What are your favorite meat birds??

[Stephanie8806]

Hey there! I wondering what people’s favorite meat birds out there are! We raise chickens for ourselves, and the feed cost ratios don’t really matter to us. We also have sufficient space, so raising a longer maturing breed is also not an issue.

Currently, our family raises dual purpose breeds, primarily having fun trying out mixed flocks of as many different breeds as we can get our hands on! Our main priority is eggs, and we have the added butchering benefit to phase out older (1-1.5 yr old) chickens so that we constantly have new laying stock rotating in. That being said, we are thinking that next year we may build a separate pen to specifically house meat birds. If they lay, great. If they don’t that’s fine too, as we will have a separate flock to meet those goals.

What breeds are your favorite for meat? Do you prefer the quality from one breed over another?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Well, mosaics are kinda neat for their dark skin. I have one that if he doesn't go to my neighbor, I'll be a bit excited to use

Naked Necks don't have as Dense feathering so they're easier for us since we hand pluck.

 

[Molpet]

Depends if you like dark or white meat.
The colored broilers have more dark than white meat.
The various CX are more white than dark meat.
All above are hybrids and don't breed true. ... and the CX usually don't survive long enough. I kept a CX pullet and bred her to a random mix heritage roo. Most of my flock are several generations out of her offspring.
Standard Cornish are a slowwww growing large breasted option. But it's hard to find good ones
Freedom ranger Hatchery have some New Hampshire bred for meat.

 

[Isadora]

I would say as far as meat yield, you can't beat Cornish cross. But I am not a fan of them as a breed in general. Due to their rapid weight gain, they're prone to heart attacks, leg issues, heat stroke, etc. But with an 8-week growing time, they beat out our freedom rangers who we had to grow out for 12 weeks. I guess it depends what your priorities are. Another plus for the Cornish across is that they have less feathers and they look like the traditional chicken you would buy in the store, not darker like the freedom rangers.
We have butchered several mixed breed heritage birds, cockerels, that our neighbors didn't want. All of them were small enough that I feel it wasn't worth the effort, now that we've seen what an actual meat breed produces.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My favorite meat bird is the one I hatched, raised, butchered, aged, and prepared for table.

They could be better, thus, I have a culling project. Started with hatchery quality birds - whatever I could get from the farm store at the start of the Pandemic last year. Selectively butchering my way towards an improved mutt, eventually to be christened a "clay ranger".

 

[pepe1]

I have Dixie Rainbows from Hoover hatchery, they are a Hybrid but the hens lay a good amount of eggs and the roosters dress out between 4 to 6 pounds at 16 weeks, they are a nice calm bird and grow quickly

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have "Rainbows" from Hoover as well, though they weren't called Dixies last year, which I'm using in my project. A bit larger than a Comet, smaller lighter-shelled (color) eggs, good frequency, not great. Tolerable free-rangers. All Pullets, by way of TSC. Contra claims that every bird was unique, mine looked like barnyard mutts with a lot of NHR in the background and maybe some buff Orp. Or Buff Orp with a bunch of NHR mixed in. All of mine are still with me, and will be some of the last to be culled in my project.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I have "Rainbows" from Hoover as well, though they weren't called Dixies last year, which I'm using in my project. A bit larger than a Comet, smaller lighter-shelled (color) eggs, good frequency, not great. Tolerable free-rangers. All Pullets, by way of TSC. Contra claims that every bird was unique, mine looked like barnyard mutts with a lot of NHR in the background and maybe some buff Orp. Or Buff Orp with a bunch of NHR mixed in. All of mine are still with me, and will be some of the last to be culled in my project.

Did they get to a respectable size for females? Looking into getting some straight run next spring (dinner for males and extra pullets for females).

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Did they get to a respectable size for females? Looking into getting some straight run next spring (dinner for males and extra pullets for females).

No. At least, not in my view. They peaked early-ish. I want to say most were laying around 22 weeks, and at about 5#. They've put on some weight since, but it wasn't quick.

I'll go grab one and weigh it. Be back to edit this comment.

/edit grabbed a couple. My memory was in error. Current weights range from 4.72# to just over 5.1# hens. So they must have peaked around 4.5#, not 5#, and drifted upwards since.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Comment above edited. Flaggin so @JacinLarkwell and @Molpet are alerted to the change. This is why we measure and write things down - our memory can deceive.