Wanted: Meaties w/more dark meat and a bit slower growing.....

[ElioraImmanuel]

I raised my 1st meaties this year. They did "free range" about 25 feet from their coop.

I did the standard CX and they are soooo tastey. However, they are lazy, lay around in their own poop etc. Thankfully, I was able to get them up so they never had blisters, had very large feet and legs, but their breast feathers were sparse and pathetic.

Is there a meaty that is a bit slower growing, a bit more active, with more dark meat (we fight over the dark in this house!)? Where would I get such a chick? Are they more expensive than CX?

 

[BirdBrain]

My Mom raised black broilers from Ideal this year. They grew slower than CX and they were more active. They had longer breasts and bigger legs and thighs. You might consider some of them. Whatever you try, you might want to get a variety so you can do a side by side trial.

 

[Ariel301]

They are not going to grow as fast as the Cornish Cross, but what about Plymouth Rock? They're a dual purpose bird, and if you get some good ones, they can get pretty hefty. A friend of mine raises them, and her roosters are the size of her turkey hens! You'd be looking at 20 weeks or so to get them to a good size, and that is the downside, but you'll get more dark meat (the last broiler hens I purchased from the butcher were ALL white meat, even the legs?!) and a richer flavor with them. Plus, if you're ok with having a ton of roosters around for that long, you can order the rooster chicks for pretty cheap from most hatcheries. Buff Orphington would probably be good too, my Buff hens are pretty chunky. If you want a faster growing bird, you could try Freedom Rangers, or Ideal Hatchery's Red or Black broiler, I have not tried any of those, but they are all meant as meat birds that are more active and slower growing (but not too slow).

 

[maggiemooscluckers]

I am in the process of growing slow broilers from Welp Hatchery. They are 5 weeks old and growing great but not as fast as the Cornish x. I plan on butchering at 8-10 weeks. I will be posting at that time as to the meat quality and size.

 

[shareverwonder]

Quote:
We had 4 Buff Orphingtons, butchered 2. They sure look bigger than they really are. Once the feathers were gone, we were left with 2 scrawny birds. Soup pot for them.

We had 36 cornix x this summer , did our own processing. Stinky, messy and not too nice to look at but they taste yummy!! They sure do have some ugly feet and legs.

 

[Jared77]

How old were your Orps when you processed them?

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
They will not be that big at 8 weeks. Mine are 11 weeks and they are more taller then fatter. I will probably let them grow a little longer, though.

 

[shareverwonder]

Quote:
Our Orphs were 6 months old. I guess that was kind of young, but they were a little wild and unfriendly, so we wanted to get rid of them. Should we have waited unitl they were older? They sure looked big.

 

[HPK farms]

We picked up some broilers from S & G Poultry that are their own mixed-breed & are supposed to have more dark meat and slower growth when compared with the Cornish crosses (we tried those last year and I wasn't a fan.) They are in a chicken tractor I move every day and are very friendly and definitely not lazy! Every day when I move the tractor they run around looking for bugs and are very friendly (which is good for our 2 year old). The people at S & G are also very easy to do business with and answered our hundreds of questions - this is only our second year trying our hand at chicken farming and we are finding it to be a slow learning curve

. My husband should be doing the butchering here in a few weeks so we will keep you updated on the size & taste!

 

[Nostalchic]

There was an article in Backyard Poultry about Freedom Rangers, might be a good alternative for you. Do a search for them on this site, I've seen them discussed in the forum a number of times.