Mistral Gris vs. white broiler

Well, the Mistral Gris broilers are now 9 weeks old, and the white broilers are 8 weeks.  Thought you might like to see some pictures.


So far the Mistral Gris are still slightly larger than the white broilers, so I would say they are neck & neck for growth.  Very interesting…

I expect to butcher most of them in about 2 weeks. Then will be the TASTE comparison! I will do some weight comparisons before taking them to the butcher. Losses have been minimal for both breeds, due to raising them on pasture in the broiler tractor.  They are still very messy, so am moving them 2 or 3 times a day.  I suppose if there were fewer birds per square foot, I wouldn’t need to move as often.
Their biggest requirement is water.  They go through lots and lots of water.  At Chickens 009first my gravity fed Bell Waterer was working great, but it must have become plugged or something.  I haven’t dismantled it yet to find out.  Just lugging a big bucket of water out to them twice a day instead.  There are 37 birds and they go through about 4 Ketchup cans of non-GMO layer per day. That’s a 3 litre Heinz can, so quite a bit of feed. I know, it’s not grower feed, but I haven’t been able to find one that is non-GMO, so they may have grown a bit faster on the grower. The good news is, only one white broiler with any leg issues, and that manifested at only a couple of weeks old. I am amazed at how issue free, health-wise, all of these birds are!  I bought 25 Mistral Gris and 15 broilers. I lost 1 MG right off the bat, and 1 broiler due to my own stupidity, and butchered the broiler with the gibbled leg to spare him further misery.  Not bad at all! Last time I raised white broilers, 2 years ago, they were out in a pasture pen with plenty of grass, and were so un-healthy I swore I wouldn’t bother with them again! So many with bruised, bald keels and gibbled legs, not to mention dropping over dead for no apparent reason. I am convinced the twice daily moves to fresh pasture have been key to the fantastic health of these birds.

They look good! Sounds like pasture raised meaties is a good way to go. I've never actually had meat birds before, but might consider it with a similar set up. Can't wait for the taste comparison. Yum.

Once you have naturally raised chicken it is hard to go back to store bought.

Flicker Chick wrote:They look good! Sounds like pasture raised meaties is a good way to go. I've never actually had meat birds before, but might consider it with a similar set up. Can't wait for the taste comparison. Yum.

I pasture raise my meaties, done it for a few years now. I grow them 8 weeks and end up with a nice 5ish lb bird dressed and very flavourful. I've never tried growing the Mistral Gris.

Has anyone tried the Berg Grazers or Freedom Rangers for meaties?

authenticfarm wrote:Has anyone tried the Berg Grazers or Freedom Rangers for meaties?

I've raised Freedom Rangers for the last 3 years. Very good success with them. I want to do a comparison with them and the Mistral Gris, hopefully it will work out next year.
I haven't lost any Freedom Rangers. They are easy keepers. First two years I've butchered around  13 weeks. The average weights were between 5 1/2 pounds to 10 pounds. Very delicious, no bruising tender but not mushy. My husband ,who no longer likes chicken, wanted me to butcher sooner so he doesn't have left overs all week. This year I took them in around 8  weeks and the smallest was 4.23 pounds and the largest was 5.62. I have them in a large yard free ranging, I feed Top Shelf Grower ration, which is Non GMO'd, scratch and vegetable and fruit leftovers and scraps.

I want to try meat birds again next year. Last year and this year I have just done the dark Cornish and what ever roosters I don't keep. Very tasty, but want to try a comparison.

Nice healthy looking birds. I'll be interested in your opinion on the comparison after they are butchered. I have let my meaties out to free range the last few days and they really seem to be enjoying themselves. They are a bit more active now than the first day I let them out and some of them actually try to run and fly when I open the door in the morning. It's hilarious but good to see. From now on I will be free ranging my meaties and believe they will be healthier for it.

debbiej wrote: I feed Top Shelf Grower ration, which is Non GMO'd, scratch and vegetable and fruit leftovers and scraps.

Where do you find this grower ration?  I did a search online and didn't find anything about it.  Who makes it? I have been feeding Natural Harvest layer because this was the only non-GMO feed I could find.

The birds are in the truck, ready to take in to the butcher EARLY in the morning. Ugh, gotta get up at 6:30. 

The MG's are 12 weeks old and the white broilers are 11 weeks.  I held back 5 of each because they need to grow some more.  Kept one MG cockerel and threw it in the pen with my Cornish crosses to see if he can breed.

The MG's did not develop nearly as meaty breasts compared to the WB's, but better than the dual purpose roos. Meaty legs, though. Will get some carcass weight comparisons tomorrow. Taking in a total of 17 MG's and 8 WB's.

I'd be interested in knowing the average dressed weight for both.
I've never grown my white meat birds longer than 9 weeks and usually grow them more like 8.
I can't imagine what they'd weigh at 11 weeks

I can't wait to see pictures of carcass comparison!

I have my final report posted here: http://sucellusfarms.ca/blog/

Excellent report, Sucellus!

To be honest, I was a little surprised at the weights of your broilers. I would have expected them to be heavier by that age. However, my weights have always been for birds that only eat grower pellets, and no grass. I'm guessing that the overall protein intake of your pastured birds might have been a bit lower to account for the lighter weights PLUS the fact that they got more exercise, walking around eating grass, than the typical broiler does.

Did you notice any carcass differences for sex? As in, did male MG have a noticeably different carcass finish than the females? Or were all the butchered MGs roosters?

I ask because even in the broilers I find the roos has an overall longer, thinner, larger frame which can give him an almost thin appearance, where the hen has shorter legs, thicker thighs, rounder, denser, breast and to me, an overall more pleasant, plump look in the roaster. I think hens gain weight faster too, putting more into meat/fat where the roo puts more growth energy into a larger frame. So, did your research include gender differences in carcass finish size? If all your MGs were roos, this sex difference might account for the less meaty breasts. You'd need an equal amount of MG hens to do a true comparison, because the two sexes do look different as carcasses.

You've got me, Uno... I was told my MG's were all roos, but if I didn't know that I would think I had some of each. Some were single barred, small combed, and shorter boned. There were some of each sex in the WB's, I believe. My WB's came from the auction and I assume they were un-sexed. You may well be correct that they were roos, and so not as meaty in the breast. Even so, I think I prefer the white broilers because they make a more attractive carcass with their white feathers. I never thought I would say I prefer white broilers to another type that gain as well.

My birds would definitely have gotten a lower percentage of protein because I raised them on layer rather than grower pellets.  I don't mind that they took longer to grow.  I am more concerned with their overall health and quality of life. Up until now I have found raising meat birds a dirty, smelly, disgusting, but necessary evil. This year was quite pleasant.  

What I forgot to mention in my report was that my WB's were not half bald as in other years, but fully feathered, so a much more attractive bird. This is also important to me, as I love showing friends and customers around, and don't want my meat birds to be unattractive.

This is still excellent and extremely useful information. I find a lot of meaning in an unbiased and honest report of someone's methods and results. Your personal experience conveys more to me than some nameless, faceless Ag Canada report, let's say.

THe broilers you bought at auction, can I ask, why at auction? Why not as day olds from a hatchery? Were they day olds when you got them or older?

I like to get my meat birds as day olds because their biggest growth window is when they are young. After a certain age they stop gaining weight as fast and the bigger they get, the more inefficient they get at converting feed to growth. I discovered this by feeding less than normal, to avoid crippling, and ended up with skinny, boney, pitiful looking birds. It was horrible how they looked, and I had NOT starved them! I kept a few back and threw the food to them heavy but it made no difference. Their optimum growth time was over and that extra pound or half pound was the most expensive pound of the whole chicken.

People who buy birds at 6 weeks and then finish them will be buying someone else's good decision or bad decisions. By that time the optimum growth is over and your last few weeks of finishing will put a nice finish on a well raised bird. But it will not correct a poorly raised bird. Unless you know the raising/feeding practices of the seller, I would never buy half finished birds, because their best growth time is over and it was either utilized or wasted. Either way, you pay for it.

All that aside, this is excellent information.

You know you may have got your MG's as part of the same batch I did - I just took mine to the butcher too (also WAAAYYY to early in the morning) on Monday - I was told all of mine were males but I can confirm now that 3 of them were hens - and I think Ruffled Feathers, who shared the order with me, had even more. She told me the hens were dark with very small combs while the males were lighter coloured (vaious patterns) and bigger combs.

Waiting to get mine back.

So it looks like growing the white broiler seems to be the way to go then?
as far as input costs go it would appear that the white bird would be more economical. Cheaper chick cost, shorter growing time, more breast.????

I pasture my white meat birds as well, but I only grow them 8-9 weeks and end up with an average dressed weight of more like 4.6lbs
Once moved out of the brooding area (at the age of 2.5weeks) ......
Their feeder has 20% grower (non-med) and also get damaged veggies and kitchen composty stuff along with the grass/alfalfa field their pen is on.

My broilers were purchased from the auction as day olds on impulse. I had sworn off white broilers last year. They did have free choice chick starter to 3 wks of age when I moved them out to the pasture pen. From then on they got 16% Natural Harvest non gmo layer pellets. I was feeding 36 birds 2 of the big Heinz catsup tins full twice a day. It seems to have worked well. I am very happy with the results.

My MG's came from True North about May 3rd as day olds shipped from the U.S. I was told they were all roosters, but, as I said, many of them look like hens. I'll try to get a pic up tomorrow of each type so you can see what I mean. I still have 6 live birds. There isn't much variation in size of breast in the MG's I have butchered already, so would indicate both males and females do not develop as meaty breasts as the WB's, if I do, indeed, have both sexes in the MG's.

The factor that really needs to be monitored is feed consumption per kg slaughtered weight.

If a mistral gris (MG) takes two weeks longer than a white broiler (WB) to reach, say, 7 lb, that's a big deal for commercial growers who rear continuously; less so for backyard folks. We do two crops a year, period, so speed really doesn't matter to us. What DOES matter is how much feed it takes for each breed to reach the target weight. I haven't done the study, and don't know if anyone else has, but it's not at all obvious that the WBs would win. The MGs forage much more widely (although our WBs forage as well as their fat little legs allow them to) and I'm guessing that they probably get way more of their nutrients from bugs and seeds than the meaties.

I know a few years ago we raised a few turkeys, and I was absolutely blown away by how LITTLE feed they consumed, compared to the WBs, although feed was freely available to both, at all times. The turkeys were all well over 20 lbs at slaughter, at about 6 months.

Turkeys are much more efficient. I find the dark Cornish to be very efficient as well. Take a lot longer to grow but taste great.

Thought you might like a good pic of the MG carcasses. Here's one showing the black spots in the skin I was talking about.

Was a Silkie use way back to make this meat bird?

bcboy wrote:Was a Silkie use way back to make this meat bird?

The black is caused by an inky substance in the feathers, Almost all birds with black feathers have this inky stuff. it goes away when you cook it.
Silkie's skin is dark purple, it's still a fairly sought out meat in the asian markets.

When we buy meat birds from the local hatchery, they often give us the chicks that have the odd black feather. The meat growers will not accept the black feathered chicks because the other chickens really peck them plus the flecked look of the carcass. The hatchery doesn't know what to do with these rejected chicks so when a private buyer comes along, they are happy to have somewhere to send them!

So all white meat birds (these are called a Cob and the eggs are shipped in from Arkansas!) can show the odd black feather. The specks have never bothered us. We think of them as freckles.