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This year was my first raising chickens ... Rhode Island Reds. They've been fun. We're still getting lots of good eggs. But the hens are not as meaty as store bought. I'm thinking of trying another breed next year for more meat or raising a flock of roosters/cockerels. Can you give me any advice? What breed would give me the more meat? Do I need to switch to roosters/cockerels? Does the meat of one breed taste better than others? Thanks in advance.
-Jonathan
We usually cull the mean roosters, but the breed determines how much meat you get.
Try this link for meat birds:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/cate...eat_birds.html
Jonathan,
It is a bit surprising to me to hear that you aren't satisfied with the meat on the Rhode Island Reds. I raised them for many years, and always found them to be the biggest and juiciest breed I had. In fact, we used to say they were so meaty they were almost like turkeys, definitely tasty!
There are a couple of things that may impact the meatiness of the birds. One is what you feed them. We also love the eggs from the "reds" and so let them grow into layers too. We mostly let them range feed. But those that we planned as roasters/eaters, we put on a grower mash that really "beefed" them up.
Another thing is, you want to slaughter the meat hens fairly early on, usually by six weeks. If you let them grow to layer age, and harvest eggs till they are nine months or a year old, then slaughter --- well, they are going to be lean AND tough.
We were in upstate New York. I usually bought 48 or so chicks around March 1st. I kept as many going as possible, and usually would lose only one or two, sometimes none. I had to use grower (heat/infared) lights on them in the basement for a couple of weeks, and then put them out into a well-built chicken coop for another four weeks or so, and used the commercial grower mash. We’d slaughter them at 6 weeks, but never more than 8 weeks of age. We usually did it again in the Fall.
We used to slaughter and skin them, huge pots of boiling water and all that. But it took a looooong time. Several days of two of us working long days, to do just 4 dozen. I fortunately found a farmer about 20 miles away, who offered to do the feathers and skinning for a buck a bird. Boy, that was one of the best deals of my life!
Anyways, you have to slaughter them by six or eight weeks for plump and juicy taste. And check with your feed store for a good grower mash. That should give you a better result.
Similar with lambs, by the way. You want to slaughter a lamb by six or eight months for best taste. A sheep (any lamb over 12 months) is usually so tough as to be almost inedible. You really have to cook a two year old sheep almost all day to get it past the shoe leather stage. I remember a few years ago some friends of mine in New Mexico bought about a dozen sheep for a feast. They told me they got such a deal on the sheep, only $20 each. I bet that rancher is still laughing over that one, that anybody was willing to pay him ANYTHING for a bunch of 4 and 5 year old sheep.
Anyway, good luck with your Reds. They remain my favorite breed of chickens for meat and eggs. Don’t give up yet!!! Probably some other chicken farmers who have more tips and advice.
Hakim,
From your description I did some things right, but made mistakes too. The chicks got Farmer's chick feed at first. Is this okay instead of grower mash?
Next they got all purpose grower crumbles & ranged in the field. The big mistake seems when to butcher them. I butchered most of them around 6-7 months hoping they'd bulk up more. So it sounds like waiting had the opposite result.
I may try some other breeds, but I'll keep trying the RIRs too. Most projects I figure out how to do it right just about the time I'm done and never do it again. With the chickens, I get to keep trying. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Dont try too equal the store bought chickens you would end up buying from the store cheaper than you could raise them.
I own and operate a layer house for Perdue farms and they are fed alot and alot of protein also.
As for the laying as it starts getting dark sooner they will lay less, mine are under simulated sunlight (sodium lites) 15 hours aday.
Just alittle info I thought I would share.
From my old memory of chickens Hakim's advice is just the way we used to do it. The only diference is we used ground oats for feed and crushed egg shells mixed with nettle leaves to add to the chick starter.
The layer hens led long lives and didn't see the kitchen table. They would also be used to hatch out geese eggs.
Egon
The best chickens, IMHO, are fried.
What, nobody mentions Cornish Red Cross??
We've tried several different breeds over the years, and while we like the RIRs our favorite has to be Buff Orpingtons. Big, meaty dual-purpose birds with very mellow personalities! We get straight runs, cull the roosters at 10-12 weeks (all except two) and the hens lay right through the worst winter has to offer.
This past spring both of our roosters sacrificed themselves to save the hens from predators. One fell to a greyhound, but put some HUGE gashes in the dog before losing the fight. Another chased the hens into the coop then turned to attack a red fox! I couldn't believe the courage that bird showed in running toward the fox once the hens were safe! Very impressive. And though he lost the fight, he bought enough time so my wife was able to hit the fox with several rounds of 00 buckshot.
We butcher a bit differently than most. We slaughter at night in cold weather, letting the birds bleed out and chill overnight. In the morning we skin them, remove the legs, wings and breast meat. Everything else goes into the burial pit, innards intact. Less mess, and we don't miss the gizzards, hearts or livers.
Pete
Buy a mix of the " rare breeds" from Murray McMurray it is fun to raise a bunch of different ones and watch them grow and develop into the different colors. Makes for a pretty sight.