Meat birds

[Beekissed]

Hmmmm, lots of birds, lots of opinions! I've eaten my share of Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons... my buff's won every time. Bigger, heavier meatier... maybe I just had crappy Barreds, lol!

Hatchery birds? Most likely crappy lines...not near as big and meaty as standard bred BRs.

 

[Beekissed]

This pic will give you some idea of the difference. On the left is a whole carcass of a 3 yr old BO/RIR rooster and on the right is half carcass of a 5 yr old White Rock hen. He's not much bigger than the hen and her breast filet is not only longer but is fuller and that golden color in her meat shows the fat marbling within the meat fibers.

He's got her beat on size of his thighs, but as far as depth of meat fibers, she's got him beat...he's lanky at best.

Not only that, but she got all that meat and fat on 75-85% free ranged, foraged feeds and very little grain feeds, whereas the rooster had been fed on bagged feeds for most of his life.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I had a few hatchery BR. Scrawny little things, I was not impressed at all. Turns out they're supposed to be much better birds than that! One of the breeds that makes a huge difference where you got them from, it seems.

I have 2 white orpingtons now, we'll see how their chicks crossed with some of our roos come out.

 

[Beekissed]

I had a few hatchery BR. Scrawny little things, I was not impressed at all. Turns out they're supposed to be much better birds than that! One of the breeds that makes a huge difference where you got them from, it seems.

I have 2 white orpingtons now, we'll see how their chicks crossed with some of our roos come out.

All the hatchery BRs I've had were the same...scrawny. I'm thinking they've been played with so much by the hatcheries to increase egg production that they've lost the true dual purpose nature of the breed. Same with the RIR..used to be a good DP bird but now look more like red Leghorns.

I was surprised at the hatchery WRs I had bought back in '08...one of them is pictured as the 5 yr old hen. EXCELLENT strain of WRs out of a hatchery source and have contributed genetics towards my standard bred line of WRs. Haven't bought anymore from a hatchery source, but was well pleased with that bunch...laid like machines for years, went broody enough to reproduce but not too much, heavy carcasses and incredible feed conversion.

 

[Chic Rustler]

well I felt up my fattest hens. They were all fluff. But they are all hatchery birds

I'm thinking I'm gonna feed the meat chickens broiler rations and see if that helps

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It's kind of a hard time of year to be a chicken around here...mine are just coming out of a molt and not at their best just yet. I've got some roo's and older hens that need to move on...I'll be giving them a month or so to get over the molt.

 

[Chic Rustler]

just for fun I googled buff Orpington x barred rock.
Turns out I already have two hens. They are beautiful. I hatched a load of eggs a while back. I got a dozen from a friend who had buff Orpington and barred rocks.

I found a thread on by talking about it. They are sex linked. The hens are a beautiful brown ish pattern and the males are barred. I figured those two hens were from my old Marian rooster but nope.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/buff-orpington-x-barred-rock-results-pics.229407/


The hens are fluffy. Aboit the same as the buffs when I felt them up

 

[Chic Rustler]

So maybe there's 3. I got all my buffs from that batch as well.

They seem pretty much the same as the buffs and br in size.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Love those patterns...but I like unique (ok, maybe weird) things!

 

[Chic Rustler]

me too. They look awesome. Not sure they are the new Cornish cross tho