What are heritage chickens and turkeys?
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Turkey raising
New York,Orange Judd publishing company; [etc., etc.]1922.
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19954500
Question by angelic beauty: What are heritage chickens and turkeys?
How are they different than conventional chickens and turkeys. Are they found in only specialty stores? Are they free range and raised organic?
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2 Responses to What are heritage chickens and turkeys?
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Essentially, they are breeds that flourished during the 19th century, that are in danger of extinction today. Here’s a link to a website that explains this.
http://www.albc-usa.org/heritagechicken/definition.html
There are also heritage pigs, cattle, sheep, etc.
tardebigge
June 4, 2012 at 11:09 pm
heritage chickens are breeds that are pure and not hybrid such as Orpingtons, Rocks, Wyandottes, Australorps, Auracunas, etc.. Most are duel purpose egg layers and meat birds. When used for meat it takes around 17 weeks for the bird to get to table size and has little white meat and a lot of dark meat. the meat tends to be tough unless it is slow roasted than it is sublime
The chickens and turkeys we buy at grocery stores are hybrids. For Chickens it is the Rock Cornish Cross which reaches table size in under 9 weeks and has a lot of white meat. these chickens have much more tender meat and are suitable for frying as well as roasting
Turkeys are the same there is a hybrid breed that makes up 98% of all turkeys grown, the white turkey that has a bigger breast and grows more quickly than the heritage breeds.
heritage breeds generally have much more flavor.
Ohiorganic
June 4, 2012 at 11:40 pm