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  1. 777funk

    Heritage breed that has a decent amount of breast meat?

    After raising chickens for 6 years now from CX meat birds to chickens as pets in the yard. I reached a point where I'd like for them to make sense financially. I was sort of fed up with ordering the meat hybrids and paying as much as a store bird (4lb bird for $4-5) and having to do the work...
  2. 777funk

    Like raising heritage chickens but hate the meat... what to do? Capons?

    I raised my first batch of heritage breed cockerels last year and after butchering a few of them starting at 14 weeks, I all but gave up on cleaning the rest because they tasted horrible (in my family's opinion) and were tough (fact not opinion). I baked them for about 45 minutes at 350F. They...
  3. 777funk

    New Hampshire? Rhode Island? Sex-Link? Cherry Egger? Production Red? So many reds... what is this pa

    My guess is they're both NH but I'm no expert. Thanks for any insight! Hen: Rooster: Together: Their Chicks: The hen's eggs:
  4. 777funk

    Oxygen and Co2. How do we know levels are correct?

    I'd think an expensive or production incubator would have a way to monitor O2 and Co2 but obviously a Hovabator or LG does not. I see some discussion of things like: I leave the red caps off I leave one cap off I don't take either out with mixed success. How do I know I have the right amount...
  5. 777funk

    Day 18, 19, and 20 and Air Cell is too small. Anything I can do? My first hatch/experiment with our

    I've seen life and movement in these eggs when candling at day 14+ but I must have had the humidity too high (an old 6 pack sized plastic cooler with a heat pad at the bottom, a computer fan on top, and wet paper towel draped on the sides) because the air cell at day 18 and 19 looked about like...
  6. 777funk

    Is the skin on the old 'Heritage Breeds' tough as nails to eat? Sure is hard to tear the skin when f

    We just cleaned 60 Cornish X birds at 6.5 to 8 weeks of age. I cleaned a Game fowl rooster today. The skin on the CX's just peeled right off and we had to be careful not to tear it. The Game's skin was like trying to tear leather. I had to cut it. I can't imagine chewing that stuff. Does it...
  7. 777funk

    Game Roosters any good for eating? Have a bad one...

    We were given a game rooster and he is trying to kill our flock's 'King' who's a 1 year old New Hampshire who's had a hen to himself for about 6 months now. This game rooster seems like a pit bull and will fight the NH until he has no more fight and just runs off. However the game won't quit and...
  8. 777funk

    Eggs have manure on them (and smell like it too). What can be done?

    The last batch of eggs had some spots of manure on them and they stink (like a barnyard). What can be done about this? Is it safe to eat or to place into the incubator?
  9. 777funk

    I believe this Cornish Cross had a hawk attack!

    I heard my 1 year old New Hampshire rooster giving his alarm call. Not the usual one... the one where something real bad has happened. Sure enough, I went out and found this 7.5 week old Cornish X breathing his or her last few breaths. I had seen a crow sized hawk scouting the area earlier in...
  10. 777funk

    Protect tomoto plants and peppers from chickens. Possible?

    I had no luck last year. We had 100 heritage breed meat birds free ranging and they absolutely decimated the garden. We put up a 3' chicken wire barrier around it and they pretty much laughed at it as they flew over top or got close then climbed the rest of the height. They liked the peppers and...
  11. 777funk

    How do you really know you're getting good chicken stock? Lots of distain for hatcheries, but how do

    This is a difficult subject for me to grasp. If I buy from a hatchery (say Cackle, Murray McMurray, etc) there's a lot of talk about the product being poor quality or even not true pure breds. I've read here that they ARE actually pure bred chickens but with poor genetics (quantity vs quality)...
  12. 777funk

    300yds of barb wire fence line between our 10 acres and the neighbor's 10 acres. Want to keep 100 ch

    We had a huge problem with our 100 heritage breed chickens crossing the barbed wire fence into our neighbors property last year. They loved his garden. This year we'd like to keep them on our property. Obviously barbed wire is not a deterrent since they can easily crawl right under. We didn't...
  13. 777funk

    Possible beat 34 cents per pound (store prices on quarters) at home? Brainstorming here...

    I have some ideas but am looking for others on making meat birds make sense from an economìcs standpoint. With .34/lb chicken quarters and .99/lb whole chickens this is tough to justify I realize. Anyways, here are my speculations on how this would be possible: 1. If big food can do it, there's...
  14. 777funk

    Heritage Breeds (Cackle Hatchery's "Fry Pan Special") partially free range partially fed (cracked co

    We raised these birds: http://www.cacklehatchery.com/100-frypan-w5-free-exotic-chicks.html They ended up being (guessing here since it's a surprise lot you get): -Buff Orpingtons -Black sex-link (Barred Rock look alikes) -Red sex-link (looked like production or rhode island red and some looked...
  15. 777funk

    Free ranging on 10 acres... Neighbors complaining that the birds are reaching their yard/garden

    1st year at this and we like free ranging. They eat the ticks. TWo problems: 1. The birds eventually get eaten during the day time while out and about 2. The birds are getting to my neighbor's property (who isn't a fan) and eating from his garden. Anything I can do. I'm guessing probably not...
  16. 777funk

    Cat? Oposom? Something else? Day time kill of our 8 Month Barred Rock hen. See PICS.

    We just lost our best layer a few days ago at around 8 months of age. The crime scene: -Day Light Hours. Next to a road side barbed wire fence line of cedar trees and brush where the chickens like to hang out during the day -There was a bite to the neck for the kill and a pile of feathers. The...
  17. 777funk

    Barred rock (blk sx lnk) tough and gamey at 14 weeks

    Our roosters are now 20 weeks and after cleaning a few at 14 weeks, I have little motivation to clean any more. They were tough and smelled / tasted like a wild bird. I've had better squirrel for what it's worth. These were free ranged and supplemented with cracked corn. They were cleanly...
  18. 777funk

    11 week old Buff Orpington Cockerel weighs 2lbs. Normal weight for age?

    We just weighed one on our kitchen scale. I was surprised to see that the bird only weighs 2 lbs. I figured he should weigh a little more at this age. These birds make it to around 8 lbs fully grown I think.
  19. 777funk

    Dark Plymoth Rocks - Hens? They have combs.

    We ordered 100 Fry Pan Special Heritage birds from Cackle Hatchery. I'm hoping somehow they missed a few hens and they ended up in our box. Do any of these Barred Rocks look to be hens?
  20. 777funk

    Dark Plymoth Rocks - Hens? They have combs.

    We ordered a batch of 100 fryers from cackle and they were supposed to be all cockerels. We're hoping they got a few wrong and we ended up with a few hens to hang onto past the butchering date. I suppose we could wait until they're 6 months old (9 weeks now) but it'd be nice to know a little...
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