by Suzanne Roark
Photos by author
When we first began raising chickens it was strictly eggs we were interested in. Somehow after a few years of raising the egg-laying kind, we started to think about raising the meat kind.
I searched the internet for answers on how to raise them. I knew vaguely that the “meat” kind was an all-white feathered breed but not much else. I did find information on meat conversions, weeks to slaughter, and how incredibly weak and ill they could become with their fast growth rate.
I had questions like how the meat would taste and whether cooking the meat would be different from the store bought kind. However, I couldn’t find much information on that aspect of raising meat birds. I did find a lot of documents about giant commercial chicken raising operations and even quite a bit about free ranging the birds. I could do neither of those options and couldn’t seem to get any concrete answers about the flavor and cooking of home raised meat chickens.
But we took the plunge anyway. Day old chicks of Cornish X meat birds didn’t seem to be very much different than day old layer chicks. We didn’t hold and cuddle them like we do our laying hens and absolutely NO naming them!
It didn’t take very long to discover some major differences between egg layers and meat chickens—mainly that these commercially bred birds are eating; water drinking; pooping machines. They have no normal chicken behavior, no scratching and clucking around. No normal chicken personality. I was disgusted, and still am disgusted after raising several batches of the little beasts, that we as humans have somehow managed to breed this monster of a bird. We’ve mangled and twisted the genetic makeup so that these creatures no longer have any discernable “chicken” traits, so sad.
Since they do grow so quickly and don’t do any scratching around, poop tends to build up rather quickly. I am still trying to come to grips with a best way to deal with this whole poop thing. I use shavings, but man, even a small batch of 10 birds can completely soak through a full bale of shavings in just a day or too. That’s a bit of money and a whole lot of work shoveling and replacing. Why so much replacing of bedding? Because the Cornish X don’t scratch through the litter. They just sit atop the pile and poop. They drink so much water that the shavings become a wet matted mess almost instantly.
You see it quickly becomes apparent that the coop must be kept dry to keep the overwhelming smell of ammonia at bay. I had read about, but never really experienced the ammonia smell with my laying coop. Meat birds have an incredible ammonia problem which I think comes from the fact that they respire so quickly from all that fast growth and the tons and tons of wet poo. I find myself churning the poo with a rake and hoe since the chickens can’t do it themselves.
Other than dealing with the ammonia-pooh issue, raising meat birds is fairly easy. You just feed them. Constantly. The amount of water they consume is about double the amount of feed so don’t be surprised to find yourself filling up the waterers more than once per day. It is true that the easily found breed of Cornish X is ready for the butcher at 8-10 weeks. I suppose we could push them a little more, but trust me, by the 8th week you want to be rid of them. At 8 weeks, their bodies are so fat and low to the ground they barely move. At feeding time they crowd around and push and shove, their big awkward feet tripping you while your pouring in the grain…once the feed hits the trough, they do indeed sound like pigs slopping it up. Processing them is almost a relief.
We did search around for alternatives to the Cornish X. We don’t have the room to free-range so the Freedom Ranger breed is not really an option. Plus, they poop and eat nearly exactly the same as the Cornish X, without as much breast meat. When you’ve spent a full back breaking day processing these guys, you really appreciate getting the most meat as possible. We’ve processed a few roosters and old laying hens, but there is so many feathers and there isn’t hardly any meat—it’s just not worth it. So Cornish X it is—for now.
I was concerned that the meat would be “different” than store bought and that we wouldn’t really like it—you know, too strong of a taste or perhaps the meat would be tough. No worries though. The meat has incredible texture. Just like a store bought egg is watery, so is store bought chicken meat. Home grown is denser and consequently it seems to take much less of a portion size to fill us up. The flavor is more “chicken-y” than any store bought meat. In fact, after a year or so of eating only home grown chicken, a taste of the store bought kind revealed an odd chemical-like after taste.
Cooking of chicken you raise yourself does not really change that much either. I used to rely on pop up timers that come already neatly inserted into the meat. I now use a good meat thermometer. But smell, look and feel are a much better indicator of correct doneness than the government required 185° pop up timer. Is it that the manufactured chicken is pumped so full of water and “natural juices” that it seems to take so long to cook, or the incredibly high temp of the required 185°, or perhaps the big guys have manufactured them that way so that no matter how much you overcook their product, it always tastes the same?
In any case, after raising a few batches of birds I now notice that the compact shrink-wrapped chicken at the store is so much smaller per pound than my own birds. For instance, I recently noticed one of those membership clubs offering two whole chickens packaged together, I could fit the pack in my two hands. The weight on the package read 9lbs—meaning each chicken weighed 4.5lbs, how could that be? When just one 4lb chicken of my own is so big it takes two hands to carry it alone. The bones seem more rigid on my home grown kind. The legs do stick up and you can actually feel the body has bones. But the packaged version was very mushy, with nary a sign that there were even any bones at all. The legs were soft and bent over neatly along the breast meat. Makes me wonder just how they got those two tiny carcasses to weigh 4.5lbs each.
I also take note of the fact that there is no slime in my home raised meat chickens, whether fresh, or frozen and thawed. So what exactly is that slime on store bought chicken? Where does that come from? Forget it, I don’t think I really want to know.
After investing all that time and effort feeding and caring for them, and then the hard work of processing them, I feel an awareness that the effort must not go to waste. I never ever made my own chicken stock before I started raising my own birds. Now, I can’t throw away the carcass (I freeze the carcasses for when I have the time to make the stock). It’s just too wasteful. That chicken gave its life for me I must use every bit out of respect for its sacrifice.
We’ll continue to raise meat birds, I’ll continue to search for better ways to deal with the poo and I’ll be searching for a less intensive meat breed to raise. If you’ve got a great way to deal with the upkeep of fast growing Cornish X, or have a better breed that yields a decent amount of meat, I’d love to know the details!
31 Comments
What a nasty effort dealing with all that poop, and nasty how you describe the store-bought meat as slimy and watery… So glad I’m vegetarian! Easy and relatively clean to grow my own food. Much rather deal with soil than sh-t.
I have red rangers, it’s an amazing broiler. They grow slower and have no problems at all. They are great outside and average about 6-10 lbs. I fill my freezer every year with them. They also can put in the incubator for hatch. I raised over 100 last year and only lost two with leg problems out of the egg. Try them you will fall in love with them.
I raised 24 CornishX last spring. When they were large enough to take them out of the brooder (a 150 gallon water tank), I put them into a 10×10 dog kennel with a box at one end that was 18″ wide x 9′ long and had about 3″ of fresh hay in the bottom. There were several smallish sage brushes inside the kennel as well which my birds loved to scratch around and climb up in. I found that they did most of their pooping near the 2 waterers so scooped that up a couple of times before processing time. They used the box with hay bedding for sleeping and as a safe haven when scared. The rest of the coop kennel had just a thin layer of hay. They stayed clean and I did not have an ammonia problem. They definitely do grow meat far faster than feathers so they need wind chill protection, which the wooden box at the end gave them, especially when combined with a 4′ high plywood panel on each of the dog kennel panels, but they still had areas most of the day when they could lay in the sun or shade -their choice. I would give them their feed in the feeders in the morning and scatter some whole grains around the coop in the light hay covering. They definitely seemed to enjoy scratching through that light hay cover to find the nuggets of grain hidden in there.
Suzanne, Thanks for sharing your story!
My daughter raised broilers for FFA and won grand champion. We kept two of the hens, just as pets and for experimentation more or less. I named them Winnie and Hen-Hen. I was not able to find any info on what to expect, since they are raised primarily for meat. You are correct about the poop and water BUT I can tell you that they “learn”. They just do what they do because that’s what they’ve always done.
Take their roost for example. When the sun would go down they would always go to the same spot in the pen. They are very much creatures of habit! Me and my daughter would night after night go and move them to the new place with hay and shelter for the night. After some time of doing this they “learned” the new spot. Also they were very docile at night and easy to move.
Our two hens have a large sized pen and they do scratch, they just have to learn this. It took a few days, but now i have no feeders and they just scratch.
Also when I mow in the summer, i let them out to eat the crickets and grasshoppers. They roam all over the yard, scratching and pecking and even running to catch them!
It took about 8 months but i also have eggs now! I get on average an egg a day from both of them together.
Sandy,
Thanks so much for sharing your story with us all!!
Dealing with poop and wet bedding. When I raise Cornish X, usually only 5 or 6 at a time, I just keep piling on the shavings and straw, kinda alternating them – and turning it. My experience is that straw is the better bet (less expensive for one thing), but it’s good to have something more absorbent in between the layers of straw. I usually butcher at 6-7 weeks, and move all that wet bedding to my garden – as soon as I have an open bed – to over winter. Next spring’s crop in that bed will love you – and you, it!
Jeanette,
Thanks so much for the suggestions!
Hey there, in answer to your question, check the ingredients to see if it is all chicken. Sure, you might think it is because you bought the whole carcass, but you may notice it say something like “Saline added for flavor”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxR1SP5dFLk
A little salt water goes a long way to making a small chicken a lot heavier.
Also, top foods at least has proven that they aren’t very honest about weights:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/foods-accused-overcharging-exaggerating-weight-packaged-foods-officials/story?id=32002573
So, was it really 9 pounds? Did you weigh it?
Just some food for thought.
I love raising the Cornish X for meat, you are right they are eating and crapping machines. I find that they don’t actually crap as much by the Food trough I built, but most of the defication happens when they drink, so I keep the waterer’s 4 or 5 feet away from the feed, and keep that area cleaner by raking and replacing the bedding chips, easier than doing the whole enclosed pen. The chips I get for free from a small sawmill and they work excellent and they are FREE. I also find it good to walk them, by going in the enclosure a few times a day and move them back and forth 2 or 3 times, not to stress them, but they seem to be healthier and I have never had any leg or heart attack Issues. Good Luck. ps put the worms in the Feed trough and they might just eat them, as they are conditioned to eat freely from the trough or feeder?
Aww.. my cornish x birds are very sweet… they scratch and peck and do everything my laying hens do… I give them worms and corn on the ground and they eat them all.. today they’re having some watermelon and yogurt.. they love it.. mine are really not gross at all.. they are heavy and we will butcher this weekend but they still get around good… they act like all my other chickens act.. just a lot bigger… not sluggish or lazy at all!!!
My Cornish X do scratch around, I showed them how. When they were about 4 days old I would clean the poop out of the brooder and use a cat litter scoop and some would watch intently and start trying to sit on the scoop and scratch inside of it. The others that were scared of the scoop would follow the lead of the ones who learned it from me. Also making little hills and valleys with the bedding I noticed encouraged it. Like the HAVE to have their bedding flat or something. I even got them to roost! I put a little dowel in the brooder about a inch or so off the ground.
I had started with laying hens and got curious about raising a meat chicken. So one spring day while looking at the straight run layers I saw the last 11 CX’s at TSCo & bought them with a few others. I put them in a small outdoor pen and a lot of what I read was true. Lazy, lots of poop, slug chickens is what they were. I fed a starter feed but fed only what could be ate in a few minutes and let them scratch as the others did. Reading how they gained weight fast and often had broken bone issues I thought more calcium with the more active life style brought on by the influence of the more typical chickens that they were housed with might be successful. I cut their food with a bit of laying crumbles and kept them free ranging when I could turn them out and supplemented wholesome kitchen scraps for them to scratch through and snack on. It seemed to be working. I moved them at a good age in with my adult flock and they continued to thrive adjusting to the new pecking order made them move. I butchered 6 of the CX roosters at 12 weeks a bit later than I wanted to but life happens. They seemed healthy, HEAVY, but no broken bones, no other obvious health issues. They are a turn off because of what “man” has done to them but with the influences of other chickens and some free range opportunities they can be healthy. I still have 4 hens that lay for me… on the ground. I lost one to a fox while free ranging. The poor girls don’t fly, they use their wing for balance and momentum to jump heights up to 18″-24″s (shockingly). Their chests are huge but they get around well and are now 9 months old and still holding up. They are obviously different from the rest of the flock when visitors come by but on the other hand are very friendly and personable. I will not be cruel if they seem to be stressed because they aren’t meant to live that long – they will be processed for soup. I have fed them well & nurtured them and in the end they can do the same for us.
Suzanne – do research into Capons. I just googled, “what is a capon” This may give you an alternative to your concerns with commercial breeding.
We have found that if you age your chickens in the refrigerator for a day or two, after butchering and before freezing them, the meat will be more tender. Try it and see if you can tell a difference.
The reason I’m here is that I was wondering how much to feed the CX as I have had a pretty good experience with getting my birds to free range having 40 CX with my 7 Rhode Island hens they have taught them how to forage, I laughed when I saw that a good feed formula is 30lb per bird to get them to 10lbs, my 45 birds have only had 150 lbs of feed total in 8 weeks, corn oats and chick starter mixed. I have dressed about 7 already that have had leg problems and lost 3 chicks due to whatever. but at this time I will be lucky if I can dress one out at 3 lbs, I was getting sick of them laying around but I guess you need to give them feed like crazy to get them to grow as fast as they are supposed to. I am looking at the flock for a god roo to keep around and try to cross it with a Rhode and see what kind of bird I get
Do you process them yourself? I am still in the reading stage of this….don’t really have the land for a chicken tractor unless I can talk the neighbours into letting me um…fertilize their land for them but from what I’ve read here it sounds like that is the option I’d prefer.
“Now, I can’t throw away the carcass (I freeze the carcasses for when I have the time to make the stock). It’s just too wasteful. That chicken gave its life for me I must use every bit out of respect for its sacrifice.”
Very well said.
Pam
You have to limit their feed to keep them from laying around all the time. They will still never really act like your layer birds, but they will be more active and get out of the house to look for bugs, etc. if they only get to eat a certain amount twice a day. I never feed mine the meat bird feed, they grow too fast for their own good as it is. Trust me, these birds were made to grow, and that is what they will do no matter how they are fed/housed.
I am thinking about trying the Cornish Roasters instead of the Jumbo Cornish X this spring. They are supposed to have a slightly slower growth rate and act more natural. I get my chicks from McMurray’s, you could probably find them at other hatcheries too though.
Oh, and Suzane-You are very right about not wanting to know what that “slime” is! I have been reading up on the way these birds are raised and slaughtered, and I WILL NEVER eat store bought chicken again!! They live in inhumane conditions, and are processed in unsanitary ways. Yucky, to say the least.
Thank you for all the ideas. Maybe my Cornish X act like that because of no other real chickens are kept with them. I’ll have to give that idea some thought…I also like the idea of using dual purpose breeds, such as Jersey Giants and the Dark Cornish described. But my experiences with hatchery stock of dual purpose breeds has been really disappointing. I tried the Giants but they never attained good size and same with Orpingtons, both from a hatchery. Recently I obtained some excellent quality breeder stock Orpingtons and the size difference is like night and day; they are not that old before they get large. At just 6 months old my Orpington hens were two to three times the size of my 2 year old hatchery hens. I have only 1 enormous roo from the breeder stock and he’s less than a year. I am trying to see how I could possibly raise broilers from breeder stock. But then, the price is so much more for a good bird, and it seems a bit of a waste of money for a good quality bird to end up on the table. On the other hand, if I only raise out excess cockerels…I wish we could get the hatcheries to either supply better quality stock of the different breeds or start over with the Cornish X to have them less genetically engineered to be Frankenchickens.
Same exact experience here – cornish x’s taste great but they are such slugs. We had some laying chicks in with them, the layers would go outside, while the big fat white birds layed around by the feeder. Last year I tried two other breeds: Delaware & Buckeye. My experience was that while they were extremely chicken-y, they are not as good in taste. Flavor of the Buckeye was good, downside was dark pin feathers and not very big. Delawares were just tougher, like a game bird almost – but they are a very active breed so that’s not really surprising. This year we are going to go back to cornish x’s but they will be in a chicken tractor and moved daily. Forcing them to be outside seems like the way to go, and moving often should keep the fertilizer spread out. There was supposed to be a guy working to breed a Corndel – cornish delaware cross, but apparently he has gone to China and no one picked up his work. If I could do this full time, I would do this full time, it sure sounds like there is a niche for a good farm meat bird!!!
After one year with Cornish Cross we decided that was enough. We experienced everything the author did and were totally grossed out by the birds. I have heard that they can live a somewhat normal life if they are allowed to free range, but I don’t believe it. I think just that these birds exist is gross.
We raised Dark Cornish this year and they are totally different birds. They forage like champions and don’t die of overeating. They are smaller and take longer to grow, but are totally worth it. The portion size of a cornish x might be big, but it seems totally unnatural. If you adjust your expectations, the Dark Cornish can be rewarding. Yes, processing is horrible, but so is raising gross birds with a miserable existence.
We raise our own meat to lessen our impact on the planet – purchasing large amounts of feed which is grown with high input industrial practices and transported all across the country, doesn’t fit with our goals. So the tradeoff of the smaller birds and longer growing time is worth it for us.
I’d like to raise some meat birds this coming year for the first time. We are considering Jersey Giants. Has anyone tried them for meat birds? The little research I’ve done has resulted in the following: they butcher at 20 weeks, they weigh in at 10-16 lbs live weight, they act like “regular” chickens, they are also layers, and don’t get them from the place you get the layers because they won’t be big meat birds. Get them from a place that specializes in Jersey Giants and ask if they “weigh in”. Does this sound too good to be true to anyone else? Kornmamma
I’ve never tried raising meat birds yet, and have only helped process a few birds so far: a couple of our own roosters, and I helped with someone else’s batch of Cornish Cross.
I have read of people who bought Cornish Cross day-old chicks when they had a broody hen available to raise them, and that it was a completely different experience. The mom teaches them to scratch and forage, and they do learn more typical chicken behaviors from her. That sounds like a better alternative, and I may try it someday.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
We do our own meat chickens, and have experienced what you describe when we keep them confined. We have had the best luck in growth and taste when we keep them confined for the first two weeks and then leave them loose in the orchard 24/7. Our LGD keeps them safe, and by only feeding them as much as they can eat in 10 minutes twice a day, we ensure that they do indeed go foraging.
Our birds will scratch, peck, and graze. It does help to have a few pullets or laying chicks mixed in – they will teach the others how to act.
Our chick supplier of choice is Moyers Chicks in Quakertown PA. They have the BEST cornish crosses – grow fast and heavy even with minimal feed.
I have had good luck when I bed with shavings AND keep a half dozen hen chicks in with them – I sprinkle whole grain in the bedding before evening feeding, and they all get to work scratching.
The trick is not to overfeed them – if you do, it will suppress the natural foraging instinct.
– Rosalyn
We have places that processes wood, ie. For pallets, logs to boards, etc. And they give the sawdust, shaving, bark by product away. So you just load it into your truck and pile it next to your chicken coop to use as you need. We had Cornish cross but our chickens free ranged and they acted just like the others so I don’t understand why yours where retarded. Maybe you should mix some egg layered in with them. If you free range chickens, you need to be prepared for a tougher bird that needs to be cooked low and slow. I love watching chickens. Its way more intertaining than the Kardasians.
We fed our Cornish X “flock raiser” feed that is high in protein (about 20%). Because their lifespan is so much shorter, we only fed them a starter food for the first few weeks before switching to the layer. Although we did allow them to free-range some, they were generally quite lazy and preferred to rely on food from the feeders.
I did not have good luck with sand. The poo just mushed into the sand and made glop. It didn’t drain as I thought it would, just made cement! I have much better luck raking up pine needles. I line the coop with them, about 6 or 8 inches deep, and they stay airy and fluffy, even after several nights of the big birds bedding down. It helps to turn the pine needles with a pitchfork once a day. I get WAY more mileage out of pine needles than wood shavings, which seem to hold moisture and odors and are EXPENSIVE. For the outdoor run, I just rake the grass/dirt daily with a small garden rake (smaller tines closer together) and use a giant shop-sized dustpan to haul the poo to the compost pile. While Cornish X don’t forage in the grass like egg-layers, they do seem to appreciate lying in the soft cool grass, and I feel better knowing they have a clean place to lie all day. I elevate their feeder on bricks so they can’t lie down to eat.
Ive read about the Cornish X, do you feed them a special feed. I’ve read that you have to so they can put the weight on quickly, or do you feed them regular scratch and grains?
Sand may be a better floor covering. While the labor will be similar it’s inexpensive and the manure will compost quickly if you mix in some lime after removal.
If you have the room you can put them in a chicken tractor. We used five 6×10′ chain link dog kennel panels, arranged in a circle with the tractor inside. We moved the whole thing every other day. Once the birds got to about 5 weeks old we opened the kennel gate and let them free range. They did learn to eat bugs and grass and would scratch around a bit but not like our layers. Actually, they probably learned it from watching the layers. Like you, we found them disgusting, but very tasty. We did two batches of 36 last year and will do even more this year because we have lots of friends who want to buy some 🙂