Why You Should STOP Raising Cornish Cross Meat Chickens! скачать в хорошем качестве

Why You Should STOP Raising Cornish Cross Meat Chickens!

Cornish Cross chickens dominate the poultry industry, but are they actually a good choice for homesteaders? I’d argue they’re not just a poor choice but an outright disaster. These birds are bred to grow at an unnatural speed, reaching slaughter weight in just 45 days. That might be great for commercial farms looking to maximize profit, but it comes with a long list of problems. First off, they’re so unnaturally heavy that they can barely move, let alone express normal chicken behaviors like foraging and dust bathing. They spend most of their short lives sitting next to the feeder, growing so fast that their bones and organs struggle to keep up. Ever seen a Cornish Cross reach two years old? Neither have I. They simply aren’t built to survive past a few months. Beyond the animal welfare perspective, you should also skip this breed if you care about nutrition. Does it really make sense to eat an animal that can barely function? These birds are often raised on standard feed loaded with corn, soy, and vegetable oils, which translates into a meat profile high in inflammatory polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). If you’re going through the trouble of raising your own food to improve your health, why settle for a bird that’s essentially junk food? So what’s the alternative? Slower-growing breeds like Freedom Rangers or Ginger Broilers take longer to mature (about 12 to 16 weeks) but they’re far healthier birds. They can actually forage, move and grow at a more natural pace. They also produce meat with better texture, deeper flavor and a better fat profile — especially if they’re fed a high-quality diet. The downside? They eat more feed over their lifespan, making them more expensive to raise. That’s why so many farms stick with Cornish Cross. To be frank, it’s the only way to make raising chicken for meat a profitable business. But maybe that’s the real problem. Maybe chickens were never meant to be a staple meat source. Historically, they were raised for eggs and only eaten when they stopped laying. It wasn’t until industrial farming ramped up that we started treating chicken like an everyday protein. At the end of the day, if you’re homesteading with the goal of improving your health, Cornish Cross isn’t the way to do it. It’s the fast food of the poultry world: cheap and convenient, but ultimately not good for you. So if you’re raising meat birds, think carefully about what kind of chicken you want to put on your plate. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and if you found this video helpful, stick around for more discussions on raising food the right way. Learn more: Why you should stop raising Cornish Cross: https://kummerhomestead.com/cornish-c... How to Butcher Chickens: Start to Finish!:    • How We Processed Our First 30 Meat Birds   4 Years of Homesteading: What We’ve Learned:    • 4 Years of Homesteading: What We’ve Learne...   Best Chicken Feed for Healthier Meat & Eggs | New Country Organics Review:    • Best Chicken Feed for Healthier Meat & Egg...   Joel Salatin’s book: Polyface Micro: Success with Livestock on a Homestead Scale: https://amzn.to/3DDVVi0 In this video: 00:00 - Intro 00:13 - Why Cornish Cross chickens are so popular 00:53 - The hidden health issues of Cornish Cross 04:27 - What’s wrong with conventional chicken feed? 05:51 -  So what are the alternatives and solutions? 11:11 - Final thoughts To follow along with us as we learn the ropes of homestead living, check out our Instagram account ( @‌kummerhomestead ), where we share the useful tips and tricks we discover. You can also visit us at https://www.kummerhomestead.com #CornishCross #Homesteading #Farming #BackyardChickens #ChickensForMeat