Meat Bird Recommendations

[sunrise_homestead]

We are trying to get an order together for our farm and we want to add meat chickens. We want to get a rooster and ten hens and then incubate to raise our own meat chickens instead of buying the Cornish cross from hatcheries. What are you favorite chickens for meat, that also have good egg production? At least enough egg production to continue to hatch more meat chickens. I hope that made sense! Someone recommended New Hampshire Reds but I wanted to get a few other to look at. Thank you so much!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are so many different ways you could go with this. Before the Cornish Cross took over the meat industry in the US some common breeds raised for meat were New Hampshire, Delaware, and some strains of White Rock. But the CC took over in the 1950's so hatcheries soon stopped breeding these breeds for meat and they are now mostly an egg chicken. They are still not a bad way to go for a hatchery bird but they are not what they were back in the early 1900's.

There are still a few individuals breeding these for meat, especially Delaware and New Hampshire. If you read different threads in this meat bird section you will find some mentioned. Don't expect them to be cheap at all.

People raising these breeds for show are going to have big birds. To make a good meat bird you not only need them to get big but they need to grow big early in life. Not all show birds do that but getting some show birds to start your breeding project can get you off to a good start. These are certainly not cheap.

I took the route of getting hatchery quality chicks and selectively breeding my on. It takes a while but you can get some decent sized birds in a few generations.

When I get them I don't just order one cockerel. I generally get around 15 to 20. They grow at different rates so I want enough that I can choose a good sire for the flock. Then I eat the rest. Same thing for the pullets. Get enough that you can wait until they have laid a while and select your breeders from them. You can eat your pullet rejects also.

 

[sniper338]

Do your research. There no meat chicken that lays eggs good. You get meat or you get eggs.

Meat chickens
Cornish cross
Red ranger

egg chickens
leghorn
leghorn mixs
rocks
Rhode island red
sex links
Austrolorps
Easter eggers

In the middle is what's called duel purpose.

Rhode Island red
Orphington
Wyandotte
Rocks
Sussex
Jersey giant
Quambey
Brahma
Bresse
Delaware

Everything else just falls where it may as fun chickens. Not a complete list above.. just a 30 sec post..

I'm looking at buff orphingtons personally to grow out have as layers, then butcher after about 2 or 3 years.. hatch out and raise more to keep turning them over... duel purpose breeds...

 

[Floopy]

Do your research. There no meat chicken that lays eggs good. You get meat or you get eggs.

Meat chickens
Cornish cross
Red ranger

egg chickens
leghorn
leghorn mixs
rocks
Rhode island red
sex links
Austrolorps
Easter eggers

In the middle is what's called duel purpose.

Rhode Island red
Orphington
Wyandotte
Rocks
Sussex
Jersey giant
Quambey
Brahma
Bresse
Delaware

Everything else just falls where it may as fun chickens. Not a complete list above.. just a 30 sec post..

I'm looking at buff orphingtons personally to grow out have as layers, then butcher after about 2 or 3 years.. hatch out and raise more to keep turning them over... duel purpose breeds...

I have a question, because that was my plan too (I am 100% newbie here to raising meat chickens, I'm not quite ready yet, but soon I think)

I've been told (or maybe read) that if you butcher birds that old, the only thing the meat would be good for is soups & stews because it would be too tough?

If you have any information on that, or how you mitigate that, I'd be very interested!

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've been told (or maybe read) that if you butcher birds that old, the only thing the meat would be good for is soups & stews because it would be too tough?

You do not want to grill or fry hens that old. Roasting is questionable too. That leaves some options.

Regardless if their age, sex, or how you cook them, any of them need to be aged to get past rigor mortis unless you cook them as soon as you kill them.

Hens that old need to be cooked slow and moist unless you use a pressure cooker. Soups and stews fit that, but so can baking. The French came up with Coq au Vin, a way to turn a tough old rooster into a gourmet meal. You can use an old hen for that also. Chicken and Dumplings is a great comfort food traditionally made from an old hen. I guess C & D is technically a stew.

After they have aged I cut an old hen into serving pieces, add some carrots, onion garlic, and celery, add herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, chives, or such, and put that in a heavy pot that seals very well. Then I cook that in the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Carefully use a slotted spoon to remove it, the meat can fall off of the bone. You should have about of 1/2 cup of liquid that is the best broth you've ever had.

When I butcher, I save the neck, backs, feet, gizzards, and heart to use for broth. I also use the bones from eating the pieces. After straining the broth, I pick the meat from the pieces. This meat is great for tacos or chicken salad. I often use that meat for sandwiches for my lunch.

An old hen is only good for soup or stew? I guess for some people.

 

[BayWest Farm]

Another breed that you might want to look at is the Sagitta from Hillside Hatchery, I am not sure if it breeds true, but it is listed as a dual purpose chicken.

 

[Sic]

I crossed a Bruges fighter roo with Deathlayer hens, just as an experiment. Bruges take almost 18 months to reach mature weight, Deathlayers reach mature weight by 16 weeks. At 12 weeks males were between 7-8lbs live weight, 5-6lb dressed and some deboned (for meat to bone ratio) at 5lbs dressed, 4.5lbs of meat, the meat to bone ratio was outstanding at 9:1. (No one seems to care about the meat to bone ratio here, but having been involved with meat rabbits this is important in meat breeding) The meat was light, fine grained and very tasty. The girls average adult weights are between 5-7lbs and are laying approx 300 + large (56-63g) white eggs in their 2nd year, they have surpassed the table and eggs of my heritage breeds. They are voracious foragers though, they get extremely cranky and loud if kept in a run. Might do this breeding again this year and give some girls to my friends.

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

This is a very interesting thread. I'm wanting to run a batch of meat birds to get some in the freezer, but not so shockingly Cornish X are very hard to come by suddenly. I think I saw Cackle still had them available, but this has caused me to pause and rethink my plan. I, too, want to have a solid meat bird that I can breed and hatch my own freezer flock, without being overly reliant on the breeder/hatchery schedule. The breeds I'm considering are as follows:

• Buckeye
• Sasso
• Kosher King
• Jersey Giant
• Bresse

I know relatively little about the Sasso and Kosher King, but know they can be bred for continued offspring. Bresse are getting popular and becoming harder to find.

Any advice that anyone can offer would be great. I'd like something that gives a fair amount of eggs while I'm deciding which are the breeding stock. Or is there a happy medium to maybe breed a Buckeye roo with a Sasso or Kosher King hen? Perhaps, and most likely, I'm overthinking this and the Buckeye is the way to go to make the breeding more predictable.

 

[Kaleai]

I'm curious. If a person was to cull a heritage dual purpose breed and a cornish-cross at either broiler stage or fryer stage is there a quality difference? I know theres a size difference but is the flavor or texture any different?
May need to find a different thread or start one for this but I'm so curious if anyone knows.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Different parts to this. How delicate are your senses? Some people are excellent on being able to distinguish minor differences in either. I'm a rude crude neanderthal according to my wife (I agree with her), there is little subtle about me. So part of that is your perception.

Another part is maturity. Different birds even the same age and with the same parentage enter puberty at different ages. So a part of flavor and texture will depend on what stage of puberty are they in. Sex can play a part in this too.

Some people claim to be able to tell differences in dual purpose breeds, let alone between CX and DP. I'm a neanderthal and would not know about that.

Differences in feed or how much exercise they get could make a difference. Even if they free range the CX are usually lazier than the DP.

DP tend to give more dark meat. CX give a fair amount of white meat.

The only way I know for you to find out is to raise some of both side by side and see what you determine for your circumstances.