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  1. 777funk

    Heritage breed that has a decent amount of breast meat?

    You'll note, that's exactly what I was saying in my post. From a business stand point, culling would make sense. But from a farmer's standpoint (one who is connected to the animals as a caretaker), I could't bring myself to do that. I'm sure hatcheries (who truly are running a business) have to...
  2. 777funk

    Questionable harvest method

    I use a pellet rifle. Just throw an amount of feed down and shoot for the base of the back of the head on 3-4 birds at a time. Quick and easy. I then chop off the heads with a hatchet over a log. The neck shot knocks them unconscious quick and easy and gives a little bit of separation from the...
  3. 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...
  4. 777funk

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

    I think I am so used to the 8 week old CX that I don't know if anything else will ever = chicken in my mind. I've eaten a lot of pheasants over the years and even those were more tasty than our heritage birds. We did let them rest for a few days in the fridge before baking. Don't remember if...
  5. 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...
  6. 777funk

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

    Those are nice looking birds. We do get a LOT of XL eggs from the hen pictured. Must be bred as such. The meat from others in this line was not too good though. I'd like to try a real heritage breed rooster or capon at some point. On a side note, we just ate 2 of our cornish cross birds tonight...
  7. 777funk

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

    thanks Junebuggena for the detailed reply there. I know my two are great free range birds and not pets. Temperament wise they are somewhere in between wild animals and domestic birds... very very hard to catch. Partly because we don't usually interact with them or feed them treats. Also because...
  8. 777funk

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

    School me on Production Reds please. From what I've heard it's a cross between a RIR and a NH. Also, I've heard a NH came from a line of RIRs. Is this correct?
  9. 777funk

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

    Thanks TheTwoRoos. That's what I was thinking... but it's so hard to tell with all the actual reds and coined hybrid terms out there. Also a little on their disposition for what it's worth. They are free ranged and would pretty much make it without any intervention probably for a long time on...
  10. 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:
  11. 777funk

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

    Had 2 die so far and 3 hatch. The last hatches have had less trouble and smaller air cells since I've since reduced the humidity. It seems like the mistake can be caught and remedied to a certain extent if caught before lockdown time. Now I know! Better too low than too high. I've been...
  12. 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...
  13. 777funk

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

    Had a third that was supposed to hatch today that pipped through the shell yesterday. I could see it breathing (the pip moving) as I checked it once in a while. It was about to zip and turned the shell's pip downward. No more movement at the beak as of today so I cut that one open. There was no...
  14. 777funk

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

    Had a second one pip through the shell and could see the cracked shell moving with breaths, but hasn't hatched yet. It's been 12 hours. Today is day 21 for that one. We'll see! I had the one between the first one (which hatched) and this one that died around day 20 with no visible pip. First...
  15. 777funk

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

    Somehow the chick still hatched healthy (pipped day 20 waited another 12 hours for day 21 to put a hole in the shell then cut around the shell and out an hour later). Pretty surprised. Got another due today
  16. 777funk

    What keeps hawks away?

    Quote: They'll kill hens with roosters. Maybe not as often but it'll happen. My rooster alerted me recently to one getting picked off. He was pretty alarmed by it. But... it happens.
  17. 777funk

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

    Picked up one at Walmart last night. Hopefully it's Accu-rite. EDIT: tested the $9 Acu-rite indoor digital thermometer/hygrometer against the Hovabator included thermometer and a Sargent-Welch mercury thermometer and the Acu-rite read 3 degrees cooler than the glass units mentioned. I'm guessing...
  18. 777funk

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

    What humidity gauge? I know... I know... but as mentioned in the first post, it was a case of... hmm... we have all these fertile eggs, why not throw them in the little cooler with a heat pad and see what happens. I had a thermometer and it seemed to hover around 99 to 100F most of the time. But...
  19. 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...
  20. 777funk

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

    Quote: He required an urgent removal unfortunately. He was dead set on killing the flock rooster (7lb New Hampshire). After our rooster quit fighting, the game just kept going; chasing him all over the place for about 20 minutes and every time our rooster stopped out of exhaustion, that...
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