Thinking about next years meaties

[max13077]

I'm trying to decide what I want for next springs meat birds. I want to try something other than cornish x's. While they've been killer, everybody likes a change of pace.

Here's what I'm thinking. Either I want to try the freedom ranger broilers from J. M. Hatchery, or I want to try some Dark Cornish from Mcmurray.

While I love the X's for sheer masses of meat, the other breeds seem to have better flavor to me. We had a couple roosters that we off'd last year that were very good. They were Chanteclers I got free from Ideal. Maybe I should order some more of those!

Thoughts?

 

[bigredfeather]

I have been doing Cornish's and I was thinking the same thing. I think I am going to try a batch of colored rangers next Spring. By next then I will have a large area of my woods fenced in, and thought I would let them roam that area for bugs and folage.

You mentioned the Dark Cornish. I hatched out some of those this year in hopes of finding a pure breed meat bird. They are 12 weeks right now. They are in a pen with various other breeds the same age. Honestly, they are smaller than some of the other birds their same age. I was hoping they would develop faster, but as of yet, that hasn't been the case. I'm not saying they won't be tasty when butchered, they just don't grow like I thought they would. Surprising to me is that the Dominiques that are that age are the biggest.

I don't think you can go wrong with the colored rangers. They won't grow as fast as the Cornishes do, but they will grow quicker than a dual purpose, and the meat will be similar to a dual purpose (more texture).

Goodluck!

 

[patandchickens]

To date the best-tasting chicken I've eaten was from a chantecler, and they *were* developed in significant part for meat, so that is certainly an option if your cooking and eating style does well with smaller chickens and you don't demand huge amounts of white meat.

Both of the other things you mention are sensible things to consider, especially if you like white meat, I just wanted to put a word in for chanteclers

Pat

 

[jaku]

I just butchered a batch of Dark Cornish for my cousin, and the amount of meat is drastically less than Cornish X's. I'd go with the Rangers, personally.

 

[max13077]

Quote:
Well thanks for the heads up on that BRF!! I had already kind of pegged those to be my project for next year. I will defiantly try something else.

patandchickens, I found chanteclers on Ideal for $1.58(roos)! Might be worth it? I do agree with you that the ones I had did have a almost luscious(might not be quite the right word) quality to them. Though they were smaller, they were far better tasting than the X's.

 

[knittychickadee]

The Dark Cornish are slow growers. They are normally butchered at 24 weeks compared to 16-20 weeks for other, dual purpose breeds. So at 12 weeks, they will be smaller than other breeds of the same age that grow faster, and it's normal.