Woo hoo so excited

Could not wait any longer so I butchered my firsts Mistral gris yesterday at 11 and 1/2 weeks old. They are on full feed 24 7 and it tipped the scales dressed at a whopping 21.2 oz. At least I don't have to share it and can say I ate a whole chicken for supper.

You should try rabbit instead, mine tipp the scales at a solid 9.0 lbs live weight at 12 weeks...

Nothing tastes as good as something that you have put your heart into!!
Now for the rabbit, I'm guessing that's about 4 lbs. dressed, correct? If so, that's roughly the same as or a bit less than a broiler.
Here is a question for you Piet. What is the cost compared to a broiler to get a rabbit to that weight?

Dressed you are looking about 65%, so a carcass can be 5.85lbs at 12 weeks. I am not sure how much broilers eat before they hit 12 weeks, but rabbits don't start eating until about 3 weeks and just eat a little then (milk first) so the cost of 8 young rabbits goes into feeding the mother for the first 3 weeks and then they all eat together. Gestation period is about 32 days with these big ones, often 33 so you have to include that also. No artificial heat necessary (broodlamp) Once they are about 5 weeks they really suck down the feeder, but they don't waste feed like chickens do. I would be surprised if rabbits cost more to get up that size, I think broilers would eat more and waste more. I buy rabbit feed for 13.50/50lb bag

I guess they are designed to be processed at that tender age, just like the ones bought in the store....but why? You must have known that they would be teeny tiny just by looking at them. 21.2 ounces? I thought you might have meant pounds, but then that is the size of a small turkey. Aren't these supposed to be meat birds? Designed for meat purposes. I wonder why so teeny tiny.....11.5 weeks old, hmmmm...think my breeds are bigger than that at 11.5 weeks old. Wonder if they were stunted in growth. This to me is perplexing as I know of the breed, very little, but I have heard that they grow fast, or at least I thought that I had read that. I know if a chick survives coccidiosis, they are extremely stunted, (and probably other chicken malades too cause stunted growth). Did your youngsters contract something that may have caused stunted growth? Just asking. Did you get information about what age the mistral gris should be processed at? I would be curious about that too. Good in a way, nice meal for a person that is only feeding one. That would be OK for me, my Husband does not eat meat, so I would like something like that. My wishes for a wonderful day to you, CynthiaM.

Oh ya, Piet, one day I might be wantin' some o' those breed o' rabbits you got goin' there. I am trying to venture out into different fields of meat eatin, tried home grown lamb, now hooked on that beautiful days to us all, CynthiaM.

Do you have any pictures of your feast, Lazyfarmer? I am a metric girl and don't know a lot about ounces. Are you saying this is smaller than you expected for birds at this age? If so, I can see why people like the Frankenchickens.

A while back I posted pictures of my Cornish. They are bantams so time, weight and size cannot be compared, but perhaps feed conversion might. Those little bantams, even the chubby Cornish are tiny eaters, and if you have them outside eating bugs and other free feed, I wonder how feed conversion stacks up

I have over a hundred tiny Cornish running around here. They all get to grow up to the point that I can select the best ones to continue with, and the others will make 100 delicious dinners!

I've been hearing very mixed reviews about the MGs. I wonder why results are not consistent...some people are raving about them and others are experiencing poor growth rates. Some people have even said they have some very slow growers that don't put on weight and faster growing birds all in the same flock.

Getting the Mistral Gris has to be a lot more hassle and expense, just because of the extra cost to have them shipped in from the states, and the extra paperwork for crossing the border etc. Speaking only for myself, I think the only time I would put in the time and effort to bring birds across the border would be to buy some special breeding stock. MGs, being a hybrid are not going to breed true so unless someone wants to experiment with adding them to their own meat mix, they aren't particulary useful for breeding stock.

LFarmer, I hopw you and others growing the rustic broilers will continue to keep us all posted as you continue to process your birds. This is something rather new, so it is a great opportunity to learn from those of you who took the plunge and decided to give them a try.
It is great to hear updates on how they perform, as this will help others decide whether it is worth the hassle to bring them in when the regular broilers are so easy to buy at any local hatchery.

Piet, I think it would be hard to out perform those amazing rabbits of yours. Sorry to go off topic, but do you keep the pelts? I wondered if there would be a market for the rabbit skins?

Piet I would like some big rabbits. I bought some at aution that were labeled flemish giant but should have been labeled dwarf as they are 2 pounds live at 14 weeks. I even talked to the breeder but some breeders don't always tell the whole story, or I failed to ask the right questions. I do the same thing, people always ask if they can pet my dogs, I say yes, then the dog bites them. They say I thought you said I could pet the dog but it bite me. They did not ask if it would bite they assumed that if they could pet the dog it would not bite. ASSUME NOTHING. I have dobermans but only two will bite, you just have to figure out which ones.
I ordered 100 MGs now at 12 weeks I have 38 left alive that average 2 pounds live, that is very poor. This one pound chicken cost me $13.93, not very cheap way of feeding oneself. These chicks were stressed getting here hence all the losses. I took some to the vet he could find nothing wrong and we tried several different meds nothing helped, they did not have coccidiosis. If anyone was looking to get them I would say they should be home and on feed in 2 days or you may end up with the same disaster I have.
I would never keep these genetics for my flock unless I wanted to introduce really slooooow growing to my chickens. If I am not mistaken most are trying to speed up growth.
These MGs should be 5 pounds dressed at 12 weeks.
Sue I think 1 pound is 454 grams so this chiken was about 525 grams, yes waaaay smaller then I was expecting.

I bought Freedom Rangers, which are also a slow growing broiler that have some of the same lines in as Mistral Gris. This is the second year. I bought them from Beau Peep Farms in Chilliwack. Last year I butchered at 13 weeks,the smallest was 5.5 pounds and the largest was 9.8 pounds. I never lost one bird they are like a normal chicken. They appear to convert feed in an efficient manner, and eat veggies.
Yesterday IG and I butchered 5 of the FR's at 10 1/2 weeks old the smallest was 5.8 pounds and the largest is 6.6 pounds, we cut off the wing tips and the pope's nose.
I'm going to grow out the other 15 for 2 weeks and then get weights on them.
The Freedom Rangers are more expensive than the Frankenbirds, but worth the extra $$

I have never tried the MG, but I do raise the franken chickens. We range them in movable pens, moved daily to fresh grass after brooding the first 3 weeks in a barn. They grow well and do well. We feed them on average 10 gallons of feed a day (1/2 pellets and 1/2 grain), they have enough room to move around the pen, get fresh air, eat grass and we never lost any this year to heart attacks or leg problems. We butchered the first batch at 8 weeks of age, the lightest was 4.5 lbs, the heaviest almost 7 lbs. We will be doing the next batch 2 weeks later and I am guessing they will average 6 lbs.
So for me I will continue with the franken chickens, they do well by me.

Lazyfarmer, sometimes when chicks are chilled or stressed in the first couple days of life that stunts them and they never seem to recover, especially the meat birds. One thing from your comments about these birds and the rabbits you picked up makes me wonder about the quality and protein of your feed, these birds need lots to grow and that possibly could be one issue?

I had more information typed then just as I am ready to post I lost it all, this has happened several times. I then type out a shortened post as I am so slow at typing I can't do the whole thing again.I had mentioned that I have orpingtons that are 10 weeks and weight 4.5 pounds that are free range and on the same feed as the MGs,as I thought someone would question feed.

Crap eh? I have heard good things about the freedom rangers too (Cowgirlup seems to come to mind), can't remember any others. This is just bad about the weight of the mistral gris and looks like it has peed many people off. Oh blah.

Jayme, did you ever look into what is wrong with this forum technology with losing posts. I am going to start a thread and see if it can go anywhere. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

lazyfarmer wrote:.
Sue I think 1 pound is 454 grams so this chiken was about 525 grams, yes waaaay smaller then I was expecting.

I should say so!

You may want to look at having a few Cornish bantams. Now don't laugh. They grow quickly, eat much less, and the birds I ate at three/four months old averaged about 750 grams and this was a lot of meat on a tiny skeleton. I also did not eat my fattest ones. Those I kept for breeding. I would say that the biggest one I had would have been over a kg dressed.

Anyway, back to the tiny skeleton. It also makes sense to grow a bird that has less bone. Your weight will yield mostly meat.

Mine are also death to mice and hunt them like packs of wolves. I don't care where they get their protein!

The question about protein was not really answered... Orp's grow differently the Mistral Gris. Mistral Gris put the frame on sooner then most chickens (or this is what i believe from talking with a few friends that have raised them). They would require more protein in there feed then orps. And if you are not feeding properly calculated feed this would effect the growth rate. Orps put the frame on for the first half year (at least the ones i rasied did) so they have a longer time to build that frame a feed with lower protein % would not effect them that much.


Just my 0.02

Well if feed is the problem then all the chickens should be effected. I was lead to believe the problem would be they would grow to fast and to restrict feed somewhat. My neighbor is raising hers on total different feed store feed then mine but her are still small like mine. Another person refers to her MGs as NO grow chickens. Mine were raised on starter then grower for the first 8 weeks, I would have expected them to be 3 to 4 pounds by then. It is strange that only the MGs are slow growing and the other breeds I have are doing great, all on the same feed and free range.

lazyfarmer wrote:Well if feed is the problem then all the chickens should be effected. I was lead to believe the problem would be they would grow to fast and to restrict feed somewhat. My neighbor is raising hers on total different feed store feed then mine but her are still small like mine. Another person refers to her MGs as NO grow chickens. Mine were raised on starter then grower for the first 8 weeks, I would have expected them to be 3 to 4 pounds by then. It is strange that only the MGs are slow growing and the other breeds I have are doing great, all on the same feed and free range.

Then I would think they were chilled as chicks. It takes a long time for young birds to grow past that start and to recover. If they were chilled before you got them their growth may have been stunted.