Which chicken breeds have more white meat?

[bigredfeather]

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Buckeyes! They have the largest amount of breast meat I have seen compared to any other DP breed.

This is a dressed ALBC Buckeye.

 

[Serina81]

Thanks BigRedFeather for the info. I hear Buckeyes taste pretty good too and they were also the only breed of chicken developed soley by a woman. Interesting history.

 

[bigredfeather]

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They are all around interesting birds as well. My Buckeyes have been the sweetest breed that i have ever kept. My two roos have never even shown any signs of flogging me or any of my kids, and I haven't seen them fight amongst themselves since they were young. I love them and plan to hatch out as many as possible this year.

 

[Serina81]

Maybe my best bet would be to just get a variety of breeds and see which one works for me.

R Buckeyes good laying birds too?

 

[bigredfeather]

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180-200 eggs/year for most strains. Some strains have been breed for more eggs.

 

[mike67909]

Freedom/colored rangers I hear are excellent. Although they are a hybrid. Read the reviews at http://www.jmhatchery.com/ i have 25 coming next week.

 

[WalkingWolf]

If the Cornish X is processed when it is ready I do not see anything inhumane about it. I keep black rangers and they are a year old, with no health problems. But if the OP is looking for breast meat and does not want the X, the OP should go with Standard Cornish(Indian Game) they have a large breast but they do not grow as fast as the X. They are very sustainable and have a great personality.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

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In all fairness your problems seem more like inadequate animal husbandry to me.
We get 380,000 broiler chickens at a time, raise them on 0.625 sq ft or floor space each get an average straight run weight of 5.5 lbs (+/-) in fourty-two days and are in trouble if we don't send 96% of what we receive to be processed.

 

[dancingbear]

Serina81, when I crossed a standard Cornish with Brahma, I got big meaty birds with very nice breasts. Not bony at all. At 4-5 months, the 4 that I butchered dressed out 2 of them over 6 lbs., and 2 of them over 7 lbs. . The breast shape was very similar to that shown in the pics of the red broilers posted recently by another member, I forget who that was, though. If you use a standard Cornish roo over other breed hens, you'll usually get a pretty good meat bird. They come out more like the old fashioned prior-to-Cornish-X's meat and DP breeds used to be.


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Why would you need a milk crate to butcher any size chicken? I've raised and butchered chickens and turkeys, and never once did I ever need a milk crate to butcher any of them.

 

[Serina81]

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In all fairness your problems seem more like inadequate animal husbandry to me.
We get 380,000 broiler chickens at a time, raise them on 0.625 sq ft or floor space each get an average straight run weight of 5.5 lbs (+/-) in fourty-two days and are in trouble if we don't send 96% of what we receive to be processed.

If you send in your minimum of 96%, that means 4% of the birds aren't making it. That's over 15,000 dead birds...and I have inadequate animal husbandry? I didn't lose ANY of my birds this year. And for a chicken to have little more than half a sq ft of floor space sounds very inhumane. As well, I've worked in a chicken factory and your birds are living in and breathing fecal matter and probably don't see the light of day until they're taken to be slaughtered. And this is good animal husbandry? Excuse me if my inadequate animal husbandry means that my chickens get to run around on a pasture and be real chickens.

Regardless, this thread isn't about the ethics of Cornish x, it's about chickens with more white meat. Besides Buckeyes, are there any heritage breeds that are known for white meat? Like I said on my first post, I raised some javas this year and while they tasted great, they were almost entirely dark meat (which did taste good although I don't prefer it).