BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

My SS showed me these and they are cute but I still remember the cockerel I had to put down because my son put a tie band on his leg and I didn't realize until it was cut through the skin almost to the bone. No getting it off without cutting the leg. Be careful with the bling.

That's unfortunate and very easy to miss- they do grow very quickly. I tried an elastic leg band but it was off in no time flat.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Another way to band your birds!?

"Is your chicken down in the dumps? Do you think they need a fresh look? Why not make them feel more confident with chicken charms!"

Those are very cute! But I have to say I think @lpatelski 's numbers are more practical for a breeding operation. Buuuttt......... there's probably room on a leg band for both once the chickens get older!

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Is it bad to give protein in large quantity, my chooks get high protein in their fermented grains that has other things, like starter crumble mixed in, but also table scraps of any meat and veggies and all the open ranged bugs they can find. Which of course they eat greens as well out n about, and the extra dried bugs n worms given especially during molt!

Yes you can over do the protein. But, It's protein quality that matters not just quantity. A protein must be complete (supply all the essential amino acids) and most plant proteins are not. Plant proteins tend to be deficient in some of these, for example chicken feeds I have purchased have to be supplemented with lysine. So there's not much benefit feeding a high protein feed, for example 24% made up from soy, you will have happier healthier birds feeding a lower protein (say 15-18% depending on the stage of growth and sex ) using a meat source. But it seems to be impossible these days to get feed that isn't "vegetable" based (ie corn and soy mostly). I have a very good older book called Practical Poultry Keeping. In there the protein requirements are stated to be 20 percent for chicks, 15% for growers, and 16-18% for layers or breeders. But the protein in the feed comes not only from wheat, barley and oats, but also from grass meal, fish meal and dry skim milk- not from soy like today. Today's feed IMO is basically like trying to stay healthy on crackers and a vitamin.
Plant proteins are completely inadequate for cats, who are obligate carnivores. They cannot live on a completely plant based diet.
This book said that if the protein quality/quantity is inadequate, chickens will eat too much trying to get enough protein, eating far too much carbohydrate in the process and becoming overweight- with the negative consequences of that. Chickens cannot make chicken, feathers, and eggs from carbohydrates- they make it from protein.

 

[DesertChic]

Yes you can over do the protein. But, It's protein quality that matters not just quantity. A protein must be complete (supply all the essential amino acids) and most plant proteins are not. Plant proteins tend to be deficient in some of these, for example chicken feeds I have purchased have to be supplemented with lysine. So there's not much benefit feeding a high protein feed, for example 24% made up from soy, you will have happier healthier birds feeding a lower protein (say 15-18% depending on the stage of growth and sex ) using a meat source. But it seems to be impossible these days to get feed that isn't "vegetable" based (ie corn and soy mostly). I have a very good older book called Practical Poultry Keeping. In there the protein requirements are stated to be 20 percent for chicks, 15% for growers, and 16-18% for layers or breeders. But the protein in the feed comes not only from wheat, barley and oats, but also from grass meal, fish meal and dry skim milk- not from soy like today. Today's feed IMO is basically like trying to stay healthy on crackers and a vitamin.
Plant proteins are completely inadequate for cats, who are obligate carnivores. They cannot live on a completely plant based diet.
This book said that if the protein quality/quantity is inadequate, chickens will eat too much trying to get enough protein, eating far too much carbohydrate in the process and becoming overweight- with the negative consequences of that. Chickens cannot make chicken, feathers, and eggs from carbohydrates- they make it from protein.

OUTSTANDING post!

I know a few people who literally collect fresh roadkill and feed it to their chickens to ensure they get sufficient animal protein. I haven't gone that far, but when I noticed my chickens having a hard time getting through molt, I did give them animal protein to eat in the form of ground pork, salmon belly, crushed hard-boiled egg, and dessicated bison liver. Each group got a particular protein and I monitored to see if any one of them did better than the others. Bison liver was the winner, followed by the pork, then the salmon and then the egg. It wasn't a formal study or anything, but at least it gave me an idea of what I can do to help my birds along during challenging times.

 

[Kusanar]

Quote:
I have been planning a rather large quail operation for a while and came up with a system that will band up to 340 birds at a time, using up to 4 bands per bird, only using 4 colors of bands, no numbers needed. That's assuming only banding one leg. I wouldn't be banding them until they are 4 weeks old, so nearly full sized, so the bands I put on them can stay on for life, and can be removed and re-used when processing so not too expensive to use multiples on one bird.

 

[ejcrist]

OUTSTANDING post!

I know a few people who literally collect fresh roadkill and feed it to their chickens to ensure they get sufficient animal protein. I haven't gone that far, but when I noticed my chickens having a hard time getting through molt, I did give them animal protein to eat in the form of ground pork, salmon belly, crushed hard-boiled egg, and dessicated bison liver. Each group got a particular protein and I monitored to see if any one of them did better than the others. Bison liver was the winner, followed by the pork, then the salmon and then the egg. It wasn't a formal study or anything, but at least it gave me an idea of what I can do to help my birds along during challenging times.

On the pork, did you give it them raw or cooked in some way?

 

[South OH Chicks]

Does anyone have any thoughts on breeding a marans rooster to a white leghorn? Im looking for what people would think about egg production numbers, good feed to egg ratio and what color do you think the eggs would be?

 

[DesertChic]

On the pork, did you give it them raw or cooked in some way?

It was raw, organic, pasture raised pork. We'd received a shipment that was supposed to be completely frozen, but a few too many packages were already thawed and rather than let it go to waste, I fed the surplus to the chickens.

 

[bramblefir]

Does anyone have any thoughts on breeding a marans rooster to a white leghorn? Im looking for what people would think about egg production numbers, good feed to egg ratio and what color do you think the eggs would be?

Production would be better than the Marans and the feed-to-egg ratio would also likely be improved. Egg color would most like be some shade of brown.

You can buy hatching eggs for this same cross from My Pet Chicken. They sell them as "Super Chocolate Egg Layer".

In my opinion, a better cross would be a Marans over Sex Links. The resulting pullets would likely have a darker brown egg color than the Leghorn cross while still having good egg production.

 

[ejcrist]

It was raw, organic, pasture raised pork. We'd received a shipment that was supposed to be completely frozen, but a few too many packages were already thawed and rather than let it go to waste, I fed the surplus to the chickens.

Ok, gotcha - thanks. We have some leftover roast pork in the fridge I'm going to try feeding them tomorrow. A couple are undergoing a light molt but they're still pretty young - won't be a year old till January. My rooster Hoss is about 2/3 of the way through his full-blown molt so I'm feeding them all Feather Fixer and giving them mealworms to help 'em get through it. Hoss is lookin' pretty rough so hopefully the pork might help a little. My wife suggested leftover chicken but I'm thinkin' that wouldn't be ethical, would it? But then again, heck, they'd probably eat me if I had a spell while cleaning the coop so I guess it'd be ok.