Cornish cross vs Buff orpington at 5 weeks

At 5 weeks of age:

This is a cornish cross chick on the right, and a buff orpington chick on the left. They're exactly the same age. At this point the cornish cross weighs about 3x what the buff orpington does.

at 2 weeks of age:

My guess is that the cornish cross eats about the same amount of feed per pound of chicken produced as the heritage breed does, but that it does it in a shorter amount of time. At this point we're on feed restriction for the cornish cross.

Feed restriction prevents the cornish from eating themselves to death. If given all of the food that they want they'll completely stuff themselves and die, probably of flip.

Flip isn't a problem with heritage breeds who grow much more slowly and seem to regulate their feed intake better than the cornish cross. For me this is one big advantage with the heritage breeds. You put them out on pasture, make sure they have food and water, and walk away. They'll happily grow and forage without any work on your part for the next 6 months.

The cornish aren't nearly that self-sufficient. Part of the reason that people raise them in pens that you move is that it's easier than cleaning a coop of manure, and it encourages the cornish cross to forage. Otherwise they'd pretty much stay glued to their feeders.

"free range"
There are various huge chicken producers that produce "free range" chickens. It would be more accurate to say they're "barn raised". One producer simply cut doors into the side of their broiler barns and during the last 2 weeks of the chickens life opened the door. Of course, since chickens are territorial, and broilers in particular want to stay close to the food and water, it's not unusual to find that not one chicken ever goes outside. In a rather cynical move, some of the producers have little lawns they maintain between the barns so that they can claim to be "pasturing" the chickens. None of the chickens actually get on the grass, but theoretically they could.

For my chickens they're out there on the ground, pecking and scratching and doing what chickens are meant to do.

Heritage turkey vs broad breasted

I got a call from a fellow today who had purchased a "heritage breed" turkey from a local consumer coop. The coop does a good job of offering good quality produce and meats, and i was pretty sure that he'd been sold a heritage bird. He was concerned that the breast looked "collapsed" or "misshapen". I asked him a few questions and he's probably got a heritage bird, but here's what a heritage bird looks like next to a broadbreasted turkey.

But there are several things about heritage birds that aren't really obvious. first, they look different than a standard turkey.

Both of the birds in this picture are 12lbs. The one on the left is one of my heritage birds, raised on pasture. This particular bird is a young blue slate tom turkey, about 7 months old.

The one on the right is a "fresh" "free range" bird. "our birds have access to the outdoors and fresh air". This usually means they're raised in a barn, and sometime late in their life a door opens and they can look outside. I'm a little cynical, but at $.99/lb, it can't be very good.

You'll notice that my bird is quite a bit narrower than the broad breasted bird. This narrow shape is because my bird can (and did) actually fly. The broad breasted bird probably never did, and cannot. The red dot in the breast of the broad breasted bird is the pop-up thermometer.

Looking at the outside of the bird, the thing that is pretty obvious is that my bird has larger amounts of fat under its skin. This will result in a beter tasting bird -- basted in its own fat. Andrea is pinching first my bird, and then the broad breasted bird

pastured bird


Broad breasted bird
Notice in those pictures that the skin appears thinner on the broad breasted bird. This is a function of the amount of fat in the skin. the veins in the broad breasted bird are much more visible.

Just a note: the broad breasted bird was sold as "fresh". The body cavity was frozen solid. I sell birds "fresh" that are never frozen, and most of them are delivered to the customers on the same day they're processed, packed in ice.

The internal organs are very different. on the left is my pastured bird. On the right is the broad breasted bird.

The top organ is the gizzard. My turkeys gizzard is considerably larger and covered with a layer of fat, showing that the bird used its gizzard and had a good life. The broad breasted gizzard is smaller, less than half the size, and has no fat to speak of.

The middle organ is the liver. Mine is firm to the touch and uniform in color. The broad breasted is watery, spreading out a little like jello. this may be a result of it being frozen. It is also uniform in color.

The hearts are both about the same size and consistency.