Though y'all might like this. Heritage Chicken Breeds’ Various Values.

[LadyinRed]

I stumbled upon this article on Mother Earth News and thought some of y'all might like it. May even be of use in trying to convince family to try our chickens and something interesting to send to friends.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/relish/heritage-chicken-breeds-zb0z10zstu.aspx

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I would not quote that data in your marketing.

 

[LadyinRed]

In my marketing? What marketing? Not my data and not me doing any marketing!

Sorry but I only raise a few extra roo's for myself since older roosters make for the absolute best chicken and dumplings.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Well, I like mother earth news but it's a bit biased. With the information coming from Frank Reese, that seems to be a bit biased too. He is all about heritage type birds, however his marketing is a bit shady. I don't know if you noticed but one of his turkey farmers raised 4500 turkeys in a field where the center of it is mowed down. All around the grass is 5 feet tall and thick... those turkeys aren't going to venture away from their food and water into the "unknown" Turkeys like to see where they are going and what a great idea of Frank to use tall grass as a fence! What a joke... however when there is money to be made you will find all kinds of people in any type of business. You can always tell the true ethics of a person with pictures.

As for the results, well if Frank sent in his birds I'm sure he sent in supermarket chickens (tyson, perdue) to be the comparison. Not really fair in my opinion, as the key ingredient to most of his heritage chickens is from being outside.... bugs, grass, ect. I would have liked to see frank compare his birds to a CX from a pasture based farm like Polyface, but see, that would make Franks products look bad. Mother earth would be surprised to see that the difference is very small. There will still be differences just not as sever as supermarket and DP. It's articles like these that give bad raps to breeds that if raised right don't deserve.

 

[averytds]

I don't know about Frank Reese or anything about turkeys,

but I have met one of the farmers/producers/partners in the Good Shepard operation. He was the instructor/speaker at a poultry clinic I attended. We all thought he was wonderful.


He wasn't disparaging at all that I remember about the CX vs heritage. Honestly I would have said he was a bit more critical of the heritage. He professed a life long and I believe genuine love of poultry that he hopes to pass on to others. He was upfront about if you could do heritage despite the cons then great and please do from the conservancy aspect.

We told him we were working on some projects including meat bird crosses. He gave out his contact info and said to feel free to pick his brain about anything poultry related.


He was even nice and honest IMO when it came to hatchery vs breeder. There's only a handful of people in the poultry community I've met that I feel will not only know about but also give me both sides and disclose any biases. He's one of them.


As to the article, on the chart, they do say store brand on the comparison. The only time I see CX and FR singled out specifically is by the author and it honestly reads like a half complete afterthought jammed in at the last minute. The article itself is primarily about commercial vs pasture/locally grown poultry regardless of the breed. Leave out the "What's different about heritage breeds?" part and change the word heritage to pasture raised everywhere else and it'll read different. Two different topics and neither done correctly. Author's and or editor's fault. Most people who read it would come out saying the topic was home grown is better than store bought and would happily buy a CX or FR from a local producer.

Your average Joe would click on the local harvest link and congratulate themselves on being so well educated about their food as they thoroughly enjoy their CX "heritage" chicken dinner they bought from Brunty Farms.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
Just a bit, really ??? I would hazzard to guess there is quite a bit more than lemons in that drink. As for the tall grass... in Cal. there are quite a few turkey operations that grow Sudan grass in the turkey pastures that grow well over 5' tall and thicker than the 100 acre wood. They turn out the poults as the grass is about 2' tall , is irrigated and provides green feed as well as shade for the turkey poults. when the turkeys are ready for processing the Sudan grass is eaten down by then to just a few standing blades which makes for an easy roundup.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

From the looks of these photos it doesn't look like those turkeys wonder through that grass very much. Turkeys don't like going through things they can't see. They may go in a few feet for a rest out of the shade but that's about it.

http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad233/jbrunty24/reeseturkey2.jpg

http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad233/jbrunty24/reeseturkey.jpg​

 

[Brunty_Farms]

From the looks of these photos it doesn't look like those turkeys wonder through that grass very much. Turkeys don't like going through things they can't see. They may go in a few feet for a rest out of the shade but that's about it. If they did decide to go into that grass it would be stomped all down. But since feed/water and shelter is all right there.... there is no sense to go anywhere else. A commercial set up with mirrors and smokescreens in my opinion. If they were pasture raised they should look like mine in the last photo.

 

[Mahonri]

So where do you get the Heritage Cornish?

 

[Brunty_Farms]

A true heritage cornish is best to get from private breeders. They come in an array of colors too.