SC - different chicken types

[margali]

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:

> Based on my experience as a real life farm girl, it is most likely
> that
> your average grocery store chicken is the same kind no matter the
> store.
> Egg chickens are not the same as meat chickens in your modern
> age...back
> home, we would raise a gajillion baby chickens from fuzz ball to
> freezer
> ready in a matter of weeks (pretty amazing, really!) I don't even know
> what
> "breed" they are, but they're white, breast  heavy (snce that's the
> meat
> type folks preferred) and incredibly stupid.

chances they are one of a number, but the best available right now is
the white Hall Cross broiler, ready for the table in 8-12 weeks at a
rough cleaned weight of 6-9 lbs, the extra few weeks can make a big
difference. they will start laying eggs at 24-26 weeks, and each eats
about 1 cup of chicken feed a day, and needs about 1 pint of water, and
if they dont get to range, they need sand and calcium in the form of
crushed oyster shells or recycled egg shells and a vitamine mineral mix
called broiler booster.

> To this end, when I'm trhing to duplicate medieval chickens, i usually
> use
> "free range". Much less fat, and far more flavorful (no doubt due to
> all
> those tasty bugs they eat when scratching about). Any good grocery
> store
> out here will carry both types, otherwise look at your local heath
> food
> market, or the like. You'll also notice that the skin is much
> yellower...the chickens have a sun tan! :)
>

chickens dont tan. the yellow in the skin is dietary-they get fed whole
feed corn and/or marigold petals for the last week of its little life
because people expect the healthy yellow in the skin thanks to the
commercials and advertising from the poultry industry. the organic
raised birds get fed a less purified mash without chemical additives and
can get natural vegetation and bugs when they range.
margali

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