And yes, after they fully mature they are quite large birds, but when we are considering growing out birds for meat specifically, waiting a year or two for a bird to fill out simply cost too much and ruins the meat tenderness. I need to select my line to focus on fleshing early on instead of bone growth bc they can't do both at the same time.
I think the expectation of dual purpose has changed. At one time it meant a bird that lays fairly well and grows big enough to eat. "Big enough" has changed. Well, "tenderness" also to a degree. Our expectations for meat changed when the Cornish X were developed in the 1950's. That's also when there was a mass migration from rural to urban life. After WWII the men were used to the world being bigger than their backyard. Women ran things while the men were at war and were ready to do more than stay home barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. Kids' understanding of where their food came from changed from growing it yourself to getting it at the store, though a visit to the grandparents on the farm when school was out and their parents were on vacation maintained minimal contact, usually with warped views. There are very few grandparents now living on the farms so even that connection was lost.
I'm old and grew up on a farm. Mom could feed a family with five kids with one chicken. The serving pieces included drumstick, thigh, wing, breast, and wishbone. She also served, back, neck, gizzard, heart, and liver as separate pieces. She could cook an old bird and make a delicious meal. Chicken and dumplings is not only comfort food, it is a great way to stretch on old hen to feed a large family. If you fry a chicken, bread it heavily and serve it with a thick white gravy. Delicious.
Chickens mostly fed themselves in the good weather months by foraging. Depending in winter weather they probably got some fed then. The chickens did not lay double extra large eggs but they laid a lot of eggs. Their bodies did not reach huge sizes. But they cost very little to keep and provided a lot of food through eggs and meat. It is a different world today.
I would like to further refine what she started (I want faster growth rate, earlier processing ages, and more fleshing on them earlier then what I am seeing with my own birds from her).
The way you do that is through selective breeding. How you can cook it is defined by processing age. It sounds like you know what age that is. At that age assess your birds and breed the ones you want to eat and eat the ones you do not want to breed. It doesn't matter how much they grow later once you process them. Be ruthless in your assessment in following your criteria.
I selected 23 weeks as my target age. My goals include more than just meat. If meat is your only goal that should make it easier. Once they hit 16 weeks I start removing the boys that do not live up to my standards. The first ones are usually pretty easy to select. By the time I get to 23 weeks the ones left are usually hard to choose between, which means any of them may be a good choice. My goal is not to get the largest cockerel I can. I want the average size of the be cockerels I butcher to be larger.
I also eat my excess pullets but I look to them more for egg laying than size for meat. I keep them until they are about 8 months old so I can evaluate them for egg laying before I make my final selections. I can still get two meals for the two of us out of a small pullet. The difference in a larger cockerel is that I get more chicken for my lunches.
Good luck. If you stick to your goals I think you will see an improvement in just a couple of generations. Good luck!
My hens stay pretty small relative to the roos, I really think that was selected for.
