White skinned broilers? Dumb question need answer!

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I am sure this has something to do with diet, but I did not see a clear answer in other posts. I am planning on raising 25 cornish crosses but I am weird about yellow skin. What can I do to ensure in their diet that they will have white skin, is it a matter of corn in feed or genetics?

 

[houndit]

It is genetics. Orpingtons are White skinned. Cornish Rocks are yellow skinned.

 

[Imp]

It may be just an urban legend, but here in Washington it is believed that Washington grown chicken is cleaner & healthier for you and has white skin and whiter breast meat because they are not fed corn. It is common to slam the yellow chicken from other areas of the country, as dirty and of lower quality. So I get you.

Imp-It could be just good marketing.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

Okay if it genetics why are the Foster Farm whole chickens I buy now white skinned and the Tyson yellow? I would think they are both Cornish x's right?
I want to raise a fast growing bird. The Cuckoo Marans that we slaughtered (extra roo's) had beautiful white skin, just took forever to raise cost efficiently.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

LOL, I was raised in Washington state!

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Nothing but Draper Valley Farms for me

Imp- Very Good Marketing

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
The birds sold by various large producers such as Foster Farms, Tyson, Pilgrim's Pride, Purdue, etc., are not exactly the same Cornish Crosses you'd get from a hatchery to raise at home. They are similar, but they all have specific lines they buy. The differences are minor. One is skin color. It is genetic, just like it is in people. Some have genes for yellow skin. Some have genes for white. (Silkies have genes for black/blue skin.)

Quote:
Good marketing? Dishonest, or at best, misleading marketing anyway, I wouldn't call it good.

Yellow skin is not "dirty" or contaminated, or lower qualiy. It just has more beta-carotene (you know, that stuff that makes carrots and squash orange, and is present in green leafy vegetables, and helps prevent cancer) in it, rather than converting it to colorless vitamin A. Vitamin A is good too, but when you eat food with beta carotene, it converts it to vitamin A. A bird with white skin may or may not have any vitamin A. How would you know? You can't see it.

I looked up the Draper Valley Farms website. They raise chickens in Washington and Oregon. They say their chickens are fed a vegetarian diet of CORN and SOY. Chickens are not natural vegetarians, so that's an unnatural diet right there, and those are white skinned birds, but they eat corn. So chickens raised in Washington eat corn, just like chickens raised other places.

I lived in Washington about 15 years. I don't recall ever hearing that about WA chickens. Maybe it's a brand new myth? Anyway, it's not true.

Here's a chart that shows the skin color of different breeds. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html The skins will be those colors whether they eat corn or not. Though a yellow skinned bird might be pale, if it's diet is really poor, and it doesn't get the proper nutrients to produce the yellow pigment. Chickens that never get a bite of anything truly natural, like green things outdoors, tend to have very white meat. No beta carotene. Sort of like the caged battery hen layers that lay those watery, tasteless eggs with the anemic-looking pale yellow yolks. (they should be a deep orange)

 

[Overeasyplz]

Dancingbear, very informative answer! Thanks for the insight, I feel the same way.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

Don't get me wrong I do not think they are better or worse, I just do not like yellow skin. I do not believe it is dirty or less of a chicken because it has yellow skin I just wanted to know what caused it whether or not it was genetics, feed, etc.
I had never heard the advertising for white skinned chickens IMP was talking about, I thought it was funny about being from Washington state, it may be that's all I saw growing up and that's why I prefer it.

 

[halo]

Quote:
The birds sold by various large producers such as Foster Farms, Tyson, Pilgrim's Pride, Purdue, etc., are not exactly the same Cornish Crosses you'd get from a hatchery to raise at home. They are similar, but they all have specific lines they buy. The differences are minor. One is skin color. It is genetic, just like it is in people. Some have genes for yellow skin. Some have genes for white. (Silkies have genes for black/blue skin.)

Quote:
Good marketing? Dishonest, or at best, misleading marketing anyway, I wouldn't call it good.

Yellow skin is not "dirty" or contaminated, or lower qualiy. It just has more beta-carotene (you know, that stuff that makes carrots and squash orange, and is present in green leafy vegetables, and helps prevent cancer) in it, rather than converting it to colorless vitamin A. Vitamin A is good too, but when you eat food with beta carotene, it converts it to vitamin A. A bird with white skin may or may not have any vitamin A. How would you know? You can't see it.

I looked up the Draper Valley Farms website. They raise chickens in Washington and Oregon. They say their chickens are fed a vegetarian diet of CORN and SOY. Chickens are not natural vegetarians, so that's an unnatural diet right there, and those are white skinned birds, but they eat corn. So chickens raised in Washington eat corn, just like chickens raised other places.

I lived in Washington about 15 years. I don't recall ever hearing that about WA chickens. Maybe it's a brand new myth? Anyway, it's not true.

Here's a chart that shows the skin color of different breeds. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html The skins will be those colors whether they eat corn or not. Though a yellow skinned bird might be pale, if it's diet is really poor, and it doesn't get the proper nutrients to produce the yellow pigment. Chickens that never get a bite of anything truly natural, like green things outdoors, tend to have very white meat. No beta carotene. Sort of like the caged battery hen layers that lay those watery, tasteless eggs with the anemic-looking pale yellow yolks. (they should be a deep orange)