Difference between meatbirds and normal chickens?

[looneyrooster]

So ive seen in many place here on BYC the word"meat chicken",What is the difference in eating an average chicken or a chicken bred especially for meat?

 

[SIMZ]

Usually, a "meat chicken" is referring to what is called a broiler or cornish cross. They grow fast (6-8 weeks) and efficiently convert their feed to meat. These chickens are what you see in grocery stores and are very plump with large breast meat portions. They can go from chick to freezer in about 8 weeks.

Other dual-purpose breeds are better for meat in that they also mature quicker and are plumper then other breeds. I'm trying to find a good breed that I can breed to replace layers also have meaty roosters to put in the freezer. I hope this helps!

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

In the poultry world chickens are usually classified under 4 groups: Layer, Dual Purpose, Ornamentals, and Meat Birds.

Laying birds are good layers, buy are not necessarily good for meat, they are usually slim. Some examples are: Ameraucana, Lakenvelder, Campine, Hamburg, Pendesca, Leghorns, and Andalusian.

Dual Purpose are good layers and meaty enough to eat. Some examples: RIR, Plymouth Rock, Orphington, and Jersey Giant

Ornamentals are sometimes good layers, but are usually rarer breeds, fairly new to the US, or just really cool to look at. Some examples: d'Uccle, d'Anver, Naked Necks, La Fleche, Buttercup, Polish, and Silkie

Meat birds are sometimes good layers, but are usually bred to be very large and meaty. Some examples are: Cornish, Cornish X (used by most major corps for meat, a cross with Plymouth Rock I think), New Hampshire, and Brahma

Those are just the basics, but you could classify Naked Necks under Layers, or even Dual Purpose. Hope that helps!