we just butchered our first 2 birds, man where they tough!

[Buster52]

Quote:
Right, which is what makes me leery of the claim store bought chickens live normal, happy lives. If they got any exercise at all it stands to reason there would be some substance to the meat.

 

[Buster52]

I think Bossroo has a point about heritage breeds not being what they once were. It makes good sense to say they aren't raised as duel purpose anymore, so their meat value is declining.

I'll never raise the Cornish X, but we are seriously considering standard Cornish as our long term meat birds. They may not get as freaky huge as the X, but everything I've read indicates they have good feed-to-meat ratios and get a very decent size.

Our (still unfolding) plan is to have a laying flock of Cornish with a roo separate from our regular layers. This second Cornish flock will be mostly for the purpose of raising their chicks for our meat.

 

[walkswithdog]

An old-fashioned dual purpose bird NEVER looked like a full term cornishX. Never could have and didn't.

When my Great Grandmother butchered one of her chickens - they didn't look a bit like those fat white beasts at the store.

While her barred rocks were bigger then my hatchery partridge and barred rocks are, it wasn't by a lot. If people wanted giant fowl from layers they caponized.

JM colored rangers are what I have used as the basis for our meat pen. I'll be dinking around adding some Delaware and some Marans to the mix because I will have some spares. Though not as huge, not nearly as fast as the cornishX they put weight on well even when ranging making them useful starter stock.

I'm also selecting the Delawares HARD for size both early and in total developement to six months. They're very fast growing. That shows promise.

Dual purpose never meant anything approaching what you see in a market. Meat breeds had a reason they were developed.

When I wanted something I could reliably butcher at 12-16 weeks colored rangers fit the bill and did alright running even a bit longer and foraging. I was pleased with that.

And they can be brought up to breed and lay. So I decided to work them into the project rather than out. Makes for a quicker project.

 

[cutlass1972]

we just butchered 2 more of our roos, this marks week 17. One was 3.25 lbs and the other was 3.75 lbs. big difference from 2 weeks ago when those 2 where only 2.5 lbs.

They are vacuum sealed and resting in the fridge!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Oh yeah! Tough old roos make the best tamales, enchildas, and tacos, ever! I do a lot of that sort of stuff with my extra roos. I cook them in the crock pot, they get nice and tender without drying out, and I have that fabulous broth for sauces and gravies. Makes a great base for the chili gravy I dip the tortillas in, for enchiladas. Or to pour over the tamales. Yum!