Bresse chicken

[CrealCritter]

I've read and thought to buy. Then checked reviews on some of the farms selling. Not bought yet! I like the heritage breeds for taste. Don't like any breed on butcher day!

Thanks for the additional info McMurray is currently sold out.

"Bresse are in high demand because, like beef, they can have marbled meat. This chicken really tastes like no other — imagine the juiciest grilled chicken breast ever."

Murray McMurray Hatchery - Day-Old Baby Chicks

Shop all day-old baby chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery — layers, broilers, Heritage, bantams, and rare and exotic breeds of chickens.

www.mcmurrayhatchery.com

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[JanetMarie]

Cornish Cross are not miserable if managed properly.

Two years ago we raised Cornish Cross as any other chicken. They were truly free ranged. I did not restrict their food, but let them eat as much as they wanted. Out of 10 there was one who ate a lot from the feeder, and we butchered that one first. The others were more excited about foraging than eating out of the feeder. They were all beautifully fully feathered, had strong long legs, and loved life.

Initially didn't plan to, but ended up butchering most of them at 16 and 17 weeks, and the early one at 11 weeks. They all had abundant yellow fat, that I made small packets and froze, and yellow skin.

After my own experience in raising them I've decided that all of the so called "problems" with Cornish Cross, or Cornish Rocks, are not the chicken breed but management by the owner.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I kind of agree- but having raised hundreds of them from different hatcheries, the quality and behavior of different batches of them has been dramatically different. We’ve had some that weren’t terrible like yours and we’ve had some that were absolutely miserable.

 

[Cecilia's-life]

I really like brahmas for eating truthfully. They are very slow to mature though.

 

[JanetMarie]

I would like to try Cornish, and thinking it might be a good idea to keep a breeding flock, however they are not heavily feathered, are large birds, and would take considerable resources to feed and keep comfortable in winter. I've also read that they have a low fertility rate.

Has anyone here ever raised Cornish?

 

[NH Homesteader]

Briefly yes. I have never met a nastier rooster in my life. He was vicious, we couldn’t stand him long enough to get a hatch they grow slowly but we liked the hens. They weren’t huge and didn’t eat more than my other birds. Ours were from Murray McMurray

 

[Hinotori]

Non hatchery birds are always better tempered and more to the breed standard.

 

[farmerjan]

Have raised some cornish. If you go with the bantams, they are not hard to raise and if you use a well balanced male, will breed naturally without much trouble. They do lay less, than dual purpose breeds, and do not make good sitters. But they lay a fair amount of eggs for hatching and eating in the season. I have not found the bantams to excessively mean but have never raised the big ones.
I like my New Hampshires and most "rocks" in any color make a decent dual purpose bird. But for just meat, the cornish rock crosses are what I want and I treat them just the same as the rest of the chickens and they do pretty good, like @JanetMarie said. Not all batches are equal and sometimes you will get a bad batch... But mine liked to go out and scratch around pretty much like everyone else.

 

[Medicine Woman]

In my younger years I tried to play with the genetics and cross the Cornish with the White Rock and see what I can create from the cross but I didn’t get the fast meat I was hoping for.
I don’t care for the greed and the waste of food that the Cornish Cross seems to have but I do like the meat conversion but I feel you on the cost of the chicks. That’s why I only get them from the 4H club for $0.50 each in October.
I can tell y’all what I normally do to manage a profitable poultry project all around and it’s like this…I have a primary coop and a barn with 4 stalls for chickens so that I can keep pure breeds of certain color varieties. I have known about how to make the most common sex links for many years but I read the book on Sexing of all Fowl and as in all things, knowledge is power. So I was shocked to learn that to create a sex link you put a red rooster (and there is a list of what qualifies as such) with a silver hen (even longer list). So I discovered that White Brahmas are silver hens. Put some of them with the biggest red rooster you can get. I mean what you end up with will be the result of what you started with. White Brahma hens are bigger than most roosters. But I use several types of hens for sex link projects. Also in that same book, it tells you that if you start feeding your hens 100% sorghum for 3 weeks before you set your eggs you will have 80% pullets hatching out. So I have repeat customers coming to me who mainly want pullets and I just assume get pullet prices. So if I actually can find the right feed I go for the big pullet hatch, knowing full well I will be left with the cockerels but it’s part of my plan because with the money I get from selling their sisters I can get grain for the boys until they old enough for the table and seeing as mom is a Brahma it doesn’t take me very long. I find this works very well for me.