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

[Bossroo]

My wife and I visited our son, daughter in law and our 2 grandchildren ( 4 1/2, and 1 1/2) for the past week at their new home. Last Saturday we took them to a very fancy organic restaurant for dinner as our daughter in law is into the organic foods thing. We ordered their very fancy organic grass fed beef steak, some vegies, and baked/ mashed potatoe. Yeee gads, was that peace of shoeleather meat tough ! As for taste, what taste? Any flavor came from the gravy! Even the grandkids couldn't even chew it, just spit it out and didn't take a second bite. All of us left at least 1/2 of the meat uneaten. I paid $29.95 a plate ( Rip off). Oh yeah, the tip I left in my pocket. We whent to Mickey D's afterwards. (We buy a beef from our neighbor that has a 5,000 acre ranch + a feed lot to finish the beef in his own feedlot on alfalfa hay and corn for 120+ days. I butcher it myself, hang it in a cooler for about 18-22 days, cut, wrap and freeze. I can cut the steaks with a butterknife, it is so tender. That is what we are used to.) Last Sunday, we all whent out to dinner at another very well known restaurant with a reputation of serving high quality organic meals. My wife, daughter in law, and grandkids ordered chicken with rice and green beens ($18.95/plate), my son and I ordered duck, with a few slices of carrots + 3 small pieces of brockoli and a small portion of mashed potatoes with a little gravy ($24.95 per plate). The chicken and duck were quite chewey, with little flavor, plus the very small portion of duck ( 3 cross section slices of breast meat) was very greecy. During the meal, our 4 1/2year old grandson commented ... " Papa, I like your chicken better". Best compliment ever ! ( I raise CornishX in a horse stall due to numerous predators.)

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
I looked at the chart in the link provided, maybe I missed something.

For the Cornish Cross the chart says 46 to 70# of feed per 10 birds.

For the layer birds it says 140 to 159# per 10 birds.

Am I missing something? To me that is 200% to 400% MORE feed than a cornish cross.

Jim

 

[homesteadapps]

Quote:
#3 Taste -- A bird raised more than 8 weeks will develop the rich flavor that chicken is supposed to have which our family expects.
.

I can't get over how people keep talking about taste....

What you people call "TASTE".. I call age, tough, and more gamey like in taste...

if you want old, tough, dark meat... eat guinea, or old hen...

If you want tender to cut with a knife, succulent, juicy in your mouth.. eat young birds... and to me young birds, means less time on this earth... CORNISH X

I compare it to grassfed beef... Yup it's leaner, but it doesn't have the marbling that cornfed does... Marbling means taste... lean means tough, stringy, and LEAN>>>

Trust me I've ate every kind, including the darn ole Holstein lean beef.

as my mom always told me.> PERIOD< END OF STATEMENT.

A 16 to 26 week chicken is not dry, chewy ,or gamey. It may be the chicken breed being used but it should be tender and juicy. Now if all you feed is straight commercial feeds you may get different results. We through plenty of corn at them the last week or two and that does add to the taste. Let people try both, just because you and I like something different doesn't mean either one has better taste --just different.

 

[silkielover5]

Quote:
hands down, the best chicken to raise for it's meat is the cornish cross... keep your hens for eggs, and buy new Cx chicks every year... and be dollars ahead...

In most cases, the egg sales and consumption are the only things keeping flocks running profitably. When you start taking eggs away from that... and then try to raise your own birds to eat... you get two things..

one, less eggs to sell.
two, birds that take more than 2x longer to get ready for butchering.

I had a cornish turkin cross he was HUGE we sold him, my mom wanted to eat him i wouldnt let her

 

[homesteadapps]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:
I looked at the chart in the link provided, maybe I missed something.

For the Cornish Cross the chart says 46 to 70# of feed per 10 birds.

For the layer birds it says 140 to 159# per 10 birds.

Am I missing something? To me that is 200% to 400% MORE feed than a cornish cross.

Jim

For Layers(DP) week 0-6 Total Feed = 2.5 lbs per bird
For Layers(DP) week 7-20 Total Feed = 12.5 lbs per bird
TOTAL FEED 15.0 lbs per bird

Our numbers are much lower -- about 1/2 of these because of free ranging.

Now I wish I could get the results they do for their meat bird in that chart.

Experience and recommended feeding charts from feed companies and hatcheries suggest
that each Cornish X will eat about 16 lbs of feed total

When I have raised Cornish I budget to feed 10 lbs for weeks 1-6 and 10 lbs for week 7 & 8. We have offered light and feed 23 hours per day. Of 100 we will usually lose just 2 to 3 birds. at 8 weeks these birds are usually over 8 lbs per chicken


Meyer Hatchery suggest at 8 weeks 14 lbs will be eaten using a 12 on 12 off lighting schedule.
http://www.meyerhatchery.com/produc...ickens&grd_prodone_filter=PRODUCT_ID = 'WBRS'


Back to the DP -- we allow ours to free will, free range the entire property which realy does cut down on feed. For the chick raised by the hens they start free ranging much earlier than our brooded birds do.


I think what I wrote above make senses, if it doesn't let me know.​

 

[kfacres]

All arguments aside... I'm pasteing this here, as part of another post that I made earlier today. I felt it was along the same lines in terms of topic...

Now for thoughts on your meat bird project... I have the strong belief that a true, breeder quality/ seedstock cornish rooster can be a tremendous terminal sire on the average ole barnyard flock of hens, even as much on a flock of heritage or higher quality females. I think that they possess outstanding muscle and meat animal shaped carcasses. I do not believe that the hatchery quality Cornish is as good of an option-- as far too many times what I have seen coming from these lines isn't much better than the other hatchery quality chickens-- and if compared to a high quality, breeder bird of most other breeds... the hatchery quality cornish birds aren't as quality either. To me, when you think of carcass and meat bird potential... I rank the following in order: CX, BQ cornish, BQ other DP breeds, hatchery quality cornish, hatchery quality other DP breeds. The pure cornish are just too slow maturing to compare to the CX birds, IMO.

If I were into a project such as this... I would try out some starved CX pullets, some BQ DP birds, and some BQ cornish birds..> I would be gearing towards trying to create a consistant base of F1 CX(f)/ DP(m) (For males) birds and a F1 strain of Cornish(m)/ (cornish(m)/ DP(f)) (for females)birds...and try mating these two lines back with each other to create my end product.

Like this to clarrify: for those who won't be able to figure it out..

Strain 1- Cornish/ Rock X females mated to Dual Purpose males. Keep the males from this cross to use later.

Strain 2- Cornish Males mated to Dual P females... Keep the females..>Mate those daughters back to a Cornish... Keep the females..

Mate the males of Strain 1 to the final product females of strain 2.

Here's why I chose what I did... The CX males, will not be able to successfully cover very many females, even though the females will be terrible egg layers... you only need a few of their sons. We want to utilize their genetics, but minimize their exposure- thus keeping them on the sire side. Put those CX females under active, fertile DP roos- breed really doesn't matter.

DP hens for their laying ability in Strain 2- cover them with TRUE Cornish males as a terminal type sire... Keep female offspring-- come back on those females again with a Cornish roo-- can be their father, doesn't matter. Try keeping the egg laying abiltiy of the DP females through the generations. These should be far superior to the CX decendants, although not as good of a layer as a leghorn.

The end product would be 3/8 Dual Purpose, 3/8 True Cornish, and 1/4 Cornish/ Rock X. That's plenty enough hybrid vigor effect to generate practical, productive meat birds.

maybe I shouldn't have let out my secret???

Anyone want to join me in this experiement? I have the TRUE cornish, hardest part??? I also have the Cornish x DP birds already as a female base>

 

[galanie]

I think the best answer is this: If you are looking for the taste and so forth that you have in supermarket birds, Cornish Cross.

If you are looking for a dual purpose bird, one that tastes like your grandmother's country raised chicken, kfacres has the perfect plan.

I have to admit, I started out wanting something like the supermarket birds. Then I tasted a pasture raised cornish X and Oh. My. God. The most heavenly thing I ever put in my mouth. But I've had dual purpose birds too, and they are different tasting, and not as tender, but Gosh, Tasty Tasty!

So the answer may depend on what you expect and what you want to eat.

I love how we can discuss this stuff and get so many different points of view. This truly is the best place ever. After all, if we all thought the same, why would we even need any discussion?

 

[Illia]

If you want to be self sufficient, raise and breed your own chicken and not buy every year, if you want to be able to cut the feed bill by letting your chickens go out on pasture, if you want your chickens to be smart, hardy, and actually pretty, and if you also want eggs and meat out of the same bird, and if you don't want to have to worry about health issues and death from over-eating. . . Go with Dual Purpose breeds.

Preferably not hatchery stock though, and as much as people don't like hearing that - Hatchery Stock in most cases IS indeed smaller, skinnier, and rarely goes broody.


But if you just want meat on your plate in a quick time, go with Cornish X.

 

[kfacres]

x2
Quote:

 

[kfacres]

I think the best answer is this: If you are looking for the taste and so forth that you have in supermarket birds, Cornish Cross.

If you are looking for a dual purpose bird, one that tastes like your grandmother's country raised chicken, kfacres has the perfect plan.



Thank you,, I love thinking of genetics, and have thought about this for a long long time... My problem is lack of space, and money to feed birds... That and I don't want to free range for fear of potential predators. What I have, I have spent lots of money to get where I'm at.

Even though, I think this could be a magical cross--- I'm still a believer in the CX birds, and have been for nearly 20 years.

Perhaps, someday I'll master another cross of the same, time will only tell... but until then- it's trial and error, and Cx birds on my table.

If I could only find me a partner, that was one step ahead of the game...