Pastoral Poultry, Traditional Farming For A Modern Era

[cgmccary]

Chris,
What Plucker do you use? I was asking Ron about the "mess, tearing, fingers" because he uses the Power Plucker, which is the attachment for a power drill. We are considering the Whizbang, but open to other ideas. Anything is better than the hand plucking.

Mine is one of the EZ Plucker models (I'll have to look when I get home as to eactly which one I have -- the more fingers, the higher the price). here's one model:
http://www.amazon.com/EZPLUCKER-Stainless-Chicken-Plucker-Defeather/dp/B006QXB85Q

 

[Sandyd]

Brice,
I hope this thread takes off. We grow chemical free naturally grown produce that my wife sells at the local Certified Farmers Market.
We will also be selling eggs there in the future.
We use our flock for both meat and eggs. Our main breeds are Rhode Island Reds, Columbian Plymouth Rocks, and Barred Plymouth Rocks. All of which are non Hatchery "Heritage" strains.

I won't say this too loud, but I also experiment crossing these strains onto other breeds to produce meat birds.
One of my best crosses to date has been HRIR to BC Marans, which produced fine table birds.
This cross also makes a Very Nice laying hen.

Look foward to learning from this thread.

Also on the Plucker, We purchased a Plucker from Power Plucker, it works surprisingly well.
http://www.powerplucker.com/

Ron Fogle

Ron, In order for you to sell at the Farmers market do you have to be certified by USDA for eggs?

 

[FOGELLY]

Brice,

It can get a little messy, I have learned to stand to the side. I also wear saftey glasses because of the water spray.
We stake out a small tarp to catch the feathers.

It will not tear the skin if you take the bird directly out of the hot water and immerse it in cold water before plucking.

It does hurt if you get your fingers in it.

Ron

 

[FOGELLY]

Ron, In order for you to sell at the Farmers market do  you have to be certified by USDA for eggs? 

I don't want to give the wrong info on this, but when it come to USDA requirements, a lot depends on your total annual revenue from a product .Or where it is sold.
Such as, the use of the term Organic. if you sell less that $5000 per year, it is lawful to use Organic without being certified. I see many eggs being sold at Farmers Markets without USDA certification. I will take a look at my notes for the requirements.

Ron

 

[Sandyd]

We processed 300 Cornish X Rocks last summer packaged, labeled and sold them to people. Initially we had 100 left over frozen but word of mouth spread and we have 5 left for our own consumption until we order and grow our broilers again. We had purchased Featherman equipment to process all of our broilers (kill cones/stand, auto scalder, feather plucker). Purchased white utility sinks free standing plastic from Menards to soak and change water in. We made drain stands out of PVC that you just bagged the chickens on the stands,Vacuum packed at 50% and shrink bagged them. We did not include the neck, giblets or tail.

I purchase my own egg cartons and label them with our own label. We sell eggs to people from our shop frig, our places of employment has them in the frigerators of their break rooms. I sell from a feed store frigerator also. You have to have your own label and cartons to sell from the feed store and for every dozen I sell from there I give the Owner 50 cents. My son takes 12 plus dozen every two weeks for his fellow employees also.

Cost wise it is easier for us as we have our own grain to feed them and don't have to buy processed feed. Naturally we have been told we don't charge enough for our product but we are looking at not having to sit on any eggs or broilers.

 

[Sandyd]

I don't want to give the wrong info on this, but when it come to USDA requirements, a lot depends on your total annual revenue from a product .Or where it is sold.
Such as, the use of the term Organic. if you sell less that $5000 per year, it is lawful to use Organic without being certified. I see many eggs being sold at Farmers Markets without USDA certification. I will take a look at my notes for the requirements.

Ron

It must be the same as selling broilers. If under a certain amount you are ok and only sell to people like you and me, not restuarants, etc. Can't take broilers to farmers markets unless you pass the inspection and get a number. Lots of keeping logs on the quantity and $ amount in case you are asked to produce it.

 

[bayocum]

The best thing to do is check with your local certified farmer's market, they are usually a wealth of information. There are federal laws, but each state has the option to have its own (stricter) set of laws regarding the processing and sale of poultry and eggs. In CA I believe we default to the federal laws. So you can produce and sell without USDA oversight as long as it's less than 1,000 birds a year. My understanding was that you had to sell them "from your farm," meaning actually from your property, but there may be room for interpretation there. I noticed that a lot of the grass-fed beef guys would have you sign up as an "owner" and then you could purchase your share. So I'm sure that was part of a co-op situation that allowed them to sell meat at the farmer's market that they wouldn't otherwise be able to sell "directly." We are looking at the Farmer's Market option for this summer/fall, but right now we are still experimenting with breeds. We have Bresse, Buckeye, HRIR, Bielefelders, and Basque Hens that we are working with. We are developing relationships with a couple of restaurants, which is pretty exciting.

 

[Mrs. K]

This should be an interesting thread. I have had +/- a dozen hens going on 8 years. I have ordered 25 Delaware chicks for June from Sandhills Preservation. Traditionally my hens go broody about that time, so am hoping to get lucky and let her raise them. Currently I have a hodgepodge of breeds and a BA roo.

I got short of hens going into the winter, so bought some older leghorn chickens. They are good layers, but they are such dirty birds, and their eggs were always dirty. And their feathers often seem to be a magnet for manure and refuse. I know it sounds like I keep a dirty coop/run, but they free range a great deal, and the other hens look nice. I have never had white hens before. If I had gotten the leghorns before I am not sure if I would have ordered the Delaware, as they are a white chicken too.

The delaware are an American breed, a dual purpose hen, which I like better than just a strictly layer hen, like the leghorns. They were originally used as a good home chicken. I ordered straight run. The plan is to raise them up, eat the roos, and keep a nice flock with a good roo going into winter. This will be my first heritage flock, and I hope it goes well.

The poster on raising his own, and cross breeding, there are some very interesting articles on the creation of breeds. The big one is a sharp knife, and good records.

MrsK

 

[FOGELLY]

This should be an interesting thread. I have had +/- a dozen hens going on 8 years. I have ordered 25 Delaware chicks for June from Sandhills Preservation. Traditionally my hens go broody about that time, so am hoping to get lucky and let her raise them. Currently I have a hodgepodge of breeds and a BA roo.

I got short of hens going into the winter, so bought some older leghorn chickens. They are good layers, but they are such dirty birds, and their eggs were always dirty. And their feathers often seem to be a magnet for manure and refuse. I know it sounds like I keep a dirty coop/run, but they free range a great deal, and the other hens look nice. I have never had white hens before. If I had gotten the leghorns before I am not sure if I would have ordered the Delaware, as they are a white chicken too.

The delaware are an American breed, a dual purpose hen, which I like better than just a strictly layer hen, like the leghorns. They were originally used as a good home chicken. I ordered straight run. The plan is to raise them up, eat the roos, and keep a nice flock with a good roo going into winter. This will be my first heritage flock, and I hope it goes well.

The poster on raising his own, and cross breeding, there are some very interesting articles on the creation of breeds.  The big one is a sharp knife, and good records.

MrsK

You should be pleased with the Delaware's compared to the hatchery Leghorns which are bred as a Battery Laying hen. Things like dusting and preening are not important traits for a caged laying hen.

Also on crossing breeds, on our farm the NUMBER ONE priority is to preserve the historic breeds we keep.
However we have made some interesting crosses for both meat and eggs. No cockerel from these crosses avoids the freezer for more than 20 weeks. Hens that lay well go to the laying pen.
Our very best cross for laying has been a Blue Wheaton Ameracuna over HRIR. The pullets started laying in November at 6 months old and are on pace to lay 230+ eggs their first year.
The Ameracuna was from my sons little flock of pure bred BWA, the hens were very poor producers (80 eggs a year) and have since been banished from our farm.

Ron

 

[bayocum]

You should be pleased with the Delaware's compared to the hatchery Leghorns which are bred as a Battery Laying hen. Things like dusting and preening are not important traits for a caged laying hen.

Mrs. K- I agree with Ron. My brother has heritage Delaware hens and they are really nice, big birds. They take their time growing (compared to cornish x), but they are solid birds with a nice frame. I'm trying to get him over to this thread as he may have some more insight for you.