Serious Moulting

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Interesting, never thought about using a battery. I need to go out and do some looking and see if the light would be far enough away from chickens to not cause a problem. My tractor has a fairly low ceiling height. I was thinking about building a permenant coop as the free ranging is working very well for me. So I do not move the coop often anyway. But I was hoping to wait another year or so.....the battery idea would be a great temporary solution. I wish I could get up the courage to raise up some meat birds and butcher a couple of times a year. I really enjoy gardening and providing clean healthy food for my family. Why did you decide to stop? Was your cost more than the store bought? For some reason I would feel better about butchering cornish because they are going that route anyway.....butchering dual purpose seems like it would be more sustainable and cost effective however. What do you do with your hens after 3 years if you do not butcher?

If your coop is small, you only need a 60 watt light bulb to do some good.

We did the math on the Cornish X, and they worked out to over $12 per bird! When you add that cost to the fact that butchering is NOT FUN AT ALL, we stopped doing it. It just wasn't worth it to us. We sold the majority of birds for $15/each and had a long waiting list, but we just hated the butchering so much that the less than $3 profit per bird just didn't cover out time. And we decided we disliked the butchering so much, and the high cost of the meat so much, that we decided not to do any for our familiy, either. If there was a place around me that would butcher for me, I would think about raising some meat birds again despite the cost--I'd get the cost down by hatching some sex linked birds and eating the males instead of ordering Cornish X. They just tasted so good, and I felt good about eating them since they were allowed to free-range and had a happy, if short, life.

After three years we put the hens on Craigslist. We usually get $5-$10 per hen. I've given away a couple that looked rough or weren't laying, but usually manage to get some money from them.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Is it bad if your birds don't go through a molt? The majority of our flock is coming up on two years in april and only one girl who went through a hard molt after going broody and hatching. The remainder have a few new feathers that I noticed but no one is going bald and all their feathers certainly aren't new. I was just expecting this winter to have naked birds and no eggs but so far we have plenty of feathers and eggs.

Just want my girls to be healthy.

 

[gg706]

Oh MY you could buy an organic chicken at Fresh Market (high end fresh food grocer) for less than $12.00. WOW doesn't sound worth it AT ALL! Guess it would have to be dual purpose or grocery store for me. I had a feeling my cost to raise them would in the end not be worth it. I do feel raising them myself I would know for sure about the life they lived, what they ate and that there was not any meds given to them. But the butchering part would be very hard for me to do. Probably not as bad if they are gross disgusting creatures...but it would still bother me. I may have to look into producing more of a dual purpose type bird that can range and be cost effective to raise, preferably all the same color and TERRIBLE personalities!

So bringing down the axe would be easier!

 

[gg706]

Is it bad if your birds don't go through a molt? The majority of our flock is coming up on two years in april and only one girl who went through a hard molt after going broody and hatching. The remainder have a few new feathers that I noticed but no one is going bald and all their feathers certainly aren't new. I was just expecting this winter to have naked birds and no eggs but so far we have plenty of feathers and eggs.

Just want my girls to be healthy.

Where did you get your birds...I want some!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Is it bad if your birds don't go through a molt? The majority of our flock is coming up on two years in april and only one girl who went through a hard molt after going broody and hatching. The remainder have a few new feathers that I noticed but no one is going bald and all their feathers certainly aren't new. I was just expecting this winter to have naked birds and no eggs but so far we have plenty of feathers and eggs.

Just want my girls to be healthy.

Your birds are probably moulting, but it's been an easy moult and you just didn't see it. They don't usually lose all their feathers at once. Sometimes the only reason I know my girls are moulting is that they start being able to fly over the pasture fence because they dropped the flight feathers that I cut and re-grew them, so I have to re-clip wings again.

A light moult or a heavy moult, as long as they recover well, the chickens are fine.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Oh MY you could buy an organic chicken at Fresh Market (high end fresh food grocer) for less than $12.00. WOW doesn't sound worth it AT ALL! Guess it would have to be dual purpose or grocery store for me. I had a feeling my cost to raise them would in the end not be worth it. I do feel raising them myself I would know for sure about the life they lived, what they ate and that there was not any meds given to them. But the butchering part would be very hard for me to do. Probably not as bad if they are gross disgusting creatures...but it would still bother me. I may have to look into producing more of a dual purpose type bird that can range and be cost effective to raise, preferably all the same color and TERRIBLE personalities!

So bringing down the axe would be easier!

Nothing is grosser than a Cornish X. I don't have any experience with the colored Ranger meat birds, so I wonder if they'd be gross, too?

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Where did you get your birds...I want some!

My birds are listed in my profile (below) except for the two cochins and the sex-links the others we hatched from University of Arkansas eggs.

Your birds are probably moulting, but it's been an easy moult and you just didn't see it. They don't usually lose all their feathers at once. Sometimes the only reason I know my girls are moulting is that they start being able to fly over the pasture fence because they dropped the flight feathers that I cut and re-grew them, so I have to re-clip wings again.

A light moult or a heavy moult, as long as they recover well, the chickens are fine.

I was just expecting the yard to look like a pillow fight like it did when my one girl molted. I have seen new flight feathers on some but they still have some of the clipped feathers as well. I am fine with them still laying but was hopeing for pretty feathers in the spring. My one that went throught the hard molt has georgous feathers. everyone else looks kind of scruffy still. Of course the boys aren't helping with that either.

 

[gg706]

I was checking into hatchery Delawares from Meyer. Have you had any of them and butchered? People say that they are friendly, so they do not fit the terrible personality part

But IF I absolutly could not bring myself to butcher them the females would lay eggs and butchering roos would be easier for me. As I can only have 1 roo so all the others would have to go.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

My birds are listed in my profile (below) except for the two cochins and the sex-links the others we hatched from University of Arkansas eggs.
I was just expecting the yard to look like a pillow fight like it did when my one girl molted. I have seen new flight feathers on some but they still have some of the clipped feathers as well. I am fine with them still laying but was hopeing for pretty feathers in the spring. My one that went throught the hard molt has georgous feathers. everyone else looks kind of scruffy still. Of course the boys aren't helping with that either.

I've never had my yard look like a pillow fight, and I have 60 birds! Your birds that moulted lightly now may go through another moult in the spring so that you get pretty feathers. I agree, I love how the hens look after they've moulted. Especially the white Leghorns--they are so pristine and white! Then they get pooped on and dust bathe and that's the end of that.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I was checking into hatchery Delawares from Meyer. Have you had any of them and butchered? People say that they are friendly, so they do not fit the terrible personality part

But IF I absolutly could not bring myself to butcher them the females would lay eggs and butchering roos would be easier for me. As I can only have 1 roo so all the others would have to go.

I would look at hatchery Barred Rocks. I've had both hatchery Delawares and BR, and the BR were better layers. And they were heavy, too--lots of good meat on those girls. The BR is one of the breeds I'd used to make my farmyard sex links if I decided to raise meat birds for us to eat.