Best meat birds, NOT Cornish cross

[Stephanie8806]

Considering adding some meat birds to our flock, and am wondering about some of the best breeds for meat, apart from the CornishX?

 

[tripletfeb]

The brahma chicken was the premier meat bird in the country at the turn of the century. They are a very large chicken, second only to jersey giants. Do not know anything about butchering but I have researched the brahma breed a lot when I got a few 5 weeks ago.

 

[Stephanie8806]

The brahma chicken was the premier meat bird in the country at the turn of the century. They are a very large chicken, second only to jersey giants. Do not know anything about butchering but I have researched the brahma breed a lot when I got a few 5 weeks ago.

Interesting! Do you know how long it takes them to get to full size? I’m wondering if the amount of extra food it would take to get them to grow would be worth the extra 2 pounds of meat or so!

 

[tripletfeb]

I do know the pullets usually don't lay until late, 7 months or so. You can butcher the broilers at 8 weeks ish but can also keep them for months, they will stay tender. If you truly want a good butcher chicken to less feed ratio, you can't beat the cornish cross

 

[Parront]

Some on the meat section have raised these, and they are what I intend to get next spring.
https://www.moyerschicks.com/catalo...imperial-broiler-day-old-chicks-straight-run/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Considering adding some meat birds to our flock, and am wondering about some of the best breeds for meat, apart from the CornishX?

Different people have different preferences as to what makes a good meat bird. What age will you butcher, that affects how you can cook them. Do you prefer white meat or dark? How do you feed them, buy everything they eat, raise most of it, or let them forage? Do you want to hatch your own? How important is size to you? Are you raising a few for your personal consumption or going into marketing them? Just so many different preferences you can't come up with a "best" for everyone. If you look through this section of the forum you'll see that we do all kinds of different things.

Another problem is that all birds of a specific breed are not alike, whether you get them from a hatchery or breeder. Strain has a lot to do with it. By strain, each person that selects which birds gets to breed can have different goals or different abilities. If one person is selecting for egg laying, another is selecting for meat at age 16 weeks, and another is selecting for proper comb type and eye color you can get a totally different birds with each strain.

Back in the 1950's when the Cornish X took over the commercial meat market the standard meat birds in the US were Delaware, New Hampshire, and some strains of White Rock. I don't know what breeds were used in other countries. When the Cornish X took over, hatcheries stopped breeding those breeds for meat qualities. They have not been bred with meat qualities in mind for 70 years, they have pretty much lost the qualities that made them good meat birds.

My suggestion is to read through some of these threads to get an idea of what people are doing and then get some of different breeds or crosses. Raise them together and see which best meets your goals and preferences. Then go back to that source for your chicks to eliminate the differences in strain. That way you are more likely to get what's best for you instead of what I like best.

 

[NatJ]

Brahmas and other really large breeds tend to grow slowly. They eventually get really big, but it takes them a long time.

Plymouth Rocks (White, Barred, etc) and other dual-purpose breeds are more likely to grow quickly. So an 8 week White Rock might have more meat than an 8 week Brahma, even though a fully mature Brahma will far outweight a fully mature White Rock. (My mother likes White Rocks--hens lay well, cockerels do a lot of their growing pretty quickly.)

Standard Cornish (not the meat crosses) get large breasts, but grow slowly.

The Cornish Cross were originally a cross of Cornish (big breast) with White Rock (grows fast). That's now been taken to extremes, of course.

If you want to raise standard chickens for meat, I suggest you try getting cockerels of several breeds and raise them up to compare. Then make a decision based on what you discover.

White or Buff birds usually look nicer after plucking. Dark-colored birds tend to show dark-colored pinfeathers, or even just dots of color in the skin. Harmless, but unsightly. (If you skin your chickens, this will not matter to you.)

 

[Molpet]

A guy did a study on a few heritage hatchery breeds
https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/
Birds from a breeder would grow larger than hatchery

 

[Ruthster55]

Do you like white meat or dark meat? Do you like wings? Do you like soups and stews or would you rather have tender fried chicken?

A lot of that info can guide you into choosing the appropriate meat birds.

Those who like dark meat and wings can do very well with heritage breeds.

The Cornish Cross was bred mainly for commercial use and for people who like breast meat.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

A guy did a study on a few heritage hatchery breeds
https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/
Birds from a breeder would grow larger than hatchery

Fascinating. Wish there were more studies of this nature to help people make better-informed decisions. Thanks for posting!