Tis TM 8 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Just thought I'd post up some pics of my meat birds. They are french Sasso's, slow maturing, poultry for the table, commonly reared in orchards in france. I've just killed 12 cockerals, and all but one neared 3kilo's. (the one that didn't was a bit lame) The meat is amazingly moist, and they had a good covering of fat. They were 20 weeks old, and free ranged with all my other poultry, eating layers and mixed corn, and the ducks feed of sow/ weaner meal. The legs had a "chew" to them, to be expected with the age, and ground they ran on, but the flavour was out of this world... almost a nuttiness to them. I've kept back the 4 girls, to put with a Ross rooster that I have, so I can incubate more chicks for the table, and I've kept one of the Sasso cockerals to run with my laying birds, to try and get a bit more shape to any cock birds I rear from them. Sasso rooster to cross with the layers Ross rooster to put with the Sasso girls seperately in my orchard Sasso girls Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BlueCoyote 0 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 i'm hungry now :tongue4: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest bullterrier Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 nice looking birds Quote Link to post Share on other sites
littlefish 598 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Nice healthy looking birds there. Sounds like they have a great natural existence picking round the orchards. Do you have to lock them in at night to keep them safe? You mention that you got the male birds ready for the table - is the male and female birds similar in size and do they taste the same if slaughered at the same age? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elmerfudd 5 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Nice looking birds. We have a couple of Cornish Rock that we were hoping to breed from, but they don't seem to be thriving free range and it looks like they may go in the pot very soon. We bought some Hubbard hatching eggs and the chicks are coming on nicely, but we're not totally comfortable with 10-13 week table birds. It'd be interesting to see how your cross breeding goes, keep us informed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bullsmilk 2 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 nice birds mate i reard 4 of them sassos last year and they where great not sure about putting the ross to them they have a lot of rhode in them ????? any way freind of mine is putting a cob cock with his. did you get them from smart chicks? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tis TM 8 Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 Nice healthy looking birds there. Sounds like they have a great natural existence picking round the orchards. Do you have to lock them in at night to keep them safe? You mention that you got the male birds ready for the table - is the male and female birds similar in size and do they taste the same if slaughered at the same age? I have a whole huge garden, and part of a copse that has been completely fenced with 6 ft chicken wire that has also been dug in. So, they put themselves away to roost at night, with no need to shut them in the shed. In the summer, I open up the gate in the copse so they can roam the field in the daytime too. I have a small orchard too where I'll be putting the meat birds on thier own for breeding stock, this I haven't got fox proofed so I will have to shut them in yes! With regards to the males and females, I kept all the four hen birds that were among the lot of 17 in total, so I dont know the weight exactly, but generally the hens do tend to be a couple of pounds lighter. As far as eating goes, the hens tend to have a bit more fat on them, and be slightly more tender, but wether thats to do with the fact that they have a better fat covering, or because they dont spend half the day "randying" about, I'm not sure!! Elmer - I'll let ya know how well the crossing goes, the only thing I'm mildly dubious about is the Ross cockerals manliness!! He doesn't seem very up for it at the moment! That maybe because the other roosters are more dominant, and he's scared of getting his head kicked in, or maybe he could be a little fat and lazy Time will tell when I seperate them, I might have to strip a bit of weight off them!! Thanks for your comments people Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tis TM 8 Posted March 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 nice birds mate i reard 4 of them sassos last year and they where great not sure about putting the ross to them they have a lot of rhode in them ????? any way freind of mine is putting a cob cock with his. did you get them from smart chicks? Hiya I dont know anything about the technicalities of breeding different breeds bullsmilk This is all a first time for me, just making it up as I go along really!! What is the probs with them having Rhode in them?...I dont know about the breed, I just assumed the cob/ross was a table bird like any other... I actually got these out of a nightmare situation. A woman had them advertised as 2 week old chicks, saying that she didn't have the room for them. What I didn't know till I got there was that she meant she didn't have room for them in her KITCHEN, in a CARDBOARD BOX, along with a great dane and a doberman kept in crates along side :sick: I bought the chicks out of shear shock and pitty for the things. They were 2 weeks old, but were the size of 2 day old chicks. She was completely nuts, and somehow thought she was going to rear these to fat in her utility room Everything was telling me not to buy them because they were in a bad way, but I felt I had to give them a chance. Turns out that all but one was healthy and fit. I have one tiny one out of the lot that had a respiritory problem, but she's fighting on, and not suffering - she's just small. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bullsmilk 2 Posted March 26, 2008 Report Share Posted March 26, 2008 nice birds mate i reard 4 of them sassos last year and they where great not sure about putting the ross to them they have a lot of rhode in them ????? any way freind of mine is putting a cob cock with his. did you get them from smart chicks? Hiya I dont know anything about the technicalities of breeding different breeds bullsmilk This is all a first time for me, just making it up as I go along really!! What is the probs with them having Rhode in them?...I dont know about the breed, I just assumed the cob/ross was a table bird like any other... I actually got these out of a nightmare situation. A woman had them advertised as 2 week old chicks, saying that she didn't have the room for them. What I didn't know till I got there was that she meant she didn't have room for them in her KITCHEN, in a CARDBOARD BOX, along with a great dane and a doberman kept in crates along side :sick: I bought the chicks out of shear shock and pitty for the things. They were 2 weeks old, but were the size of 2 day old chicks. She was completely nuts, and somehow thought she was going to rear these to fat in her utility room Everything was telling me not to buy them because they were in a bad way, but I felt I had to give them a chance. Turns out that all but one was healthy and fit. I have one tiny one out of the lot that had a respiritory problem, but she's fighting on, and not suffering - she's just small. i understand done similer myself... what i mean is rhode as i know them is a layer/utility bird where as the sassos are a x breed witch throws heavy meat birds if you cross them back to a ross with is a layer/utility you might end up with less than meaty birds.....but good luck the only way we will fined out is buy people like yourself trying mate Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tis TM 8 Posted March 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2008 nice birds mate i reard 4 of them sassos last year and they where great not sure about putting the ross to them they have a lot of rhode in them ????? any way freind of mine is putting a cob cock with his. did you get them from smart chicks? Hiya I dont know anything about the technicalities of breeding different breeds bullsmilk This is all a first time for me, just making it up as I go along really!! What is the probs with them having Rhode in them?...I dont know about the breed, I just assumed the cob/ross was a table bird like any other... I actually got these out of a nightmare situation. A woman had them advertised as 2 week old chicks, saying that she didn't have the room for them. What I didn't know till I got there was that she meant she didn't have room for them in her KITCHEN, in a CARDBOARD BOX, along with a great dane and a doberman kept in crates along side :sick: I bought the chicks out of shear shock and pitty for the things. They were 2 weeks old, but were the size of 2 day old chicks. She was completely nuts, and somehow thought she was going to rear these to fat in her utility room Everything was telling me not to buy them because they were in a bad way, but I felt I had to give them a chance. Turns out that all but one was healthy and fit. I have one tiny one out of the lot that had a respiritory problem, but she's fighting on, and not suffering - she's just small. i understand done similer myself... what i mean is rhode as i know them is a layer/utility bird where as the sassos are a x breed witch throws heavy meat birds if you cross them back to a ross with is a layer/utility you might end up with less than meaty birds.....but good luck the only way we will fined out is buy people like yourself trying mate Ah right I getcha... I didn't know about RIR being in the ross's... well time will tell I guess, but I think with say at least 3/4 meat breed they have a good chance of being something like it?? ... bit of a trial and error thing possibly, I'm just using what birds I have to hand I guess, rather than activley trying to produce some tried and tested birds. I'll be interested to see how they do or dont turn out now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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