Best heritage meat chicken?

[Blain87]

I have had backyard laying hens for a couple years and I am now interested in raising meat birds! I am interested in raising a heritage breed, I have been thinking about raising white Plymouth Rock rooster and possible white laced red Cornish. Does anyone have experience raising these chickens for meat? If so do they give a decent amount of meat? I’ve read the Cornish is know for big breast meat and since it’s the chicken used to make the Cornish Cross I was wondering if the breast meat compared to the Cornish Cross in size?

Thanks for your input!

 

[rjohns39]

I have had backyard laying hens for a couple years and I am now interested in raising meat birds! I am interested in raising a heritage breed, I have been thinking about raising white Plymouth Rock rooster and possible white laced red Cornish. Does anyone have experience raising these chickens for meat? If so do they give a decent amount of meat? I’ve read the Cornish is know for big breast meat and since it’s the chicken used to make the Cornish Cross I was wondering if the breast meat compared to the Cornish Cross in size?

Thanks for your input!

When you get into heritage breeds, nothing compares to the Cornish cross that you find in the supermarket. A lot of folks have been working on building a breed that is sustainable and big breasted. I'd suggest doing a search on Toads on this site. I plan on starting a flock of them in the spring.

 

[Rye]

The key to Heritage meat birds is knowing they will never compare to the commercial meat birds. After that, it's all about fast growth. A giant Brahma does no good for most people if it takes 13 months to get to size.

White Rocks seem to be pretty good. Most Cornish in the US are slow growing and small.

I had the same idea as you years ago and went with New Hampshires from a breeder. They grew to 7-8 lbs by 18 weeks. Large legs and thighs; breasts were smaller than commercial birds, but bigger than the average heritage bird. Through breeding I've got them down to 16 weeks for weight, but the meat proportions didn't change much.

Now, with that said, if you're all about the white meat then go cornish cross and save money not having to feed your breeders.

Hatchery stock is normally small and skinny and does not meet the standards of the breed.

 

[R2elk]

I have had backyard laying hens for a couple years and I am now interested in raising meat birds! I am interested in raising a heritage breed, I have been thinking about raising white Plymouth Rock rooster and possible white laced red Cornish. Does anyone have experience raising these chickens for meat? If so do they give a decent amount of meat? I’ve read the Cornish is know for big breast meat and since it’s the chicken used to make the Cornish Cross I was wondering if the breast meat compared to the Cornish Cross in size?

Thanks for your input!

Years ago I tried doing the White Laced Red Cornish cross with White Rocks but was working too many hours and too inexperienced in incubating.

Long after that I again tried a White Laced Red Cornish crossed with Light Brahma. I really liked their potential, nice big birds with broad breasts. These birds were approximately 2 months old at the time of the photos.

I only got the one that looked like this. This one was about one month old at the time.

She is the only one that I still have. No matter what I bred her to, she added her broad breast and stocky build to her offspring.

 

[Blain87]

That’s for all your input!! I am actually interested in just raising the pure white laced red Cornish and the pure white Plymouth Rock for meat... not cross breed them. Do you have any experience with the the pure bred chicken? If so did they provide a good amount of meat?

 

[R2elk]

That’s for all your input!! I am actually interested in just raising the pure white laced red Cornish and the pure white Plymouth Rock for meat... not cross breed them. Do you have any experience with the the pure bred chicken? If so did they provide a good amount of meat?

I don't really remember how the White Rock were but the White Laced Red Cornish are a slow growing chicken. I seem to recall that the cockerels would dress out at about 4.5 lbs. around 6 months old.

 

[Rye]

That’s for all your input!! I am actually interested in just raising the pure white laced red Cornish and the pure white Plymouth Rock for meat... not cross breed them. Do you have any experience with the the pure bred chicken? If so did they provide a good amount of meat?

Pick one breed and breed it well. No need to complicate things with 2 separate breeds for the same purpose.

What kind of meat are you looking for? Roasters? Fryers?, soup birds?

All chickens are good for meat. It comes down to what you're looking for and younger is always more tender, and can be cooked in other ways like frying or grilling.

A fast maturing breed is going to give you weight and tenderness. Hence my New Hampshire plug. Faster growing than either breed you listed and yummy.

 

[Blain87]

Pick one breed and breed it well. No need to complicate things with 2 separate breeds for the same purpose.

What kind of meat are you looking for? Roasters? Fryers?, soup birds?

All chickens are good for meat. It comes down to what you're looking for and younger is always more tender, and can be cooked in other ways like frying or grilling.

A fast maturing breed is going to give you weight and tenderness. Hence my New Hampshire plug. Faster growing than either breed you listed and yummy.

Thanks for your input! This is my first year doing meat chickens and I was considering the two breeds I mentioned to see which one I liked better.. I don’t mind them taking a while to grow, I’d just like a decent amount of meat and a fun experience raising them. Pretty much my main goal is to raise the heritage beed with the most meat!

 

[Arielle2]

I looked into the cornish, and decided not to. For many reasons. I talked to fowlman and another.
I picked buckeyes because they had already been improved and restored to their original produciton level. Most lines of any breed have not been kept up.

Most folks on the Heritage thread start with disappointing lines and work hard at making the improvements over many many years to bring back a variety.

You cannot buy from a commercial source to get more than an egg layer. WIth rare exceptions. YOU MUST buy from someone who has put in the work to produce something worthy of what these birds used to look like.

Several breeders have brought back the rocks to a decent bird.Again buy from a good breeder AND do your research first of every breeder you are considering. A good breeder will share the good AND the bad points of their birds. IF you only hear how great the birds are, RUN.

 

[Rye]

I looked into the cornish, and decided not to. For many reasons. I talked to fowlman and another.
I picked buckeyes because they had already been improved and restored to their original produciton level. Most lines of any breed have not been kept up.

Most folks on the Heritage thread start with disappointing lines and work hard at making the improvements over many many years to bring back a variety.

You cannot buy from a commercial source to get more than an egg layer. WIth rare exceptions. YOU MUST buy from someone who has put in the work to produce something worthy of what these birds used to look like.

Several breeders have brought back the rocks to a decent bird.Again buy from a good breeder AND do your research first of every breeder you are considering. A good breeder will share the good AND the bad points of their birds. IF you only hear how great the birds are, RUN.

This is a good post. Good info and to the point.

Where did you get your buckeyes? I have been interested in trying them to see how they do compared to my New Hampshires. I've read some good things about them, but haven't seen any production quality buckeyes in person.