Anyone here eat heritage breed chickens (on purpose)?

[777funk]

I say on purpose because I do eat them but I don't purposefully raise them as meat. I hatch them annually and we eat 2/3 of the roosters we get (probably 5 or 6 per year get butchered).

I don't care for them because:
1. the breasts although tender (like a store raised 6 week cornish cross) is only about 1/2 the size of a 6-8 week cornish cross, but in 6 months of growth. It's almost not worth the feed it takes to produce the meat. Dollars wise it probably doesn't come out ahead.

2. the hind quarters though as big as a store bird are tough since we free range our birds.

Am I doing something wrong in that the birds yield 3 to 4 lbs of meat in 6 months?

 

[Amish Heart]

Nothing wrong at all. I buy meat chickens only if I get them at a Tractor Supply clearout. I got 11 this year at 50 cents each just because I happened to be in the store. So we butchered those.
We have two large runs and coops of chickens. One run is mostly Jersey Giants. The other are Easter Eggers and Americauna. All are large breed for non meat chickens. No bantams here. So a bit over a year ago we ordered 100 unsexed chicks because we had just moved to our farm. At least half were roosters. We grew them up, kept a total of 4 of the best looking roosters and butchered the rest. They were about 5 or 6 months at the time of butchering. Leg meat was tough. I cooked all the leg and thigh quarters, deboned, and froze for dog food. The breast meat was good. So about 90 or 100 chicken breasts in the freezer. We've almost finished those. We incubate our own eggs, so last spring, I started hatching and we will again in the spring. Keeping the hens, maybe replacing a rooster if we need to, and butchering the extra roosters. We do the same for turkeys. Have three pairs. We have had meat chickens and meat turkeys plenty, and yes, they grow huge and fast, but they feel like "franken birds" to me, and I feel like I need to be more self sufficient with fowl breeding.

 

[SheepDog]

The breed has everything to do with the amount of meat you get from a chicken. There are many heritage breeds that are big enough to get meat from that are also good layers. I use them for eggs until they get to the point where they don't lay and then they are meat. Between the eggs and fertilizer they pay their way before they are butchered. I'm breeding Chantecler chickens as they are cold hardy and good layers but still big enough for meat. They lay year round, not prone to frostbite and easy going as well as good breeders. They are good at foraging and I rarely have to supply food - unless it is a particularly hard winter and the snow covers their feeding areas. My primary concern was cold hardy but these birds (from northern Canada) are great in all respects. (other than heat)

 

[goshengirl]

We’ve had Buckeyes. Did the typical straight run of chicks, kept the pullets and sent the boys to freezer camp. I agree, the size was small compared to what I’m used to in the store, but the flavor was really good, and we didn’t experience any toughness like you mention. We kept them in a large run during the morning/early afternoon, and let them free range about 3 or 4 o’clock on (depending on how many daylight hours were left in the day) - to minimize them ranging too far away.

We love Buckeyes as a breed, in terms of temperament, cold/heat hardiness, and laying. But we plan on trying Jersey Giants for meat once we’re at our new place. We’re similar to @Amish Heart in that we consider raising meat birds if we found a really good price on them, but we want to stick with “normal” birds as the basis of our self-sufficiency. From what I’ve seen, Jersey Giants are the largest heritage breed - hopefully the meat to feed ratio works well with them.

 

[Amish Heart]

They are said to eat more, but I don't see much difference. Jerseys have a real good temperment. Both of our runs get a few buckets of dandelion leaves a day, either some cooked pasta or rice, a gallon of garden scraps, and a full large hopper of half scratch and half pellets. In the winter I also sprout wheat and sunflower.
Store bought chickens look so nice because they are injected with liquid to make them appear more plump in the leg, thigh, and breast. Also to add weight to increase the price. I still do buy chicken, too if the price is good. But I am setup and can increase the setup pretty easily because I incubate.

 

[777funk]

They are said to eat more, but I don't see much difference. Jerseys have a real good temperment. Both of our runs get a few buckets of dandelion leaves a day, either some cooked pasta or rice, a gallon of garden scraps, and a full large hopper of half scratch and half pellets. In the winter I also sprout wheat and sunflower.
Store bought chickens look so nice because they are injected with liquid to make them appear more plump in the leg, thigh, and breast. Also to add weight to increase the price. I still do buy chicken, too if the price is good. But I am setup and can increase the setup pretty easily because I incubate.

I find that our heritage birds I mentioned in the first post have very narrow breast meat (figure two to three chicken tender strips at most) vs cornish cross (our own home raised and store bought) where you get 3 or 4 actual full chicken sandwhich sized (or more) slabs.

Would the Jersey Giant compare in this regard?

I don't like the cornish cross because as far as I know, I can't raise and hatch them. I just miss the plentiful and tender meat.

 

[Amish Heart]

Jerseys are bigger, and the breast meat is bigger. Not impressed with the Jersey leg quarters, they are tall and leggy. You can't beat the leg and thigh meat of a cornish, though, but it also bothers me that they are unraisable, unhatchable, dumber than doornails. But...I still will pick some up and let them live their 7 weeks if they're under a buck. We must of butchered 40 or so Jersey roos alone, and I just got to the point I'd just take the breast meat and cut out the leg quarter and not even bother with the insides or anything else.

 

[777funk]

Jerseys are bigger, and the breast meat is bigger. Not impressed with the Jersey leg quarters, they are tall and leggy. You can't beat the leg and thigh meat of a cornish, though, but it also bothers me that they are unraisable, unhatchable, dumber than doornails. But...I still will pick some up and let them live their 7 weeks if they're under a buck. We must of butchered 40 or so Jersey roos alone, and I just got to the point I'd just take the breast meat and cut out the leg quarter and not even bother with the insides or anything else.

That's exactly what I do with our barnyard mix of birds. And... with the leg quarters being as tough as they are (haven't found a good use for meat we have to cut with a steak knife), I'm about to the point of only cutting off the breast meat and pitching the rest. Thus the frustration. 6 months of feed for maybe a pound of meat.

Edit: just calculated the cost. We feed the bird probably about 12-14 lbs of feed during this time (along with free ranging when we cut the feed down once old enough to not easily get eaten by hawks). A 50lb bag of feed is around $18. So the bird is about $5 in feed costs for 1 pound of meat or $5/lb with a fair amount of labor to get it grown. That's not counting predator or other losses. Maybe better to not think abuot the economics. It is good to raise meat regardless of cost.

 

[Amish Heart]

Do you have dogs? It's healthy dog food. There is a certain point economically where I believe chickens break even. Our chickens are our egg providers. Extra eggs are bartered with neighbors. Only roos and cornish are considered for meat, or old hens that don't lay anymore, but those would probably be dog food, too.
But dogs need to eat. 'I remember though, when the pandemic started, we were not living on our farm. We were in the suburbs and there were no eggs, milk, bread at the store. Meat was limited or bought out. Friends would text me, and I'd put out eggs on our porch for them. So sometimes chickens are priceless when that's all you have. Your feed price is high. 50 lbs of feed where I live is $11 to $12

 

[joel]

I like the Black Australorp Chickens for eggs, but if I raised chickens for meat it would be hybrids that are processed in seven to eight week on pasture.

 

[Amish Heart]

Those would be meat chickens

 

[Bacpacker]

I like Buffalo Orpingtons. Large birds with plenty of meat and good layers as well

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Canning solves the rubber leg problem in free range heritage birds. Raw pack them tight in the jar, whole, bone in. No liquid needed. They will make their own juice and worth the canning effort in my book.

I always keep five or six cornish hens. I cross them with a chantecler rooster but any breed will work.

The chick's are sex linked. Roosters are white with a few rust feathers and the hens will have a few black feathers. The hybrids make a decent meat chicken. If you free range cornish chicks starting no later than 2ish weeks, they are just like any other chicken. The keeper hens should have short legs for longevity. Don't ask me why, but it is something I have learned from time and observation.

 

[joel]

I like the Black Australorp Chickens for eggs, but if I raised chickens for meat it would be hybrids that are processed in seven to eight week on pasture.

One will eat black Australorp when they stop laying in four or five years.
We do not have pets, everybody works.