Recent content by gadus

  1. gadus

    all male review

    I Sorry for confusion...I'm looking ahead to when I'm incubating and figuring out what to do with the cockerels. I guess I'll stock some and make meat birds of the others - and play with the timing of all of that. Also, after the hens are done laying, they'll make fine stock - but also a decent...
  2. gadus

    all male review

    By dual purpose, I just mean larger birds, decent layers, which after two years or so, will then make a decent meal.
  3. gadus

    Free range your pullets and chase the eggs

    I raised a dozen Ameraucanas last spring/fall and let them free-range a lot - too much. They got so fond of roosting in the trees that I almost didn't get them into the coop. After a coon got one of them in the night and after a few days of being locked up inside, they started to wise up but now...
  4. gadus

    all male review

    I'm getting dual purpose birds and will be incubating myself. I plan on not sexing the birds and killing the males at fourteen weeks - as well as the layers at the two year mark. Is there a huge difference in taste with males? Is either one necessarily a better choice for chicken stock? I...
  5. gadus

    Raw seafood (offal) hors d'oeuvres anyone?

    Toffee noses, the whole lot of 'em!
  6. gadus

    Raw seafood (offal) hors d'oeuvres anyone?

    They pecked at it but most of it is still out there, stinking up the yard. To the compost pile next time.
  7. gadus

    Raw seafood (offal) hors d'oeuvres anyone?

    I said the hell with it and tossed the scraps in the yard. They can figure out for themselves what suits 'em.
  8. gadus

    Raw seafood (offal) hors d'oeuvres anyone?

    Do any fishermen/women here feed any of the offal to their birds? I was wondering specifically about squid guts, about whether or not it would be wise to feed it to the birds? Or should everything be cooked first? Or are fish/squid guts simply not a wise hors d'oeuvres, period?
  9. gadus

    Eggshells as calcium additive

    Thanks to all who replied. I'm now mixing in my crushed shell with the feed. But also will provide oyster shell "on the side" going forward.
  10. gadus

    Eggshells as calcium additive

    Who is using eggshells for calcium inputs? Is there any empirical evidence that it is as good as oyster shell? I've been slacking in the calcium department but I've got sacks of cleaned and dried eggshells - put aside for garden use - ready to be put to use in the coop.
  11. gadus

    Why Have a Rooster?

    I take it, that's regardless of whether I plan to broil it or stew it? It's an Ameraucana.
  12. gadus

    Why Have a Rooster?

    Based on forum comments, I'm going to make stock of my cockerel. There are plenty of hens, if recommended ratios are anything to go by, but space is limited. I can't see two roosters in a small space together, no matter how many hens there are. I just see a bloodbath. When are people butchering...
  13. gadus

    Why Have a Rooster?

    I can see now that this topic has been previously exhausted to death so I appreciate the feedback. We have many predators - bobcat, fox, raccoon, bear, hawk, even rats (though I hope I dispatched the last of them) - so I am pretty well convinced that on the predator issue alone a rooster is a...
  14. gadus

    Why Have a Rooster?

    Knowledgeable crew here. Which is why, rather than launch a new thread, I'm going to ask here, when to expose pullets to a rooster? The reality is that when they're ready to lay, they get moved into the coop, so it's kind of a done deal at that point but I wondered about free-ranging them now...
  15. gadus

    Why Have a Rooster?

    I got an Ameraucauna rooster as a gift from some friends two months ago. They had three and were happy to get rid of him. His name is Pablo, though I rarely address him by name. Pablo was attractive to me because he had apparently fought off a fox and I'd already lost several to one. Since his...
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