BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[gjensen]

Being that this is the production thread, I thought I'd share the most recent 4-week data from my group of Naked Neck and New Hampshire "meat" chicks. (I hope those who also are on the NN thread don't mind some repeat info.) I have saved (Word document) a post from someone (can't remember if it was here or elsewhere) that talked about criteria to use to choose breeders to keep, and I know I'm just at 4 weeks, but welcome any input. In brief, I'm currently planning to harvest all (or nearly all) of the New Hampshires and only keep Naked Necks (larger and more easy going, super friendly & impressive chicks, fewer feathers), but I remain open minded as I watch them grow - there's one NH pullet I like so far. I have generally avoided naming any of them, but "Tank" is a huge Naked Neck that will likely be a keeper, and two pullets that I will keep are Sweetie and Puppy.

They have just been moved into a tractor (6x10), and though they will have some supervised roaming outside of that with some overhead netting (hawks!) and electric fencing, they will need more space pretty soon. The good news is that I have a good idea of boys vs. girls at this point, so I'm building the keepers' "forever-home" coop and will plan to move the keeper girls in there early as I continue to evaluate the boys, and I will likely bang together another tractor and separate out the non-cooped growout NHs vs. NNs to allow me more leeway in harvest time (if I want to let some go longer). There is a neurologically abnormal NH that has so far toughed it out and has been growing well with everyone else, but her growth curve may (or may not) be starting to fall off - I will continue to watch, but she may be the first harvested.



Growth curves per chick:



Here's Tank:



And here's Sweetie, who is aggressively friendly:



- Ant Farm

Being that this is the production thread, I thought I'd share the most recent 4-week data from my group of Naked Neck and New Hampshire "meat" chicks. (I hope those who also are on the NN thread don't mind some repeat info.) I have saved (Word document) a post from someone (can't remember if it was here or elsewhere) that talked about criteria to use to choose breeders to keep, and I know I'm just at 4 weeks, but welcome any input. In brief, I'm currently planning to harvest all (or nearly all) of the New Hampshires and only keep Naked Necks (larger and more easy going, super friendly & impressive chicks, fewer feathers), but I remain open minded as I watch them grow - there's one NH pullet I like so far. I have generally avoided naming any of them, but "Tank" is a huge Naked Neck that will likely be a keeper, and two pullets that I will keep are Sweetie and Puppy.

They have just been moved into a tractor (6x10), and though they will have some supervised roaming outside of that with some overhead netting (hawks!) and electric fencing, they will need more space pretty soon. The good news is that I have a good idea of boys vs. girls at this point, so I'm building the keepers' "forever-home" coop and will plan to move the keeper girls in there early as I continue to evaluate the boys, and I will likely bang together another tractor and separate out the non-cooped growout NHs vs. NNs to allow me more leeway in harvest time (if I want to let some go longer). There is a neurologically abnormal NH that has so far toughed it out and has been growing well with everyone else, but her growth curve may (or may not) be starting to fall off - I will continue to watch, but she may be the first harvested.



Growth curves per chick:



Here's Tank:



And here's Sweetie, who is aggressively friendly:



- Ant Farm

I like that. It really does help to truly see what you have. Perception is a liar and I will not hear her. The numbers do not lie though. They are brutally honest.

Once you have a good sense of where they are, and really know them (not think that we do), we only need to spot check them. Then finally at the set dates etc.

Unfortunately, hatchery NHs do not represent NHs well at all. They do better with some breeds than others. NHs are one of them. Usually they are just red layers.

 

[gjensen]

Some of my La Bresse

This years

This years Dark Cornish




Poulet Galouise

My Welsummer

They look like good birds that work. I like them.

Is there anything that you can share about them. Eggs per year (not per week)? Egg size? Weights at a certain processing age? Pounds of feed to get them to that weight?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I like that. It really does help to truly see what you have. Perception is a liar and I will not hear her. The numbers do not lie though. They are brutally honest.

Once you have a good sense of where they are, and really know them (not think that we do), we only need to spot check them. Then finally at the set dates etc.

Unfortunately, hatchery NHs do not represent NHs well at all. They do better with some breeds than others. NHs are one of them. Usually they are just red layers.

Yes, despite the drama/difficulty of rounding them up for weighing, I am finding that I like having this data to work with. The growth curves are annotated with best guess at sex (apparent for many) - the NN cockerel growth curves began pulling away from the NN pullet growth curves quite early (interestingly, for a few, that was a first clue to sex before the visual cues were there), so I'll start graphing them separately at 5 weeks. The NHs are clustering closer to each other regardless of gender at this point (and one of the most obvious cockerels is also the smallest one!). It's a shame that hatchery New Hampshires aren't better generally, but I honestly can't claim that these aren't "good" - I'm just finding that I like the Naked Necks more so far, and they may meet my needs best (regarding what I want to keep in my flock). I've heard that there is the same issue with Delawares - hear a lot of good things about the breed in general, but have heard that hatchery vs. breeder stock not as good...

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

OK, I just had to regraph this. See below - Blue lines are boys, pink for girls, three green that were unsure on the day of weighing. Interesting to see the male/female growth curve differences.



- Ant Farm

 

[gjensen]

Yes, despite the drama/difficulty of rounding them up for weighing, I am finding that I like having this data to work with. The growth curves are annotated with best guess at sex (apparent for many) - the NN cockerel growth curves began pulling away from the NN pullet growth curves quite early (interestingly, for a few, that was a first clue to sex before the visual cues were there), so I'll start graphing them separately at 5 weeks. The NHs are clustering closer to each other regardless of gender at this point (and one of the most obvious cockerels is also the smallest one!). It's a shame that hatchery New Hampshires aren't better generally, but I honestly can't claim that these aren't "good" - I'm just finding that I like the Naked Necks more so far, and they may meet my needs best (regarding what I want to keep in my flock). I've heard that there is the same issue with Delawares - hear a lot of good things about the breed in general, but have heard that hatchery vs. breeder stock not as good...

- Ant Farm

It goes that way for many of us. We come to prefer one thing over another based on early experiences etc. It is normal, natural, and good.

Yes, NHs are better sourced from other than a hatchery. It is unfortunate.

 

[gjensen]

OK, I just had to regraph this. See below - Blue lines are boys, pink for girls, three green that were unsure on the day of weighing. Interesting to see the male/female growth curve differences.



- Ant Farm

It is. @ 1 wk., you can start seeing who is who. You can almost sex them by weighing them @ 1wk and beyond.

You will see more when this curve has reached the top and begins to decline. Every strain is different. For some the rise is more gradual, and/or there is a plateau etc. What you are looking at is where that 75% of their growth is reached, roughly speaking. That is where the decline is in general. That is a processing age, but what is the carcass like then? They need a reasonable carcass at the most economical place to process them. That is where we judge them. That is the point where we prove them to be useful or wasteful. Of course we can grow some of these out longer to finish and use as roasters. We can do however and whenever we please.

 

[DesertChic]

Yes, despite the drama/difficulty of rounding them up for weighing, I am finding that I like having this data to work with. The growth curves are annotated with best guess at sex (apparent for many) - the NN cockerel growth curves began pulling away from the NN pullet growth curves quite early (interestingly, for a few, that was a first clue to sex before the visual cues were there), so I'll start graphing them separately at 5 weeks. The NHs are clustering closer to each other regardless of gender at this point (and one of the most obvious cockerels is also the smallest one!). It's a shame that hatchery New Hampshires aren't better generally, but I honestly can't claim that these aren't "good" - I'm just finding that I like the Naked Necks more so far, and they may meet my needs best (regarding what I want to keep in my flock). I've heard that there is the same issue with Delawares - hear a lot of good things about the breed in general, but have heard that hatchery vs. breeder stock not as good...

- Ant Farm

I've been experiencing the same preference for the NNs. I have several breeds here and love them all, but I'm pretty confident that my other breeds will primarily function as my egg laying stock while I work diligently with my NNs as my favored breed. And, it just so happens that I'm finishing up a very successful hatch of mostly NNs, bred from my own flock members. I even discovered that one of my NN cockerels managed to mate with one of my Australorps to give me a lovely little Naked Aussie.

What I'm really excited to see now is if the growth rates and final numbers for this flock varies much from their parent flock. Thanks in no small part to @gjensen I began charting and graphing info on all of my birds early on, making it easy for me to decide which pullets/hens I wanted to breed with specific cockerels. This was my first focuses breeding session so I'm pretty excited to witness the results.

 

[Dave C]

They look like good birds that work. I like them.

Is there anything that you can share about them. Eggs per year (not per week)? Egg size? Weights at a certain processing age? Pounds of feed to get them to that weight?

Oops

Still trying to get the hang of this forum

 

[Dave C]

They look like good birds that work. I like them.

Is there anything that you can share about them. Eggs per year (not per week)? Egg size? Weights at a certain processing age? Pounds of feed to get them to that weight?

Some of my La Bresse

This years

This years Dark Cornish




Poulet Galouise

My Welsummer

These projects are ver much work in progress, ha, I have only realy started to keep records this year.
Good La Bresse and Cornish utiliy strains are hard to come by here in the UK so i have taken my time and started with the best i could find.

This year i have had very bad hatches with the LB and what i have hatched were all hens

so were kept as breeders, the cockerel is quite old but very large (11lb) so next year i will be looking to use a high protien feed and reduce the numbers of hens in his breeding pen, hopfully getting some cockerels for the table and a replacement for him, i would rather have offspring from him than buy in replacement.
The Hens lay very well, i havnt counted but in excess of 250, i used to have White Leghorns but as my LB matched them for egg numbers and egg size (average 70-75g) i sold the WLH's, also didnt want too many white birds.

This years Dak Cornish were used to increase my stock, i also sold 2 breeding groups to local guys interested in the breed, this will be handy for me to have local breeders in the future for me to outcross with. The Cockerels were 5 - 5.5lb at 16 weeks.

As well as breeding both DC & LB next year i will be crossing them for a faster maturing larger bird

The batch of Poulet Galouise i raised processed out at 7 - 7.7 lb at 14 weeks (2 weeks longer than recomended)
They consumed 22 lb of feed each and were raised free range, the total cost was £4.60 per bird (not sure what that is in $)

we have very fertile fields with lots of clover and chick weeds so ideal for raising chickens they also had los of fruit and veg from th garden.

I will be raising more PG's next year as well as crossing DC x PG and LB x PG then bringing both lines together for some interesting results (hopfully).

 

[JRNash]

Very Impressive Dave. I have DC and love the breed. What kind of disposition do the La Bresse have?Are they real flighty? Wish you were in the US. Your birds have the body confirmation Im seeking. Great pictures.