractor is quite large, I don't think I would put that many in there. They are horribly messy and if overcrowded, they will just be laying in poo all the time. You could probably keep that many when they are young...like till 3 weeks or so, but not after that. Just my opinion. Also, with regaurd to the mortality thing, I ordered 25 cornish x's from MM the ast week of May. They actually sent me 28 of them. Three of them died in the first 10 days....after that no more deaths. So I ended up with what I ordered anyway. I guess that still gives me about a 10% mortality rate. I didn't actually PAY for the extras, they just threw them in my order, so I didn't stress over it too much.... Would probably have stressed more had I actually paid for, and then lost that many.

 

[JacobsRewardFarm]

Thanks, Mommahento5. Always appreciate more input. My 25 Delawares are in 65 square feet and have PLENTY of room. They are probably running off all their weight! Joel Salatin's tractors are 120 sf and he says 90 birds is the best stocking rate. (1.33 sf each) So (sitting here with my calculator) for 50 birds, I should have 66.5 sf. Hmmm. That's not much bigger than I have now. But I want to try the 2' high tractor style rather than the pvc hoop shape I have now. There are several design problems that I'm dealing with every day now that are making my life more trouble than I'd like. Lesson for today: don't take shortcuts or try to go too cheap... you pay in the end!

BTW, I ordered my 25 Delis from Ideal and one died on day two. But when I divided them into two brooders at about 2 weeks old, I found I still had 25! Guess I got a freebie too! Yay!

Cindy T.

Here's my tractor--it's 6'6" x 10':