Mechanical and hand catching of broilers were performed to determine if differences existed in breast meat quality among catching methods. Meat quality results were summarized using a two-prong approach to investigate if average differences existed in meat quality through the determination of ultimate pH, rapid pH decline, color, water holding capacity, and tenderness within each treatment and by pinpointing individual quality problems within treatments. Two trials were conducted and revealed greater variation in meat quality during summer in comparison to winter within treatments in both catching methods. In winter, there was a lower incidence (p<0.05) of paleness in birds that were crated for 2h prior to euthanasia in comparison to birds immediately euthanized after catching within both hand and machine catching methods. Mechanical catching and crating for 2 hours was conducive to slightly better quality meat than hand catching in respect to averages and individual quality problems.