BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[hellbender]

After reading several threads on this great site, I've become convinced that there must be many people, lurkers or those who fear being jumped upon, who are simply interested in breeding chickens for production.

Breeding for egg production has been my life-long hobby and I have never disparaged those who breed strictly for conformation, to the Standard of Perfection, as written by folks who had their ideals met and transcribed long ago and I do not intend to begin here.

In fact, I intend to begin a SOP breeding project in the near future, with a breed that will require considerable dedication and commitment. That being said, I have started this thread for those of us that enjoy the fruits of our labors in egg and meat production and who really don't care if our chickens meet some arbitrary set of rules that can at best, be very subjective.

With egg and meat production....the quality can be seen and tasted. No need for a third party to give us their opinions, with the possible exceptions...if we sell eggs or meat birds, we had better produce quality or our efforts will be in vain.

EDIT: This thread is as much for the SOP folks as anyone. I think they need to realize (many do) that production was the primary reason for having chickens 'back in the day'.

 

[DesertChic]

I know many here have been missing Hellbender and wondering about his well-being. His son, Jason, gave me permission to update everyone.

It is with a heart heavy with sadness that I report that after returning home to be with his family, Hellbender (Ron) was taken off his respirator and died in the early hours on Thursday, June 16th. His family held a small, private Irish wake for him. My heart goes out to them and to all who loved him, and it is my greatest hope that their grief will soon abate enough for them to smile at their memories of him rather than weep.

I never had the honor of meeting Hellbender in person, but that has in no way lessened the tremendously positive impact he had on me. I miss my friend; I miss his delightfully warped sense of humor, his sagacious instruction, and his enormously kind heart. To this day I cannot comprehend why, of all the people he met here on the BYC, he chose to befriend me and share so much with me. In spite of his numerous frustrations with electronic communication, he never hesitated to offer me guidance and encouragement as I strove to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible about poultry keeping, and he never hesitated to lend me his ear when I simply needed to vent some frustrations about life in general or receive some much-needed advice. He was a very generous man who shared with me his abundant love for his family, his concerns and perspectives on world events, and the wisdom of his years.

Yes, I miss my friend, as I’m sure so many others here do, but I am also tremendously grateful to him for all he gave me. I am grateful for the opportunity to have also met his son, Jason, and his daughter, Ariel, through him, and for meeting so many other extraordinary people here on the thread Hellbender created. It is a tribute to him that so many will continue to learn and grow because of environment he created here.

Thank you, Hellbender. You will be sorely missed.

 

[hellbender]

It's all about selecting for desired characteristics no matter what the goal. There's no reason why birds can't be both productive & correct in Standard appearance-all it takes is proper selection.

Easily said. I'm not one who necessarily believes that form follows function. I handled dogs in AKC, UKC and American Rare Breed Association. I witnessed what breeding to form has done to so many dog breeds. I know...Apples and oranges.

 

[varidgerunner]

My seven year old that names everything sometimes refers to entrees by name. The sooner you figure out that for you to live, something has to die, the better we all are. Even if you eat veggies and live in the suburbs, something died in the process, your smart car mashed a centipede, the combine responsible for your frosted flakes ran over a gopher, the boat carrying your clothes over the ocean chopped up critters with it's prop the whole way. If you don't realize these things, you live in denial. Sometimes living in denial makes people make poor decisions that impact people who are not in denial.

 

[hellbender]

I will follow the thread as this is my first interest.

I would hope that it would be all inclusive. I am one that will breed to the Standard, but also put pressure on my birds for production qualities.

I think breeding for production is a broad subject and includes Standard bred birds, hybrids, experimental crosses, or projects in general. It involves breeding and management. Each person has a different ideal.

As long as this thread did not turn into a bash the SOP or bash other people's ideas, I am interested.

Absolutely all inclusive. I just want people who have NO interest in showing to NOT feel like second class citizens or feel pressure to give up their high production mutts or hatchery birds in favor of heritage breeds that may or may not be their equal in the egg nest .

 

[varidgerunner]

Oh the hypocrisy, let's just be consumers and buy our meat from the meat store where no animals were harmed. Let's feed our pet chickens until they live out their days. Um, better figure on buying some grain. But oh wait, when they plow up land for grain, it kills baby rabbits and field mice. Combines roll through everything from bear to snakes . Ever watch grain get harvested? It's not a bunch of Amish people with hand tools. The vegans and their rice. Modern rice production is responsible for more vertebrate animal deaths per pound of food than deer steak any day. If you exist as a consumer you are responsible for animal deaths. Unless you are naked and grazing on all fours you are killing animals. Your cute little "all man made materials" clothing contributed to the death and possible extinction of wild gazelles in the Arabian oil fields, to extract the petroleum that went into it. Then the ships that trucked it to Chinese refineries ground up beautiful sea creatures in their turbines. Yet we leave furbearing animals to rot in the road, because "fur is murder".

The people that dream this stuff up seriously need to up their meat intake, because it is scientifically proven that there are nutrients in meat responsible for proper brain function.

 

[DesertChic]

As of yesterday morning the hatch is over and, in my humble opinion, quite successful. Only one chick failed to hatch and from the looks of it the poor thing outgrew its shell before absorbing all of the yolk and suffocated. All told I got 8 lovely, healthy, and vibrant little pure Silver Grey Dorking chicks (two of which I'm pretty sure are cockerels with the rest being pullets), and three unique and somewhat unexpected mixes from my own flock.

A few of the best Dorking shots:









And now my own:
This one is the biggest surprise, coming from my Bielefelder/Australorp hen. It turns out that my rather flamboyant Ameraucana/Dorking-mixed with ??? rooster is a daddy! The chick is all black with fluffy cheeks, and I'm thinking that, based on my conversation with @Kev , that it's a pullet since there's no white dot on its head. ???


I was hoping for a NN from this one, but it turned out my Dorking-mix hen was instead mated by my big Monty, Ameraucana/White Rock mix. I absolutely LOVE this little chick and was shocked to see how soon after hatch it was both eating and drinking. Usually the hatchlings seem to take up to a full day to start making their way to the water supply, but this guy was so sturdy and assertive within three hours after hatching that it was eating, drinking and running to my hand to be held. It's got A LOT of its daddy in it, and I can't wait to see how it will feather out.




And finally, my lone NN chick. I'm REALLY excited about this one because both Mom and Dad are NN/White Rock crosses and some of my biggest NNs. This was my largest chick even though it didn't come from the largest egg and I'm anxious to compare its growth rate to both its parents and some of my other fast growers. I'm using this little one as an indicator of whether my breeding plans are on track.

 

[DesertChic]

Today was the third day we hit 115* or higher, setting a new record for the area, but this afternoon the clouds moved in, the thunder started booming, the winds kicked up, and.....I felt ONE drop of rain. Seriously, that's it. The good news is that it still dropped our afternoon temps down to 101* at my house, which is completely doable. I turned off the two window A/C units in the chicken cabin to give them (and my electric bill) a break since they haven't been able to drop the interior temperature below 98* in the hottest part of the afternoon. (That's still better than 115* or more though, so....)

The free-ranging birds have been surviving by way of shade and lots of water - ice cubes in their drinking water, hoses running and flooding the yard to create cool puddles for them to stand and scratch in...the misters are an absolute waste of time for them since they all hate them. The only birds really suffering are the Bielefelder hens and my one remaining Cornish-mix hen. So far though, no losses, which is a lot better than what most of my local chicken friends have experienced. It's come at a price though, because even if the chickens haven't suffered from heat stroke, I have.

The Silver Grey Dorkings are doing surprisingly well in this heat. They're in a run that offers shade for all but an hour each day, and the only thing I've provided them is fresh, cool drinking water and a running hose on and off throughout the day. I didn't expect them to do this well so I'm really relieved.

I'm giving serious thought to digging them a "rabbit tunnel". Since a few of my birds have dug down an entire foot in certain parts of my yard, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to finish the job and put some plywood over top of it.

 

[3riverschick]

Well, as you know it was a mostly unsuccessful hatching year here. Had to guess and choose eggs from mixed flock, hoping for purebred Light Sussex (LS). Got a lot of Crossbreds , plus imperfectly marked LS and 4 very nice pure Light Sussex.
So this afternoon I go out to check their water and 13 yr. Old smooth collie girl "Punkin" is with me. I never let her in with the birds because she has a higher prey drive. So I am checking the water and one of my SQ pullets flies right past me and out of the coop!! There are a slew of places near by where traffic can kill this bird, forest to hide in, creek to drown in, oh no!
I try and keep it beside the garage so I can catch it but the pullet alludes me, making its way around the garage towards the open lawn. Once there, I simply won't catch it.
Then I notice Punkin trailing her behind me. Well if the bird gets to the lawn, I'll never catch her so I thought I'd let Punkin have a go at it. I yelled, "Get it Punkin, get it! Get it! " (She knows that means to get whatever the issue is). She went into full herding mode. Herded the bird along the side of the garage until she had it in a corner of a doorway. "Hold it Punkin, get it!". She grabbed that bird and gently held it down like the finest soft mouthed retriever. When she saw me reach to get the bird, she let go. The bird stood up, no harm done, and I grabbed it.
Punkin got lots of hugs tonlght.
Karen

 

[aliciaplus3]

Ok my big boy tree beard got a flock of lovely ladies

here he is next to one of my turkens and you can see his size