The Cornish-Cross is the most popular breed of meat chicken raised worldwide. They exhibit unsurpassed growth, high carcass yield, and are docile and easy to care for. Here are the reasons we choose to raise them on our homestead.
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When it comes to raising meat chickens in your backyard, you do have a few options. You can choose between the traditional Cornish-Cross, Red Ranger, or a dual-purpose breed.
Depending on your values and farm goals, this article should help you decide what breed is right for you!
What is a Cornish-Cross Chicken?
The Cornish-Cross breed was developed by crossing Cornish and White Plymouth Rock chickens. They are white in color, have an accelerated growth rate, and exceptionally large breasts. These chickens are produced commercially and are the kind you will find in the grocery store.
What is a Red Ranger Chicken?
The Red Ranger is a cross between dual-purpose, heritage, and Cornish breeds of chickens. They are reddish-brown in color, have a normal growth rate, and yield a higher proportion of dark meat. They are known for being good foragers and producing meat that is full of flavor.
What is a Dual-Purpose Chicken?
Dual-purpose are those larger breeds of chicken that can be used for both laying eggs and meat. Breeds such as Plymouth Rock, Orpington, Jersey Giant, and Rhode Island Red can be considered dual-purpose. They come in many colors, grow slowly compared to meat breeds, and produce a lighter carcass with tougher meat.
Advantages of the Cornish-Cross Chicken
Now that you know the options, let’s get in to why we personally choose to raise Cornish-Cross chickens for our freezer.
1. Cornish-Cross Chickens Grow Exceptionally Fast
Cornish-Cross chickens will be ready to harvest at as early as 6 weeks old. On our farm, we aim for butchering our Cornish-Cross roosters at 8 weeks, and the hens at 10 weeks because we like having a larger, heavier, whole-processed chicken.
If you are looking for the shortest time investment, the Cornish-Cross is your best bet. With just two months of feeding and care, you can have birds ready for the freezer. With Red Rangers, plan on devoting an additional month to growing them out and several months for dual-purpose breeds.
Since Cornish-Crosses grow so fast, they can develop some health issues. To prevent them from premature death and disability from adding weight to their legs too quickly, free-choice feeding is not recommended.
For the feeding schedule that we use for our Cornish-Crosses, click here to read my other article.
2. Cornish-Cross Chickens have the Highest Carcass Yield
When processed whole, our Cornish-Cross chickens have close to a 75 percent carcass yield. This means that if we butcher one that weighs 9 pounds live, we will end up with a carcass weighing 6.75 pounds. That is a lot of meat, but do realize that not all of the weight is edible, as a whole-processed chicken does include tendon and bone.
No other breed of chicken will yield as much meat, for Red Rangers, top carcass yield is around 66 percent and only 50 percent for dual-purpose breeds.
Butchering chickens is hard work and, on our farm, it is only worth the time and effort we spend if we get something great in return. The quality and amount of meat that the Cornish-Cross provide make it a worthwhile endeavor in our opinion.
3. Cornish-Cross Chickens Produce the Most White Meat
Due to selective breeding, the Cornish-Cross chicken has evolved to grow abnormally large breast muscles. This translates to larger pieces of white meat, which is just what the typical American consumer wants.
In our house (yes, we have kids), the opinion is dark meat is good, but white meat is better. If you or your customers want a lot of white meat, Cornish-Crosses will give you that. If dark meat is preferred, I recommend Red Rangers.
4. Cornish-Cross Chickens Produce the Most Tender Meat
One reason that Cornish-Cross meat is so tender is because the chickens are harvested so young. The older an animal gets, the more tough the meat will be. We have found this to be true, as chewing the meat from a 10-year-old retired layer is quite time consuming!
Another reason for the tenderness of Cornish-Cross meat, is that these chickens are relatively sedentary. They move around very little compared to other breeds and therefore don’t use their muscles as much. Unused muscles result in cuts of meat that are tender, soft, and free of fibrous connective tissue.
To achieve the same level of tenderness, slow cooking techniques may need to be employed for the more active Red Ranger or dual-purpose chicken.
5. Cornish-Cross Chickens Taste Amazing
I have never eaten a better tasting chicken than a Cornish-Cross that was raised on our farm. I attribute the taste in part to the bird’s diet. We only use high quality, non-GMO feed and the chickens also get to consume as much grass, insects, and worms as they please in their chicken tractors. They get some exercise as they are moved to new pasture at least once daily, and the resulting meat is tender, juicy, and delicious.
The animals are well cared for, healthy, and content until they are ready to be processed. When that day comes, they are dispatched as quickly and humanely as possible. The meat is carefully handled and preserved so we can rest assured that our whole-processed chickens will make healthy, delectable dinners even after a year of being in the freezer.
6. Cornish-Cross Chickens are the Most Economical to Raise
Cornish-Cross chickens will give you the biggest bang for your buck. They will take every pound of feed further and make more meat for you than Red Rangers or dual-purpose chickens. In addition, because they reach maturity the fastest, you will have fewer days on feed.
Not only will the feed bill be lower with Cornish-Crosses, but the cost of purchasing them is cheaper as well. Red Ranger chicks are slightly more expensive than Cornish-Cross and most dual-purpose breed chicks. For any breed, buying in bulk and opting for straight-run (a mix of males and females) can help reduce costs.
7. Cornish-Cross Chickens are Easy to Care For
Cornish-Cross chickens are docile and easy to care for. They are pretty low maintenance as far as animals go, you only have to feed them once daily.
What’s even better is, if you keep them in a secure chicken tractor, you don’t have to clean up after them or worry about remembering to shut them in a coop at night for safety. For more information on how and why I recommend using chicken tractors for meat birds, click here to read my related article.
Now that you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the Cornish-Cross, Red Ranger, and dual-purpose chicken, you can decide for yourself which direction to go.
No matter what breed you choose, I commend your efforts to raise nutritious food for your family and community. Keep it up!
Mother, farmer, author, and teacher by trade… She loves tending to things and watching them grow!