Ross Cobs as meat birds

[blue90292]

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the pattern is called "partridge".

 

[blue90292]

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because if anything was to happen on a backyard poultry farm, a quarantine would be set up, preventing the commercial poultry farmer from selling his chickens costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

[blue90292]

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someone on another thread asked about dual purpose also. i have ALOT of different breeds and i've also noticed that the marans roos are the most meatiest out of the bunch.

this was my response.

my birchen blue marans boy is probably the meatiest out of all my boys and i have alot of boys. if you feel his chest, it is full and he is quite stocky all the way around.

next is probably my blrwyondotte boy. he's probably the biggest boy in my whole flock. but the slowest growing. he was skin and bones until he was probably over a year old. my cochin boys don't have much breast meat compared to the marans or the wyondotte. but that could be because they are the most athletic out of all of the boys. you'll see them RUNNING EVERYWHERE trying to catch those girls, while the other boys don't. if you feel their chests, it's more fluff than meat. my next big boy is probably my RIR then my blue/black orpington boys. although my orpington boys are bigger than my RIR boy, the RIR has more breast meat than my orps.

BUT

none of these guys are hatchery birds. they are from breeders that show. so they're not your run of the mill RIR or marans. if you put a hatchery RIR next to my flock, you'll see that my RIR's are a whole size bigger than the hatchery birds. the conformations are totally different.

i had a delaware hen once and she was very nice. very meaty...but of course, nothing like the meat birds. i think my meatiest girls are my cross breeds. ones that have my RIR as a dad and either a white rock or orpington. i know that makes sex-links which aren't usually fat, but for some reason, my girls are bigger and fuller.

 

[blue90292]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

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The fact that thie is called BYC does not prevent people from exposing the board to the realities of the commercial chicken world, unless I missed the "sticky" stating that we all must agree with every post on this forum.

Jim

sorry jim, i'm going to have to disagree on that. i'm very glad the commercial person spoke. it's nice to get other opinions, but you DID miss the "sticky" stating that we all must agree on this forum. otherwise, i don't know why all my posts and other marans enthusiasts posts, regarding marans, got deleted off of a controversial thread in the bst section.

i'll probably get a PM about this post too. LOLOLOL

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

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The fact that thie is called BYC does not prevent people from exposing the board to the realities of the commercial chicken world, unless I missed the "sticky" stating that we all must agree with every post on this forum.

Jim

sorry jim, i'm going to have to disagree on that. i'm very glad the commercial person spoke. it's nice to get other opinions, but you DID miss the "sticky" stating that we all must agree on this forum. otherwise, i don't know why all my posts and other marans enthusiasts posts, regarding marans, got deleted off of a controversial thread in the bst section.

i'll probably get a PM about this post too. LOLOLOL

Blue:

You must have misread my post because I agree with your position that we need to have both the commercial and hobby interests represented here to help educate all of us.

Jim

 

[brandywine]

You know, if Hunte Corporation came onto my heritage dog breeders' email list and started telling us that we were all idiots and the only way to raise puppies was on wire pens in converted broiler houses, and our dogs were inferior because not selected for "efficiency," (You have one grump and she's had two litters her whole life? Oh my god, what could you possibly know about dogs?!) they'd be shown the door pretty quick. Not kicked off by the list owner. Run off by the members.

Now, maybe Trollie McTrollson has a right to deride the entire purpose of this site while producing units for Walmart in his flesh factory but nobody here has to give him any attention.

I do like, though, that he brags about teaching the grandkids to essentially cheat at 4H. ("The way you win at the fair, Billy, is to get chickens that the other competitors cannot lay their hands on for love nor money, 'cuz granpa gots connections. Skill and diligence are for suckers, I got you secret chickens!")

When someone shows you who he is, believe him.

As for why the giant producers are afraid of small farmers and backyard producers -- it's a classic redirect. The "big guys" are really little guys who are all beholden to ADM, Cargill, Walmart, Perdue, etc. They get squeezed a little tighter every year, especially with "globalization" moving commodity production overseas. They generally have sucker contracts in which they incur all the risk, and the multinational reaps the profits. They are impotent in the face of their corporate masters. Make trouble, you will be cut off from your commodity market and supply system and filing for bankruptcy the next day.

So, kiss up, kick down. Who is to blame for their ulcers? Must be those hippies selling organic eggs at the farmers' market, those eggheads at the ALBC nattering about genetic diversity, the effete foodie who comments on the nudity of the emperor with his fork in his mouth, and most of all, anyone who ain't buyin' the corporate line -- and by extension, their inferior product. If all of us would just behave and whip out our debit cards like good little consumotrons, life would be grand.

Oh -- and I'm a Liberal who, unlike corporations and corporate farmers, does not take cash subsidies from the government and then piss and moan about communists on the way to the bank. Like every American, I both benefit from and suffer the consequences of the farm subsidy system. But nobody ever sent me a check for doing nothing, not even my grandma. Well, except George Bush, this year. Sent me my gubbmint cheese, he did. Must be a Liberal, dat George.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

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So if the consumer demands free-range, organic chickens it is GOOD to meet their demands, but if a company produces a genetic line of broilers to meet a consumer's demand for certain cuts of meat it is BAD? Where is the logic in that?

Like it or not, the fued between the hobby/backyard/organic/all natural and commercial livestock production is not "black and white" nor is it "good versus evil".

Jim

 

[blue90292]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Blue:

You must have misread my post because I agree with your position that we need to have both the commercial and hobby interests represented here to help educate all of us.

Jim

my bad and my apologies.​

 

[ninjapoodles]

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Brandywine? I think I love you.

 

[dancingbear]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

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So if the consumer demands free-range, organic chickens it is GOOD to meet their demands, but if a company produces a genetic line of broilers to meet a consumer's demand for certain cuts of meat it is BAD? Where is the logic in that?

Like it or not, the fued between the hobby/backyard/organic/all natural and commercial livestock production is not "black and white" nor is it "good versus evil".

Jim

You're twisting my words. That's not what I said at all.
It bothers me to see live animals referred to and treated as merely "a product". i.e., no different than a light bulb or a piece of furniture. That's one of the reasons I choose to raise my own.

I'm not engaged in a feud with anyone. I'm just raising my own food. Sometimes, that has been, as I said, the Frankenbirds. I'm not wild about those strains, but, as I said, if I raise it myself, I know what it ate, how it was treated, and how it was processed.

The 2 posters who raised my hackles were jumping in and insulting the whole bunch of us who were already posting in this thread. They weren't merely disagreeing. They were calling us a bunch of idiots. They were NOT just presenting the other side.

They were also comparing raising birds for home consumption as if it MUST be done the same way as a factory farm or you're just a dolt.

That's sort of like a race car driver telling non-racers that they're all just a bunch of morons and losers for driving regular cars, and following the speed limits on public roads, and are the cause of all the car troubles in the world. And while they're at it, saying that folks who ride bicycles, or walk, are the root of all evil.

The bald statement that the factory farms produce the "best chicken in the world" is nonsense. What makes "the best" is a matter of personal taste and choice. My homegrown birds taste better to me than any supermarket bird. My homegrown tomatoes taste better than the supermarket tomatoes, too. Wanna insult me for growing tomatoes, too?

I will say the factory bird is produced more efficiently. So what?

I use MY resources as I see fit, to produce MY food, for MY consumption. Do you have a problem with that? If you do, it's YOUR problem.

The other bit of falsehood in those posts is that they "are feeding the world." No, they aren't. Very few, if any of those birds are going to feed "the world". Those birds are not being sent to people who are starving. If they are, I'd love to see where and how that's being done, and who's doing it. They are supplying the supermarket trade. That's fine. There are people who want that, obviously.

They are Frankenbirds. They are not raised humanely. They are fed antibiotics. They are processed in less than sanitary conditions, in many plants. There are some that are better, I hear Purdue runs a clean operation. The meat is usually chlorinated to kill the bad bacteria that thrive in the unsanitary conditions. (I don't blame the workers, who are usually under constant pressure to go faster, and are often underpaid, to boot) Many people are happy to consume this. Fine. I'm not one of them.

I also don't have a problem with meat birds being "a special strain". Though I do firmly believe that we need to keep the heritage breeds alive and in good condition. I am simply choosing another way. If you don't like that, then feel free to choose your own way. There is more than one way to "properly" raise a meat bird. Poultry Snob and Bossroo don't seem to think so, but I don't see you objecting to their insulting posts. Why is that? Is it ok for them to say whatever they want, but not me?)

Now, is it ok with you guys who don't like what we're doing on our own places, with our own resources, for our own food, if we return to the discussion of what things we're doing, and what we'd like to try next, and trading ideas for how we might like to proceed in the future?​