Tried cornish rocks. Looking for another meat bird.

[Farmer_Dan]

One other advantage to growing a different type of bird than the cornish X is that potentially you can propogate them and not have to keep ordering them over and over again.

In other words -- bomb proof!

 

[mike67909]

I second the freedom rangers. Mine are 8 weeks. The some of the roosters are ready to butcher but some hens still need some time. Not one single problem all 26 shipped are alive and healthy!

 

[ourflockof4]

Quote:
Depending on what your intent is, I would stay away from the buff orps. We raise 2 along side of a pair of black sex linked and a pair of CX. The CX went to freezer camp last night and were 8-10 lbs live. The BO and BSL are maybe 3-4 lbs still.

If you are just looking for something different I would try the red or black broilers/freedom rangers. If you are looking at breeding your own I would do what SteveH, Brunty Farms, and the other are doing and and breed for what you want. There are some very good threads on here about that.

 

[Paul Ewing]

Quote:
We got 30 of the Ideal Red Broilers 13 weeks ago. I really don't think I will do them again. We took the 10 biggest Roos in to be processed (at $2 each it is worth it to me to have someone else do it. I used to do 50 at a time as a kid and hated plucking.) Wednesday. At twelve and a half weeks the biggest of the 10 weighed 4.02 lbs dressed minus feet and organs. The smallest was 2.99 lbs. Most were in the 3.25 to 3.5 lb range. We got just over 2 lbs of organs and 2.3 lbs of feet from the 10. I had really hoped for another pound of body weight out of them. The other 18 that are left (we lost two) are mostly pullets and most are a good two pounds smaller live weight than the ones we took in.

Cheers, Paul

 

[bucketgirl]

Quote:
Can you give more info on the propogating? What's a 'homestead' sized flock look like for having a regular source of cornish cross chicks? Say 200 year?

 

[burntmuch]

Quote:
Hey Mike where did you get your freedom rangers & how big are they

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
The problem with regular heritage breed birds for meat, is the time they take to grow out. I love them, myself, because they taste better, but they won't be tender fryers or grillers if you wait for full growth. For example, JG's may take almost a YEAR to reach those weights you show. That's because they grow skeleton first, to support that big body. There are many breeds that get fairly hefty by about 20-25 weeks, and a lot of people butcher younger than that (anywhere from 14-20 weeks) for a more tender bird, even though they'll be a lot smaller.

I'm experimenting with cross-breeding heritage breeds to get somewhat faster growth, but not like the Cornish X's. I'm just shooting for a reasonable sized meat bird (maybe 3-4 lbs) by around 12-14 weeks. With hens that lay a reasonable number of eggs, and I want healthy birds that can live a long time, mate and produce fertile eggs, without any help from me.

There are those who think this is a stupid thing to do, but it's my preference.

The reason I mention all this is that if you are fairly new to raising chickens, and the Cornish X's are what you're learning on, the dual-purp/heritage birds will be a whole different ball game. They won't grow anywhere near as fast, nor will they have those plump breasts. They will be healthier birds, more active, have more flavor, forage well, and be able to reproduce like normal birds, because they are normal birds. But if you are expecting growth anything like the Cornish X's, you'll probably be disappointed. This is not to discourage you, I'm all for alternate meat birds, but just to let you know more or less what to expect.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
1. Better taste.
2. Better texture.
3. More sustainable.
4. More humane.
5. To avoid supporting the commercial factory farm broiler industry.
6. To avoid getting chicks from the factory farm broiler hatchery system.
7. Healthier birds.
8. Some of us actually like chickens and don't mind having them around.

 

[Farmer_Dan]

Quote:
Can you give more info on the propogating? What's a 'homestead' sized flock look like for having a regular source of cornish cross chicks? Say 200 year?

When saying propogating, I guess one could try to produce their own cornish x's. Just get the right type of birds/roos and let them go at it I suppose. What I was getting at was that with another breed, you wouldn't have to worry about making the right cross and be able to use offspring to continue to produce the same types of birds.

I guess to find out how many chickens you'd need for say 200 years, you'd pretty much want to be able to cover your chicken needs at what maybe 2 chickens a week, that's about 100 chickens per year. I'd think you'd need to have to plan for 2 hatchings a year. ***I'm guessing a bit here*** Seems like you'd need to have maybe 30 to 40 hens and about 5 or so roosters and hope that you get a couple broodies a couple times a year to put eggs under, maybe get 15-20 eggs under each.

That's all just a guess based on very little experience. If anyone has real information about how big a flock you'd need to have how much meat / year etc, I'd love to read it.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Can you give more info on the propogating? What's a 'homestead' sized flock look like for having a regular source of cornish cross chicks? Say 200 year?

When saying propogating, I guess one could try to produce their own cornish x's. Just get the right type of birds/roos and let them go at it I suppose. What I was getting at was that with another breed, you wouldn't have to worry about making the right cross and be able to use offspring to continue to produce the same types of birds.

I guess to find out how many chickens you'd need for say 200 years, you'd pretty much want to be able to cover your chicken needs at what maybe 2 chickens a week, that's about 100 chickens per year. I'd think you'd need to have to plan for 2 hatchings a year. ***I'm guessing a bit here*** Seems like you'd need to have maybe 30 to 40 hens and about 5 or so roosters and hope that you get a couple broodies a couple times a year to put eggs under, maybe get 15-20 eggs under each.

That's all just a guess based on very little experience. If anyone has real information about how big a flock you'd need to have how much meat / year etc, I'd love to read it.

I think she meant 200 chickens a year, not how many chickens you'd need for 200 years. I personally doubt I'll live 200 years.

You can't really breed the broilers yourself at home. You can cross breed certain breeds and get a reasonably good meat bird, but they won't be Cornish X's. There's a lot of info in a lot of threads on this very subject.