Interesting thread, will be great to see how you go with this project.
Quote: I'd put more emphasis on those who hold weight well at all ages, personally, not those who eat a lot quickly; just my 2 cent's worth. In meat birds who gorge, or any birds really, it often indicates feed inefficiency; they're scoffing like their lives depend on it because they're deficient in something and it may be based on congenital incapacity to assimilate all nutrients properly from their food. Easily bred in and not uncommon, that trait.
My biggest, meatiest chooks were never those who ate like it was their last meal, and I found it pretty doable to establish good dual purpose mongrel strains even while culling against excessive dependency on human feeding, not that it was ever a common trait in mine, being for the most part descended from often neglected backyard flocks all over the place...
I also used Silkies and found them very beneficial for many traits including fleshing qualities; there seems to be a large discrepancy between American and Australian Silkies in this area, from what I hear.
I used both small Silkies and large ones, the smaller ones were show bred supposedly but still chunky little fluffballs, and the black fleshing was pretty predominant in outcrossed offspring, no matter the breed it crossed out with, even when the skin was white, yellow, willow or whatever.
I prefer some Silkie genetics in my meat birds as it makes them better fleshed at any age, more feed efficient, and juicier, more tender. At least in my experience which appears to be very contradictory to many other people's. The second-heaviest rooster I ever owned was the large fowl Silkie-cross I used for breeding. He was about the same size as his mother, who was a very large but otherwise type-correct purebred Silkie, just a solid brick of a bird. He was yellow skinned with a black spot on his back, lol, despite the coloring his offspring ended up. He had 'gecko' patterned legs and feet, with equal amounts of dark blue and white in blobby horizontally striped patterns, looked quite interesting.
One history of Silkies I read said that they were meat birds, bred for that purpose, before they became ornamentals. Some certainly seem to retain this capacity. I know some people cull against obvious gender traits in combs and wattles in Silkies (leaving only individuals which to me look like they've all got leucosis or are dying of some other wasting disease) and perhaps in culling against the larger combs, wattles etc they've also culled against the other traits like meat qualities.
Quote: (Source: Don Schrider, Communication Director, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Assessment for Improving Productivity)
Only came across that info recently but it correlates with what I've seen firsthand. Thought I'd share it for what it's worth.
I'm not awfully familiar with some/many breeds, lol... I joined this thread actually wondering if this Cemani sort of meat bird you mention was established already, as I have a hen who is totally black except for mulberry wattles and brown eyes. She's shaped and sized like an Australorp but hidden in her background are Silkie genes; I thought for a moment this breed you mention, if it were an established breed, would explain this appearance, since the little I've read on pure Cemani sounded like it's a lot of work to establish such black birds, and certainly I've not selected for all-black birds at all. I've got a lot of birds with black skin, flesh, bones, organs etc in my flock, lots of black eyes and dark skins. If anything it's seemed almost a dominant trait.
I don't mind the blackness myself, if anything I prefer it. I find it superior to white flesh when it comes to eating qualities but a lot of people also reckon that --- 'once you go black you'll never go back' is often a joke made about black cattle, pigs, and so forth.
Darker animals have greater nutrient levels than pale ones almost as a rule, because black or dark pigmentation requires higher levels of sulfur, copper, iodine, and so forth. (All things Australians especially are generally chronically deficient in, and all things vital to full health).
You can eat color, and it's good for you, lol! I've heard some breeders say color doesn't matter, 'you can't eat color' --- yes you can and it's nutritionally superior to absence of color. Pigmentation is made up of nutrients. White animals are often an adaptation to extremely nutrient poor areas and the taste suffers accordingly not to mention their nutritional profile.
I think you're onto a good thing here, hope it's well received by potential customers. It's high time people got over this whole 'breed everything white because we don't like black pinfeathers' thing.
Best wishes.
Quote: I'd put more emphasis on those who hold weight well at all ages, personally, not those who eat a lot quickly; just my 2 cent's worth. In meat birds who gorge, or any birds really, it often indicates feed inefficiency; they're scoffing like their lives depend on it because they're deficient in something and it may be based on congenital incapacity to assimilate all nutrients properly from their food. Easily bred in and not uncommon, that trait.
My biggest, meatiest chooks were never those who ate like it was their last meal, and I found it pretty doable to establish good dual purpose mongrel strains even while culling against excessive dependency on human feeding, not that it was ever a common trait in mine, being for the most part descended from often neglected backyard flocks all over the place...
I also used Silkies and found them very beneficial for many traits including fleshing qualities; there seems to be a large discrepancy between American and Australian Silkies in this area, from what I hear.
I used both small Silkies and large ones, the smaller ones were show bred supposedly but still chunky little fluffballs, and the black fleshing was pretty predominant in outcrossed offspring, no matter the breed it crossed out with, even when the skin was white, yellow, willow or whatever.
I prefer some Silkie genetics in my meat birds as it makes them better fleshed at any age, more feed efficient, and juicier, more tender. At least in my experience which appears to be very contradictory to many other people's. The second-heaviest rooster I ever owned was the large fowl Silkie-cross I used for breeding. He was about the same size as his mother, who was a very large but otherwise type-correct purebred Silkie, just a solid brick of a bird. He was yellow skinned with a black spot on his back, lol, despite the coloring his offspring ended up. He had 'gecko' patterned legs and feet, with equal amounts of dark blue and white in blobby horizontally striped patterns, looked quite interesting.
One history of Silkies I read said that they were meat birds, bred for that purpose, before they became ornamentals. Some certainly seem to retain this capacity. I know some people cull against obvious gender traits in combs and wattles in Silkies (leaving only individuals which to me look like they've all got leucosis or are dying of some other wasting disease) and perhaps in culling against the larger combs, wattles etc they've also culled against the other traits like meat qualities.
Quote: (Source: Don Schrider, Communication Director, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Assessment for Improving Productivity)
Only came across that info recently but it correlates with what I've seen firsthand. Thought I'd share it for what it's worth.
I'm not awfully familiar with some/many breeds, lol... I joined this thread actually wondering if this Cemani sort of meat bird you mention was established already, as I have a hen who is totally black except for mulberry wattles and brown eyes. She's shaped and sized like an Australorp but hidden in her background are Silkie genes; I thought for a moment this breed you mention, if it were an established breed, would explain this appearance, since the little I've read on pure Cemani sounded like it's a lot of work to establish such black birds, and certainly I've not selected for all-black birds at all. I've got a lot of birds with black skin, flesh, bones, organs etc in my flock, lots of black eyes and dark skins. If anything it's seemed almost a dominant trait.
I don't mind the blackness myself, if anything I prefer it. I find it superior to white flesh when it comes to eating qualities but a lot of people also reckon that --- 'once you go black you'll never go back' is often a joke made about black cattle, pigs, and so forth.
Darker animals have greater nutrient levels than pale ones almost as a rule, because black or dark pigmentation requires higher levels of sulfur, copper, iodine, and so forth. (All things Australians especially are generally chronically deficient in, and all things vital to full health).
You can eat color, and it's good for you, lol! I've heard some breeders say color doesn't matter, 'you can't eat color' --- yes you can and it's nutritionally superior to absence of color. Pigmentation is made up of nutrients. White animals are often an adaptation to extremely nutrient poor areas and the taste suffers accordingly not to mention their nutritional profile.
I think you're onto a good thing here, hope it's well received by potential customers. It's high time people got over this whole 'breed everything white because we don't like black pinfeathers' thing.
Best wishes.
