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I've done Brahmas and found that they tend to grow lots of bone and height first so they seem heavy when you pick them up but they have very little meat on their bones until close to a year old then they tend to fill out. Love love love the fact that they like to raise their own babies like orps...

Make sure that you rest the birds after processing in the fridge so they stay cold but not frozen for a few days before freezing or before cooking. Also generally heritage breeds are cooked using lower temps and longer cook times. Roasting in a covered dutch oven or cooing them in a pressure...

It was recommended on one of the Orpington forums I am on to get this book for reference when choosing birds to breed the following year out of babies hatched. It's called The Call of the Hen and can be found at the livestock conservancy library for free so that you can read it online without...

I am hoping to get my NPIP certification this fall and then should be able to sell. It will depend if they have test kits for doing birds by then or if I have to wait until spring. We got word this spring that they ran out so new certifications would have to wait. All the Mottled birds, the...

Been a while since I've done a posting so time for an update. It's been crazy here. One tractor fixed and the steering went on the other one so we spent a lot of time working on getting parts brought in and fixing those so that the pastures could be taken care of. All that while chicks have been...

I generally base my processing by the bird so it will depend on their growth. Previous years it has been 16-20 weeks but I am using Heritage birds that are probably 10th or so generation that the breeder has been working with so they are already a bit bigger than a hatchery version. My goal is...

The current Creles I have or Cuckoos since some of them don't look Crele are from breeding flocks with 14lb roosters and 11lb hens. Plus I ordered eggs and chicks from Carolina Rare Chicks in South Carolina who has these birds...

If it's the older brown and white birds they are Chocolate Mottled Orpingtons but we are not entirely sure they are pure. (Some Cochin may have jumped the fence and a few of them may be mixed babies because Orps don't have feathers on their legs normally.

Not quite sure yet. I don't think I will add other breeds other than orpington to the mix but still deciding on the mottled babies. I have that one male that has feathering on his leg (only one leg) so not entirely sure they are pure mottleds. I like their size and weight and so we will probably...

Choc mottleds are 7 weeks old and are getting quite a bit of breast muscling. Haven't had a chance to weigh them since things got in the way but I will try and do it tomorrow night when I get home from work if I remember. My guess is that they are right around a lb to a lb and a half. If I was...

Just ordered my bands so they should be here in a few days. Hoping to do some weighing of the mottled kids and just for the heck of it we can weigh the little fuzzies too to see what they weigh. I can't band them they are still too tiny lol but maybe we can come up with a way to mark them...

Actually starting to get excited. For those that I have chatted with on this forum. You know I'm steering myself towards creating a dual purpose meat and eggs flock using Orpingtons. I have three hatchery birds (mainly because I was curious as to how they would compare to heritage) that are...