Breeding my own meat birds? How does one create a "meat bird"?

[Football chick]

Each year I raise anywhere from 75 to 100 cornishX meat birds. With recent events finding places to order or buy cornishX chicks from is very difficult. I managed to find some for this year but in the struggle of finding them I started thinking "how does one create their own 'meat bird?'". I did some research and found that the cornishX you get from hatcheries are a hybrid of 4 breeds of chickens bred for over 60 years to create the cornishX. I know i couldn't probably even get close to that. But the more research I put into it I found that cornishX actually have a lower nutrient level than other birds, and are less healthy to consume. So I want to create my own version of a "meat bird". I know that I want to cross a cornish with something, but thats the question what do I cross it with? I was thinking something like a orpington? but the question is is how do you get them to grow so fast? I understand that I couldn't create something that grows nearly as fast as a cornishX but I was thinking maybe something that could be ready for butcher in maybe 5ish months? any suggestions?

 

[Molpet]

I starved a CX pullet and bred with my heritage mixed roo. She started laying about 22 wks in Sept and quit in Oct, died before she started laying again at 1 yr. I got 3 cockerels out of her. Most of my flock is out of them. I had br and bjg hens.
I am on the 3rd gen and cockerels dress 4 to 7 LBS at 16 wks.

 

[Mtnboomer]

My brahmas have processed wts of 5.5-7lbs at 5mos.
4.5-6lbs at 4mos

 

[mandelyn]

I have Marans and Bresse along with some project birds. We became dual purpose with our birds as a means to have pullets to sell to the urban hen market and we needed a cockerel management system that wasn't wasteful. So, we eat them.

We stopped raising light/lean birds and went heavier with the breed varieties. Then I started tracking growth rate, body structure, development and tagging the boys who grew the fastest. At 16 weeks we start making the dinner selections, the smallest ones go first. That way, when it's time to pick a breeder bird from the finished results, the slow growers had already been removed.

Raising the purebreds gives predictable results. The project birds though, since I can look solely at the frame/growth and not have a care towards feathers/eggs/breed standards, those have been gaining in size at a faster rate from one generation to the next.

This boy was 2 pounds, 9 ounces at 7 weeks old. This week, at 8 weeks old, he's 3 pounds, 3 ounces. He's 50% Bresse, 25% Marans, 12.5% Legbar and 12.5% Twentse. I have no idea why he's SO big, but I'll take it and run with it!

You don't have to use Cornish, is what I found out. I also found out that not every bloodline within a dual purpose breed has been bred with "table qualities" in mind.

Separating the chicks as they grow up by size helps the best for tweaking the growth rate in the subsequent generations.

The Bresse have been the best table bird we've had, ever. Delicate thin skin that crisps nicely. Mild dark meat on the thighs. Fat that melts like butter. Fuller breast than what's typical for Heritage type birds. I'll always keep a pure pen of them. Hybridizing them has been fun too, besides those incredibly dominant white feathers... that's a little annoying since I like color.

In the hybrids I hope to maintain the table qualities that the Bresse have, while improving what I can in growth rate and making them look a little bit different so that they eventually become my own consistent line.

 

[Morrigan]

There is no magic recipe, but there seems to be two approaches.

Approach number 1 is to start with a type of bird that used to be raised for meat before CX were developed. Delaware, Orpington, Sussex, and Rock are some examples. Get the best stock you can and then breed for size. It's not a quick turn around project, and it might take you a few generations to get something you are satisfied with.

Approach number 2 is to try to piggy-back of some of the hard work done by the meat hybrids already out there. Holding back a female CX, or other type of broiler to cross with a larger heritage breed, and then go from there. This is the approach I am currently taking, as I am breeding a Naked Neck rooster to a red ranger hen and a slow white broiler hen. This may be a slight faster short cut, but as I can already see, this is going to be a long term project as well.

With either approach, I think you need to adjust your thinking about what an acceptable meat bird size is, and enjoy the process of breeding and raising birds. At least, that is where my head is at.

 

[RiverOtter]

I have raised purebred Buff Cornish and I think they're perfect homestead dual-purpose birds as is, and would be amazing meat birds with a little selective breeding.

There are breeders of White and Dark Cornish here on the forum who have bred for fast maturity.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some really good people with good experience have been responding. We all have our own experiences and goals. My goals were more to play with genetics but since I eat mine, like Mandelyn, I included some "meat bird" goals. Size is one of them but since there are only two of us I can get two meals out of a fairly small pullet. So while size is nice it isn't always my overriding criteria. It is certainly a tie-breaker though when selecting breeding stock. I always select large, just maybe not the largest.

My fit suggestion is to define your goals. What qualities make a good meat bird to you. One thing about dual purpose birds is that the age you butcher has a lot to do with how you cook them. As they age the meat gains texture and flavor. Pullets not as much but when cockerels hit puberty the hormones have a big effect on flavor and texture. You can fry or grill the Cornish X because they are butchered so young, but at some point if you try to fry or grill a dual purpose you would not like the results. So if you are committed to a specific cooking method age may be an important criteria for you.

If so, then size at butcher age is more of a criteria than just pure size. Different cockerels mature and grow at different rates. One of the benefits in trying to select which cockerels reached butcher size best was that the quality of the poorer birds increased. I was not out to produce one huge bird (though that might be my breeder) but that all the cockerels I butchered were decent. The quality of the poorer ones improved fairly quickly, just a few generations.

How important is carcass appearance and how do you process them? If you pluck you will leave pin feathers behind. If the feathers are white or buff you don't notice them that much, it makes for a prettier carcass. If the feathers are dark you can really see them. I skin mine so it doesn't really matter but to some people this can be pretty important. Along with this, chickens go through juvenile molts. They outgrow their feathers and need to replace them. If your chosen butcher age happens to coincide with a juvenile molt this may become really important. If you are selling them instead of eating them yourself this could be important.

How do you feed them? If you buy all their food you probably want one that is really good at feed to weight gain ratio. I pasture mine so that is less important to me.

A huge part of raising and breeding the Cornish X is not about the breeding. Most of the research is about how to manage them. Part of that is how to feed, house, and care for them to reach butcher age most efficiently. A big part is how to feed, house, and manage the breeders so they don't get so big they either die or can't breed. Do you want to resort to artificial insemination because your roosters are just too big, if you can even keep them alive? Molpet had to "starve" a CX pullet to keep her alive so she could breed and lay eggs. That could present problems if you try to raise dual purpose with them.

You will hear that because they are hybrids they will not breed true, even if you breed CX to CX. That is true, but they still have the genetics for fast growth and good feed to meat conversion. If you cross them with a dual purpose chicken even the worst ones should be decent, but some will be a lot better than others.

This is not important with Rangers, but if you want to breed Cx, go with the pullets, not the boys. Not all (but some) lines of Cx use Dwarfism to reduce the size of some of the breeding flocks so they are easier to keep alive. Dwarfism is a recessive sex linked trait which allows them to do this. The result is that the Cx boys might carry that trait, the girls will not.

I do not use Cx or Rangers so I don't have direct experience with that. Pay attention to what the one that do have to say. They have some good threads on here and they are pretty good at what went wrong as well as what went right. That is important.

There is personal preference involved. Someone might like a Bresse, Naked Neck, Orpington, or Barred Rock. I'm partial to Delaware but really need to bring in some New Hampshire to compare. But that brings up another point. I don't know where in the world you are located but in the US hatcheries do not breed these breeds for meat bird qualities. Some private breeders do. Not all breeders are equal, some know what they are doing and some don't. Some are breeding for other things than meat qualities. Typically a show bird breeder is breeding for a larger size than hatchery chickens because size is a requirement to win championships. How fast they reach that size or their feed to meat gain ratio isn't as important to them. Their chicks or hatching eggs are expensive but you should still get a much better starting point than hatchery birds if you can find a good breeder.

My main suggestion is to put a plan together and try it. Don't beat yourself up too much in trying to find the perfect breed to cross with them, it probably doesn't exist or can be different for each of us. Just do the best you can and get started. Eat the ones you don't want to eat and breed the ones you want to eat.

Good luck!

 

[Molpet]

Molpet had to "starve" a CX pullet to keep her alive so she could breed and lay eggs. That could present problems if you try to raise dual purpose with them.

I also have them on pasture, the 5 CX were out with 2 of each: br, bo, Isa brown chicks and BBB poults. I fed all they could eat the first couple of weeks. Then all they could eat in 20-30 minutes 2x a day. The CX followed the rest looking for food and got lots of exercise. I harvested all but 1 CX at 10 weeks I think. About 8 lbs dressed. The heritage and sex links didn't seem to have any issues from restricted feed, but they would go farther looking for food. The CX and BBB were definitely hungry and didn't seem to ever be full for more than 30 minutes. They definitely let me know that they were hungry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I also have them on pasture, ......... The heritage and sex links didn't seem to have any issues from restricted feed, but they would go farther looking for food.

That's my experience with dual purpose type chickens, if they have good forage they manage very well. That's one of the techniques to manage mixing them. That's what I meant about experience.

 

[Football chick]

Wow this is all wonderful information!!!! Really opened my eyes!