Meat Birds?-what would you use?

Awe kelowna processor is a good lady. I know the one in armstrong charges $7 each for those guys. It was on the info sheet when I had my ducks done.

What does the armstron hatchery charge for their meat birds?

Holy crap $7 a bird!  After feeding, caring for them that is some VERY expensive chicken dinner!

SerJay wrote:Holy crap $7 a bird!  After feeding, caring for them that is some VERY expensive chicken dinner!

I'm going to learn how to do it myself. Otherwise I cannot sell this interest to my family as viable. Have borrowed a book from someone called The Small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery which shows what I think are really good color photographs of the whole process. Nothing like helping someone do it to learn though so going to keep an eye out for that opportunity.

bckev wrote:What does the armstron hatchery charge for their meat birds?

This year it's been 1.20$ for non-quota people like us....not sure if it's going up in 2014

We were lucky and someone through our 4-H club was a butcher and helped us city folk figure out how to set up properly and get our 37 MGs done last year.  This year we did it on our own.  It was 4days of crappy work but we have very full freezers, chickens done stress free and frozen the way we wanted them done.  $7 is crazy!!!

Well and the extra growing time etc would make for an expensive birds.

seriously would never pay 7$/ bird.
buy one of these [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Say you do 50 birds a year, this puppy has completely paid for itself in under 3 years (heck share it with a friend)

If you're not selling them, you don't need them gov't inspected

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HigginsRAT wrote:I would choose to be one of my Sing Brightly Happy Hens and Roos any day over a hybridized Frankenbird.  They seem dumb to me, mechanized eating and crapping machines that bring no real pleasure to witness their unnatural growth rates, inabilities to deal with diseases, and blown hearts and leg bones.  We can try to raise them up right, but why invest efforts in products like that when heritage stocks excel in these aspects, already!!  

That's the thing I remember most from my one experience raising frankenbirds - that they are DISGUSTING. Eat and poop, no brains, just sit and wait for the next meal to arrive. They stank and they were so gross. And that was with trying to raise them slowly.

My lovely heritage breeds are so much different. I LIKE my heritage layers; I HATED the frankenbirds with a fiery burning passion.

[quote="HigginsRAT 
As natural as possible.  I personally am of the the mindset that you are what you eat and I would choose to be one of my Sing Brightly Happy Hens and Roos any day over a hybridized Frankenbird.  [/quote]
hopefully, I have done the quote properly
So, I was under the impression that the Mistral Gris were a true heritage cross of 4 different breeds, but that they are true, in that you can breed them and they will produce the same item.....are these considered Frankenbirds?

In that you can breed the Mistral Gris or their four grandparents?

I know you can't breed Mistral Gris to Mistral Gris and get a Mistral Gris. You always have to go back to that four way cross.

Mistral Gris is not a breed of chicken and certainly not a heritage breed. They are careful compilation of several breeds.
A "true heritage cross" doesn't really mean anything other than mutt to me. However saying that, mutts can be some of the most colorful and enjoyable chickens on the farm!

p.s. Heda Gobbler, I think you did a great job explaining those 3 categories of meat chickens.

Thanks Kathy S. Now I'm interested in the kinds of Conventional Meat Birds, as it seems to me some people have a better experience with some of them than others. Is a Cornish Cross for example better than a Ross? Or are they all fairly much of a kind and it's the way they are raised? Hatcheries seem to offer different kinds that seem to turn out looking very similar.

My understanding of the Mistral Gris is that you'd have to go back a long way in its pedigree to find a recognized pure heritage breed bird. Same with Freedom and Rainbow rangers.

Magdelan wrote:

uno wrote:

Okanagan Hatchery in Armstrong sells day old meat birds year round.

I telephoned this hatchery and asked what kind of birds they raise.  The woman said Cobb and Ross.  I am also looking at all possibilities and watching this thread closely to see what everyone else says (suspect I'll settle on using the birds we have already but still interested to see what comes up).  Did a quick search to see what they were like  -  love pictures  -  thd first link has a couple of pictures of these breeds and little blurb about them:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

and then this link which casts a not so favorable picture but has another link within for freedomrangers:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  (hatchery in PA, States I guess)

I am going to try some of the Cobb ones, they look good on there feet?
Thanks

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Oh, brother. We are going to kick dirt on meatbirds because they are gross, eating, pooping machines? People, is this a popularity contest? Are we wanting to eat chickens we want to be friends with? Do we only want to raise chickens we'd be seen in public with?

I think to shun a meatbird based on its perceived personality is...(choose your own adjective and insert here).

I suppose if you expect some aesthetic quality from your food, well, okay, perhaps meatbirds are not the most glamorous. BUt if putting food on the table is your goal then there is NOTHING, dollar for dollar, pound for pound, that holds a candle to the lowly, maligned meatbird. Do you want chickens to feed you or be your best friend? THe dog and milk cow can be your best friends, let the meatbirds be what they are: FOOD.

As for stinking, ALL chickens stink. I have yet to encounter a chicken crap that smelled anything but rancid, whether from a meatbird or the butt of some high fallutin, ribbon winning heritage bird. Chicken crap is chicken crap. Period.

I get barnyard joy from my horses and ducks and geese and I have to say even non-meat chickens fall way down the scale when compared to the powerful personality packed in a goose! I would not be able to eat my ducks or geese because I like them. Thus, when it's time to chop meatbirds, there is no feeling of tyrannical betrayal. Nope. Just solemn quiet that something has to die, but make no mistake, it is NOT possible to become attached to a meatbird. I consider this a good thing, since killing them is what we plan to do.

So, as I said in a different post, choose your chicken philosophy. If you shun meatbirds on some moral ground, well okay. But this is not a moral question. This is more like a' how to fill the freezer?' question. And the quickest, most cost effective way is meatbirds.

Well. . . I mostly agree, but I am sadly haunted by the memory of eye contact with one of our much-maligned meaties, after it was tucked into its crate recently en route to the (new Salt Spring) abattoir. It looked up at me, and I could see clear anxiety and fear in its gaze. They don't seem like individuals, but they really are. They feel fear and pain, and I struggle with this.

Also, I meant to comment on the price of processing - as the CFIA introduces new and more stringent rules, the price of processing goes inexorably up. While older processors are grandfathered in, and can continue to use less expensive processes, new abattoirs have to jump through all the (very expensive) hoops.

We've recently opened an abattoir on Salt Spring, and we still don't break even on chickens, even though most management is still provided by the volunteer board. Please, have some sympathy for the newer operations. It's a great thing in terms of humane treatment to have a local facility.

uno wrote:Oh, brother. We are going to kick dirt on meatbirds because they are gross, eating, pooping machines? People, is this a popularity contest? Are we wanting to eat chickens we want to be friends with? Do we only want to raise chickens we'd be seen in public with?

I think to shun a meatbird based on its perceived personality is...(choose your own adjective and insert here).

I suppose if you expect some aesthetic quality from your food, well, okay, perhaps meatbirds are not the most glamorous. BUt if putting food on the table is  your goal then there is NOTHING, dollar for dollar, pound for pound, that holds a candle to the lowly, maligned meatbird. Do you want chickens to feed you or be your best friend? THe dog and milk cow can be your best friends, let the meatbirds be what they are: FOOD.

As for stinking, ALL chickens stink. I have yet to encounter a chicken crap that smelled anything but rancid, whether from a meatbird or the butt of some high fallutin, ribbon winning heritage bird. Chicken crap is chicken crap. Period.

I get barnyard joy from my horses and ducks and geese and I have to say even non-meat chickens fall way down the scale when compared to the powerful personality packed in a goose! I would not be able to eat my ducks or geese because I like them. Thus, when it's time to chop meatbirds, there is no feeling of tyrannical betrayal. Nope. Just solemn quiet that something has to die, but make no mistake, it is NOT possible to become attached to a meatbird. I consider this a good thing, since killing them is what we plan to do.

So, as I said in a different post, choose your chicken philosophy. If you shun meatbirds on some moral ground, well okay. But this is not a moral question. This is more like a' how to fill the freezer?' question. And the quickest, most cost effective way is meatbirds.

I can not agree more. I hate to kick dirt at people who raise heritage birds for meat- but as I am a young farmer (more of a farmer than most people my age, market garden {most years}, poultry for meat, breeding poultry etc). Anyways my customers want a nice size bird that is not tough as the hills (and no cooking in wine for a long time is not a common options these days). I prefer a rustic broiler to a Cobb or Ross commercial broiler. Because I find there is a true taste difference! So for me it's not morals but taste. I raise the other ones from time to time just for the fun of it - but they don't free range as much as I want them to.

Again a Mistral Gris is a cross of A,B,C and D lines (as 'rats used yay terminology ) Line the four grand parent lines as far as I know breed true (IE. reproduce line {Insert letter here}). A+B are crossed and C+D are crossed to get parent birds (AB + CD) and than those crossed to get terminal generation.

I have a saying here that applies to my animals (excluding so old ducks those are my old 4-H ducks  ) "They don't work, they don't belong" for me growing up with a old time farmer has taught me some lessons that are being loss with back to the farmers only because they did not of the option to learn from the oldies. You must understand that these 'frankenbirds' are something else to the old time farmers and they see that there is no value in heritage birds for meat that's only good in a rapure pie...

Well, the proof is in the pudding. Do an experiment. Raise the Cornish crosses, the designer birds like mistral Gris, etc, and heritage meat birds side by side. Compare feed intake, the amount of work you do, growth rate, carcass muscling and enjoyment of the birds. Then decide which you like and focus on them the next year.

Re: Meat Birds?-what would you use? Today at 6:33 pm
call ducks

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Hello Call Duck, what part of Canada are you from? Thanks.

. . . and we're doing exactly that. We've raised 25 cornish cross along with 65 mistral gris, and have tracked feed. In a few weeks, I'll have slaughter weights, and will report.

ipf wrote:. . .  and we're doing exactly that. We've raised 25 cornish cross along with 65 mistral gris, and have tracked feed. In a few weeks, I'll have slaughter weights, and will report.  

Thank-You.....