What live/dressed weights are you getting from your heritage /crosses meat birds?

[Molpet]

Hello, this sounds really cool, I am planning on doing something similar, already incubated my heritage stock (have 1 week old cornish dark + light as well, and Bresse). I plan to later on get hens from cornish cross or some Label Rouge meat birds to cross.

I was also wondering how to keep the cornish cross hens from dying prematurely, I was planning to reduce commercial feed and give them more greens and lower calories food. And then once they are bigger, let them free range with only limited feed supplementation.

How do the Cornish Cross eggs look like? Are they similar to the heritage cornish? If I have a mix of heritage + cross in the same area can I tell them apart?

Would you guide me through the pictures you posted? Like what generation and at what age were those weights and so on? Which ones are the hybrids?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/raising-large-table-birds.68027/

 

[littledog]

We're beginners at processing chickens for meat, last weekend we butchered 4 out of 8 roosters - going to do the other 4 this weekend. They were Marans and Marans crosses, older than we would have preferred, 8 months instead of 4, but we were surprised at how big they were. 6-8 lbs dressed, I was surprised at how much bigger they were compared to buying a whole chicken at the store. Of course it's because they were older, but since our intention is to freeze a bunch of chicken pot pie and soup, I'm sure they will be good.

 

[Siana]

Hi, this is an exciting topic for me! I am also interested in heritage breed, because, first, I don't want to keep buying the whole young stock or eggs, and, second, I love watching hens with chicks, or raising little ones I incubated. Besides, selection and improvement are very exciting!

I only started keeping poultry in 2022, there are no success stories yet to speak of, and I have a rather limited access to quality heritage poultry here in Uzbekistan. Last year I hatched some Jersey Giants, who grew to be rather mediocre specimens, but still larger than the mutts I had before them. I also bought two JG roosters from other people. This year they are giving progeny, but I expect the JGs out of them to be very mediocre, too. And I must confess that I messed up the selection part this year, as my Jersey hens were not as productive as I expected, so I ended up incubating basically ALL eggs they gave me when I needed to incubate.

However, the interesting part is that I also bred some crosses this year, out of my Russian Kuchinsky and Amrock, and those Jersey roosters. And THESE seem to be much better than my purebred JGs. They are way larger, growing fast and maturing much faster than my other birds. I am not sure if it is normal for roos to start crowing at 9 weeks but this is what they are doing.

Sorry about the poor photo, it is just to give a bit of an idea. The black ones are those Jersey crosses (and maybe an occasional pure JG), they are about 9.5 weeks now. I think I am liking them. I was going to get rid of JGs gradually, but I will see how these turn out; maybe I will want to keep at least a JG rooster and some dual purpose hens (not JGs) for such crosses.

Can't say anything about the weight yet but I will let you know later. For now, these are growing much faster (and different) than my last years' JGs (their ancestors). But I also feed them better, as I learned a bit.

 

[Molpet]

Hi, this is an exciting topic for me! I am also interested in heritage breed, because, first, I don't want to keep buying the whole young stock or eggs, and, second, I love watching hens with chicks, or raising little ones I incubated. Besides, selection and improvement are very exciting!

I only started keeping poultry in 2022, there are no success stories yet to speak of, and I have a rather limited access to quality heritage poultry here in Uzbekistan. Last year I hatched some Jersey Giants, who grew to be rather mediocre specimens, but still larger than the mutts I had before them. I also bought two JG roosters from other people. This year they are giving progeny, but I expect the JGs out of them to be very mediocre, too. And I must confess that I messed up the selection part this year, as my Jersey hens were not as productive as I expected, so I ended up incubating basically ALL eggs they gave me when I needed to incubate.

However, the interesting part is that I also bred some crosses this year, out of my Russian Kuchinsky and Amrock, and those Jersey roosters. And THESE seem to be much better than my purebred JGs. They are way larger, growing fast and maturing much faster than my other birds. I am not sure if it is normal for roos to start crowing at 9 weeks but this is what they are doing.

Sorry about the poor photo, it is just to give a bit of an idea. The black ones are those Jersey crosses (and maybe an occasional pure JG), they are about 9.5 weeks now. I think I am liking them. I was going to get rid of JGs gradually, but I will see how these turn out; maybe I will want to keep at least a JG rooster and some dual purpose hens (not JGs) for such crosses.

Can't say anything about the weight yet but I will let you know later. For now, these are growing much faster (and different) than my last years' JGs (their ancestors). But I also feed them better, as I learned a bit.


View attachment 3829123

Welcome to BYC.
Most of us hatch as many as we can. Keeping the best and eating the rest. I usually harvest cockerels around 16 wks. I keep a couple of the ones that are biggest at that age. Later I will decide who stays.
I wait longer for pullets. After they have been laying for awhile I pick for egg quality and size.

 

[Siana]

Welcome to BYC.
Most of us hatch as many as we can. Keeping the best and eating the rest. I usually harvest cockerels around 16 wks. I keep a couple of the ones that are biggest at that age. Later I will decide who stays.
I wait longer for pullets. After they have been laying for awhile I pick for egg quality and size.

I love this approach and this is what I would love to do, too. I will see how these hybrids grow; hope I can harvest them at about that age. Would save so much time and effort!