Recent content by Brunty_Farms

Why... Hello! It's funny because I just logged in after a few months of no BYC either. The new forum look kinda threw me off. Hope all is well with you... chickens and health! Take care,

No pics of dressed birds but I have one of a cooked duck that a customer of mine sent to me... Looks delicious, this duck was 12 weeks and around 5-6 pounds

Oh ya, that's completely understandable. I wasn't trying to convince you not to do it, just that it's not easy that's all. If I was doing ducks for my personal use, I'm not sure if I would do them or not. I've never just decided to grow ducks for me, now quail or pheasant on the other hand...

Don't get me wrong, I love duck, and so do my customers but if you catch them in a phase where there is pin feathers.... OUCH! It will easily take 25-30 minutes per duck to pick each feather out. I ended up using wax and pliers, even still it was a PITA... however the money / duck kind of made...

Quote: That number is without the neck or giblets. The tail was still attached. I have feed mill relatively close by but not sure how to formulate a ration that would include trace minerals and things or is that very important for the CX. Thanks for the encouragement. I almost stopped after...

Those are good numbers for using Dumor Feeds, nothing wrong with the feed, just expensive. You should look for a feed mill that will custom grind a mix for you, especially if you're using 20% all the way through. Roughly 1600 pounds of feed for the amount of birds that you did so it would be a...

Processing them will change your mind. We did 50 of them this year and for the time it took to do 25 ducks I could have done 200 chickens. They are that bad to pluck. I e-mailed Metzer, one of the big time duck hatcheries and the response I got back from Jon Metzer was to process at either 7...

Quote: Ya, all of them go. They drop in production about 15-20% in their second year so we just replace them every year. We have a good market for processed layers so for us, making them more valuable as stewing hens vs laying eggs. Our customers wait all year for the stewing hens often buying...

Canning for sure and a good soup stock. Like stated if you're making stock... save it all. The livers however will make your stock bitter.

Quote: What do you do with the hens you've replaced? I'm getting a new batch of hens in the spring and will have to do something with the 5 older hens I have now. What we do is process them and sell them as stewing hens to our customers. $2.75 / pound. They make great soup stock that can me...

Skinning takes away the best part in my opinion. Keeps the bird moist while cooking and nothing beats that crunchy skin. Totally up to you though, I have a plucker than can take about 30 at a time so plucking is easier for me. Go with whatever you feel comfortable with.

It will kill it instantly, however any method of killing will cause the bird to flap around. It's nerves.... Quail are very easy to process. Water at 150 degrees and hand pluck them when the feathers start to pull out easy. You can pull the head right off and throw the bird in a shopping bag...

Honestly it would be cheaper to grow them out in the fall or late summer for the freezer. The electric for the freezer will be cheaper to run than the two heat lamps. I've done it, they do just fine and can handle the cooler weather. They just take a little longer and since I do my own...

I'm not sure what your question is, but our layers are replaced every year. Every October they are replaced with new pullets before winter sets in right after they molt. If you get new chicks in I would wait until they are laying age before processing the old ones that way you still get eggs.

Sounds to me like a coccidiosis vaccination. That would be my first guess as every chick doesn't have to have the green "dot" to be vaccinated. The chicks will peck at the green dot ingesting the vaccination.... That would be my first guess.... I'm not sure of any other reason for the markings.