Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

:running-chicken:

Did anyone watch TVO last night, they were trying to see if it was possible to get a Christmas chicken as big as a turkey. The meat birds of today are not able to handle that size of growth but they did find a poultry guy that specializes in large chickens. They bought one at 8 kilograms which is a little more than 17 pounds live, the turkey they bought was 14 pounds live weight but I think that is small for a turkey. Anyway, the chicken was called a cotswold; however searching on the net it doesn't seem to be a breed, it seems to be a company. Does anyone know if this is a breed or is it a manufactured chicken? I remember years ago our meat roosters would not fit into the roast pan that held our Christmas turkey. Back then however we kept them for five months, something everyone tells me is no longer possible.

The ages of slaughter mentioned I found interesting.
In France a guy raised capons (castrated roosters) for five months.
The cotswolds were raised for 140 days.
A factory farm with the regular meat birds was 32 days!!!

Isn't that unbelievable, I think of my little guys and there is not much difference between a day old chick and a 32 day old chick lol.
Oddly enough I find my little bantams taste the best around 140 days as well, I don't think they get anywhere near 8 kilograms!

I saw the program, but just caught the tail end of the Chicken story, since the show is from BBC I assume it was from Cottswolds it did look very much like our "frankenchickens," but had surprisingly small legs.
There is actually no reason why you couldn't keep the meat chickens for 5 month if they are on pasture, but I don't think anybody actually did any trials on that, mostly people try to get them of their place as soon as they can.

SR my Beltsvilles go anywhere from 9lbs for a hen to 16/17lbs for a Jake at 6 months old. This gives nice firm flesh. Even the one I culled at a year was only 18lb dressed. I think Al found similar weights.

Wild Turkey dressed: 11lbs

yum yum

21 lbs here sorry skinny rooster off topic hijacked . ☹

I did some research on Brahmas, and before they were admitted to the Standard of Perfection in the early 1900's, some birds were as big as 19 lbs.

I'm sure everyone's seen these Brahmas? :)

Brahma Standard rooster is 12 lb, so still a little short of a 17 lb chicken.
Just weigh my "main man" standard Wyandotte rooster and he is 8 lb and 12 oz, pretty much perfect SOP weight
but it took him close to 18 month to get there, a bit past that tender age.

Love those huge Brahmas though, still remember the chap strolling through the Ormstown show with a massive Brahma rooster in front of him.

I have a friend who gets the Cornish cross chicks in late April or early May, and doesn't butcher them until September. They are pasture raised and grain fed. By the time they are butchered a lot of them can hardly walk, and they have a fair bit of fat. I don't know what they weigh, but even the hens are a good size. They never eat turkey, they just like to roast their large chickens.