What are the different meat birds?

[Chicks & Turks]

I know you can use regular breeds like RIR, Production Reds, Leghorns, ect. but they would be raised with my layers and all end up with names and would never be butchered

so I'd rather get a meat bird. The only ones I know are Cornish X but I KNOW there are more. What are the different kinds, and what are your opinions on them, links are great? Thanks

 

[nicalandia]

Chicks & Turks :

I know you can use regular breeds like RIR, Production Reds, Leghorns, ect. but they would be raised with my layers and all end up with names and would never be butchered

so I'd rather get a meat bird. The only ones I know are Cornish X but I KNOW there are more. What are the different kinds, and what are your opinions on them, links are great? Thanks

If the following meat birds competed in a the meat type bird olimpics the cornisX would get gold medal, the colored rangers or colored broilers would get silver medal and the bronce will go to Dark cornish.......​

 

[greyfields]

There are probably 15 varieties of Cornish X you can get out there. Exactly which strain or breeder they came from is something you'll never know.

The other alternatives are "Slow Cornish" often called simply "Red Broilers" or black. Again, there are many strains of them, and you never know truly what you'll get.

The Colored Range Broilers grow quickly and perform much closer to Cornish X than the "Slow Cornish" do.

I also have Dark Cornish birds. Honestly, though, they are not broilers. They put on more meat than a typical dual purpose breed, and they ARE tasty. But, they are not in the same league as a broiler as far as growth rate, FCR or amount of meat on the carcas.

 

[vtsarahb]

I've raised cornish x rocks (from McMurray) before, and I can't imagine anything else would do as well. We only lost 2 out of 25 to leg problems; but I didn't give them any extra vitamins in their water, so it might have been avoidable. We processed them at 8 weeks, and they were 4-5 pounds dressed.... mmmmmm! great for any chicken recipe.

 

[saddina]

This is what we order:

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/product/barbecue_special.html

It does the job, we raise 75 at a time, and butcher over 2 days (sometimes one). However there's 5 of us, and we each have our steps down.

Just note meaties like these need to be raised differently or they'll have issues.