Our First Meat Bird Experience - S & G Poultry

[Kev]

Tsk tsk did not keep any NN pullets. Good to see you may have learned from that mistake...

They're my favorite, nearly all chickens are NN here, the only exception is a group of blue laced red wyandottes.

Thanks for the reply, I'm asked about the meat, processing NN fairly regularly, like to collect various opinions so I would be able to give a fair answer to that question.

I'd be very interested in the roo's weight- he looks nice sized in those pictures. Towers over Marans? The Marans I had were large birds, so that has got to be an impressive bird. Are the Rainbows large sized birds- bigger or smaller than the NN?

 

[hipeatall]

Quote:
All of the NN and Rainbow cockerels were pretty large. I only had a few of the Rainbow cockerels (most of the rainbows turned out to be pullets)... but one of the Rainbows was the biggest bird we had out of the whole group. Overall, I would estimate they were about the same size... maybe the Rainbows were a little bigger (perhaps by 1/2 a pound max). Also worth noting, the Rainbows would have been ready to process sooner. I think they would have been ready at 12 weeks. We just held out and did them all at the same time at ~14 weeks... because the farm we took them to was an hour+ drive each way.
You know, I actually wanted to keep some of the NN pullets... well really I wanted to keep all of them. But, I had to stick to my original plan... as it was the one my hubby, son and I had all agreed to... so we processed them all. Next time I will go into it as a dual purpose project instead of a meat project. We will plan to keep or sell the pullets (as they make great layers) and process the cockerels (as they are so much larger)... it just makes more sense.

 

[Kev]

Sorry, was teasing about not keeping the NN pullets, it was a silly attempt at breed bias humor. Totally understand sticking to a plan, I certainly need to be better at that..

I've seen their website before but never was interested, until reading your experience and especially seeing the NN cockerels. I'm very interested in having the large, heavy NN again like my first one was. Your picture of that Ideal cockerel looking small compared to the other NN is what I've been noticing about the latest hatchery NN stock..

From your description, it seems NN x Rainbow cross could be a nice one. Going to breed them?

 

[hipeatall]

Quote:
Sticking to the plan was really hard for me... I so wanted to just keep them all... I like my new dual purpose plan alot better!
Hmmm... well, you know the Rainbow girls are in the yard with Lucky... and I do have an incubator... might be fun to see what the cross would turn out like

. If I do it... I promise to keep you posted on them. I am definitely going to order more chicks from S&G this Spring.

 

[ChickyLaura]

How is the NN roo doing? Is he still growing, or has he reached his "full potential"?

My other question is - how loud and often does he crow?

I am asking because I am interested in raising these guys for a self-sufficient flock, but I live in town. I have one quiet-ish roo that I am getting away with. I have had complaints in the past with other roos I have had.

 

[hipeatall]

Quote:
Lucky is still pretty young and still growing... it'll be something to see just how big he gets... he's so big and tall already. They hatched and were shipped to me in the last week of September... so that puts them at only about 20 weeks old.
I haven't heard much crowing from him... I do hear some muffled crow like noised coming from his coop in the morning but once he is out not a peep... of course that probably will change. We have 7 or so other roosters and they like to crow at each other... I'm sure he will want to join in.
On another note, he has been doing "other" rooster business or trying at least.
Also, the Rainbow girls he is in with just started laying. So far I've collected 2 eggs from them. I was very surprised to see an egg in the nest! I really thought they had a few more weeks... especially with the cold (for Texas) weather we have been experienced.

 

[lemongrass]

Instead of making a new post I figured I'd add to this one.

I was looking into Naked Necks for meat birds. I do not just want them for myself, I would also like to sell them. My only concern is the skin that stays exposed. Will this look strange on the processed and plucked bird? Does it stand out on the neck and underside where it is naturally featherless? I do not want my customers to be turned off by a different looking skin, and skinning the birds every time is not really an option. If my customers want birds with skin I have to deliver.

The area on the neck does not bother me so much. I cannot find pictures of their underside to see if that gets very red/discolored/different from normal looking chicken skin. Do those of you who have raised NN for meat leave it on while cooking? Does it taste different? Do you just skin the birds?

I realize its mostly just an issue of aesthetics, but if there is also a difference in texture/taste I'd like to know. I guess there is a possibility of it being tougher since it is exposed to the sun all the time.

Any info on this matter is appreciated, thank you!

 

[hipeatall]

My experience with processed Naked Necks is that once they are dressed they look the same. We raised both Naked Necks and Rainbows and honestly once they are processed I would have to look really hard at the skin to identify which is which. The chickens were young when processed so they hadn't really gotten the red neck coloring and none of the skin on our processed chickens was red or in any way different than what you would expect to see. We did not skin any of our birds... all were plucked. I cooked them the same way... and couldn't tell a difference between the NN's and the Rainbows... both were great. The NN's skin does crisp up nicely when roasted.
Okay... hope this helps. I think your best bet will be just to raise up a small batch so you can experience them for yourself... a tasty project!

 

[lemongrass]

Thanks so much! Yes you answered all my questions -- and I agree, I think I will experiment with a small batch of NN and perhaps White Rocks as a control group.

 

[Kev]

Pic of cou nu(french for naked neck) carcass

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lps_photostream/5349499839/