What are the best breeds of chickens to raise for there meat?

[Keepee]

Quote:
Oooo I am glad you posted! I'm looking in to getting my first ever meaties and I was thinking of getting the Black Broilers from Ideal. Glad to hear you are liking the broilers!

 

[larry529]

Has anyone tried delware, dorking, and white or plymouth rocks to eat as far as taste at the age of 20-30 weeks old?

 

[Lambingfamily]

We raised 50 freedom rangers this past summer and were very pleased. The sizes were nice and the meat very tasty. You can read about our broiler adventure on our blog on the broiler adventure page. www.quadlhfarmandhomeschool.blogspot.com. We plan on doing another 50 in the coming months. It is a very rewarding feeling to open your freezer and see it stocked with meat that you raised and processed yourself.

 

[Indigosands]

Just yesterday I was all set to order freedom rangers in the fall. However, my experience tonight has me rethinking that completely. Last weekend we helped some friends butcher their cornish x , 12 week olds. We brought our cull hen along, who was a 9 month old wyandotte. For our help, they gave us a hen. Our hen was significantly smaller, certainly. The cornish dwarfed our dressed out hen. There were things that I immediately noticed about the birds with this being my first time butchering. The meat on the cornish was very firm, almost too firm and the skin lacked fat under it. The meat on our DP bird was darker and she had much more fat. When cooked, I did a blind taste test for my family. I cooked them the exact same way, same stuffings and spices side by side in the roaster. On the plate, the cornish x had a denser stringier meat that was whiter/pinker. The DP hen had a ton of juices that stayed in the meat and it was yellower and tender and thinner. The texture was better by far. But the taste is what blew us all away. My husband was stunned, he said it tastes almost like turkey it's so flavorful! The vote was unanimous, we all preferred the DP bird for taste and texture. And this was for a 9 month old hen! At 34 years old and having only ever eaten a store bought chicken I fully expected to prefer the cornish x. This has me thinking that I would rather buy a flock of rocks or buckeyes to grow out and refresh for meat birds instead!

 

[larry529]

You know, I was sold on cornish and fast breed meat chickens too, after all I am just eating it. Then I did a lot of research, I considered raising these with my young kids, and I tried to get a big picture. I like the 2 pounds of feed to 5 pounds cornish, low costs, fast food, etc... but these birds have issues, organ issues if things are not done ideal, leg problems for the same reasons, they are made in a lab basically. And I came up with the conclusion, yes I can grow it for 99 cents a pound, or I can invest in a DP bird, it will take 4 times as long, a lot more food, and if I am lucky maybe get out at 4-5 dollars a pound.. I thought ugh... but than said, if I go somewhere and pay 8.00 for a chicken, veggie and tatters. Why can I not produce my own food, know what its fed, and do it in a humane way and also maybe have some eggs, or chicks and help out someone else. Upon research, buckeyes were ranked as having good meat, but a dorking was ranked at excellent and #1 in many food blind tests, very tender, and flavorful. So I am getting a bunch of dorkings, and I will get a handful of buckeyes to keep both breeds going. The buckeyes I am gonna struggle with at 1st as the meat is very dark looking and many get turned off of that I read, but I am willing to give it a whirl... After all I live in Ohio LOL..

 

[Lambingfamily]

Interesting! I for one do not like the cornish, mainly because of the $$$ of food they eat and all the medical issues they have. I really have nothing to compare the Freedom Rangers with since we have only processed one flock. We did it at 11+ weeks and they definitely had were good in size and very fatty. We still have about six of the hens that we didn't process and they are very healthy and laying. All our birds free range on our property so with 36, we go thru about a bag a feed every two weeks or so. We do plan on ordering another batch of rangers soon. The texture of the meat took a little getting used to from the store bought, however, we have not purchased chicken in 6 months ))) Good luck and keep us posted on how things turn out.

 

[Just Fluff]

I'm reading up on the Cornish X vs Freedom Rangers, and one question that I have is, where are you buying your chicks? I'm looking online at the different blogs and articles and find that they all vary. But then, it seems like they are being raised differently, so of course they are getting different results. I wonder if some of the differences may be in where the original birds were purchased. I would like to know where the chicks are coming from, if possible, how the birds were raised (free range only, mixed feeds, high protein/low protein, etc.). I am gearing up to purchase about 30 or so meat birds to pasture raise this spring/summer, so need to start looking and ordering now.

Thanks!

 

[missnu01]

We are going to get some Jumbo Cornish X rocks from Murray McMurray, but we also eat any hen that is too old to lay, and extra roosters...and if I had a chicken that I didn't like, or that was mean, we would eat them too. We are also going to get a few Dark cornish going in the flock. I like a larger chicken so most of the breeds we have now and will have in the future are Dual purpose...I like that if the eggs aren't working then I can eat the chicken. It would be a waste to butcher a small chicken.

 

[Lambingfamily]

Just Fluff, we ordered our 50 Freedom Rangers from http://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/purchase and were pleased. They arrived very quickly and healthy in the heat of the summer, July. We kept them in a broiler pen for the first 3 weeks feeding them chick starter and then we began to let them just outside their pen in a grassy area, still separated from our layers. We switched over from chick starter to a growth feed about the 6th week as a supplement. We also let them start to free range with our layers on our acreage. Our plan was to let process them about week 11. Because we processed them ourselves, we would only do about 10 at a time, which meant some were as old as 13 or so weeks by the time they were processed. Their waits varied from 4.5 -6.5 lbs. We never had any medical issues with any of them. Matter of fact, we still have about 6 of the hens who have joined our layers You can view our process on our blog www.quadlhfarmandhomeschool.blogspot.com. There is one thing we will do differently next time. Once they are old enough to start free ranging, they will only have access to the supplemental food in the evenings. I hope this information was helpful. Good luck on your adventure!

 

[Arielle]

Nice to hear feed back on experiences from lat summer/fall!


I have processed DP from my McMurray stock, and the carcasses, while tastey lacked the amount of mucling I was expecting from a DP. Here is what I learned:

Get real DP stock from real breeders of good stock, not usually from Meyers, or McMUrray, etc. My McMurray hens are good layers and were a good introduction to the different breeds of chickens.

Meat birds-- Many choices depending on management set up. Real cornish can be gotten from people like FOwlman, or perhaps he can connect serious buyers to other breeders.

Freedom rangers were created to grow fast, about 4 weeks longer than cornishX , but more of the DP free ranging ability.

Cornish X-- still good for those that have a limited space, and can clean up after these birds who eat a lot and poo even more, If you only have commercial grain to feed, and want meat without use of antibiotics.

Management is key to producing healthy birds with few losses. Including fermented feeds to improve the gut activity, especially for confined birds. My free ranging birds have poo much different than my confined birds. IMO it is the probiotics picked up by the freeranging behavior.