Hatchery Meat Chick Suggestions? : Our Other Animals - Page 2

I always had good luck with White Rocks. Had problems with the Cornish crosses.

UFCreel wrote:I always had good luck with White Rocks. Had problems with the Cornish crosses.

White Rocks grow slower, but have a better"healthier" [according to some people] meat ,because they are not bred for extremely fast, efficient growth.
If I am feeding "home grown" feed, I don't mind raising "heritage breeds" for meat... -However, when I am feeding expensive store bought feed,- I want fast, efficient meat production- I personally, am not willing to pay twice as much per pound for my meat , just to get a [possibly] "better product"..

I get the Cornish Cross and raise them on pasture .....
I have a tractor and they stay outside 24/7 after being feathered....

I find them stupid (I have actually run one over with the cage because it just sat there) but they produce meat quickly. I also ration the feed... so between the daily walk and the food being portioned to run out overnight, I havn't had a lot of issues.... (Unless crowded or I didn't book the butcher on the right week) I usually get them butchered at 8-9 weeks old.

Nymphadora wrote:

GBov wrote:Other than being slightly slower, is there any advantage to getting meat roosters over hens, hens are cheaper.

What?!

Usually the hens are more because of the egg-laying component (more in demand), at least any time I've looked...

If hens are cheaper on Meyer, I'm definitely going with them!

Sorry, I meant to reply to this aaaaages ago and forgot. It isn't normal hens that are cheaper, just the meat birds. They never get a chance to lay eggs and are smaller than the roosters, hence the cheaper price.

Adding another thought for those who are tired of just buying Cornish Crosses Meat birds to look up "Toads". (if you use Backyard Chickens Forum you can search for them there) Which basically are chickens that people have bred starting with CCXCC (the hard part is that to get them to live until egg laying or breeding age you have to limit their feed starting at 3 weeks and make them forage) then you bred them out with a heavy breed (Buff Orps, Barred Rock, White rock ect) and then you breed those to each other and the results are called "Toads" and are self sustaining meat birds (that tend to have a lot of yummy dark meat) and taste way better then just CC on their own they raise up to butchering at about 15 weeks and are the size of young turkeys. Yes I am trying these as I would rather not buy chicks every year and I want a better more flavor filled chicken which these produce.

Five and a half weeks in and the chickens are doing really well. Will butcher the biggest five this weekend as fryers.

Have kept feed in with them round the clock but because I feed fermented feed - plus mealworms and lots of greens - it is about 50% water which has slowed them down enough to keep them looking really good.

When I knew the delivery date I set a clutch of "normal" chickens in the 'bator so I could compare the two as they grow and I am really glad I did. When I look at just the white ones they look wider but not impressive really until I look at the itty bitty little 5 week old Olive Egger chicks and then WOW the difference is really clear.

My egg layers will be glad to see the back of them though as they had to give up the big pen and go into the tractor. Not because they were being mean but because they were standing over the feed and not letting the meaties near it.

__________ Sun Feb 24, 2019 9:48 pm __________

At 6 weeks I butchered the 9 biggest. They were showing signs of heat stress as it has been in the VERY high 80s for over a week now.

Average dressed out weight was 2.5 pounds.

As they have been fed totally organic feed, like for like priced as a grocery store organic chicken these 9 have paid for the entire experiment.

And they are GOOD!

Not only have we enjoyed them, the dogs have gotten 4 good meals on butcher scraps and the boiled bones from when I made stock from the carcases. I jointed up 8 of the chickens into jars to freeze so one jar of wings, one of thighs, one of breasts, one of drumsticks now grace the freezer.

We had one roasted whole tonight and soup from the bones for lunch.

I am LOVING this already and 14 are still growing strong. Really glad I went with straight run, they are growing at different rates so I can process in stages so there is never too much work for me.

glad it is working so well...

I am very very pleased and would NEVER have tried again without all your wonderful advice.

If ya need more... (just showed up in my email)

Cornish Rock Broilers are now on sale also for only $2.00 each.

http://www.idealpoultry.com/item.html

oops: clicked the wrong tag

Homer wrote:If ya need more... (just showed up in my email)

Cornish Rock Broilers are now on sale also for only $2.00 each.

http://www.idealpoultry.com/item.html

oops: clicked the wrong tag

Thank you for thinking of me, the last of my flock are still awaiting their final end as I deal with the shit storm that has hit my life.