Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

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Well, Terry, being from NY, you're in luck. There's a great poultry culture in NY. You have a lot of access to one of the best ways to come to understand the SOP--shows, and plenty of them. Get yourself a subscription to the Poultry Press. It has all the listings. The show season will be here before you know it, and you can put them on the calendar. They're something nice to look forward to. If you have a few years to retirement, that's great. By attending shows, you'll get to know folks, and slowly put it together. You'll be able to find stock, too. There are some nice Silver Laced Wyandotte large fowl in the region as well as some very good Whites. These really are the two foremost varieties. The latter would be a good place to start, and they're beautiful.
 
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Yellow House Farm said:
If you have a few years to retirement, that's great. By attending shows, you'll get to know folks, and slowly put it together. You'll be able to find stock, too. There are some nice Silver Laced Wyandotte large fowl in the region as well as some very good Whites. These really are the two foremost varieties. The latter would be a good place to start, and they're beautiful.
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Thanks, that's exactly what I was planning on. I've already put the Northeast Poultry Congress show on my calendar for January, since that is not far. My husband really likes the Silver-Laced Wyandottes the best, so I'll study up on them.

On a different subject but one I believe you are knowledgeable on: I've been trying to learn what breed of chicken we dined on while visiting my husband's family in the Morvan region (Burgundy) of France 2 years ago (my husband was born there). His uncle got it from the little farm next door, I believe it was white feathered, but I didn't see it before it was dressed for the cooktop. It was absolutely the most delicious piece of meat I've ever tasted in my life, nothing like any other chicken I've ever had. I should ask my husband's uncle to find out, but they do not live in that area full-time so I didn't want to bother them with the question, but I will if need be.

Here is a photo of it just before it was cooked in a Dutch oven. It was very simply prepared by our aunt. Could it have been a Bresse, or a Dorking? Is it a capon, which would explain the size? If I ever have the opportunity to raise a meat bird like this, I'd do it, it was so good.:

 
Hmmm...it's just too hard to tell, and being white, although black wouldn't be any better, it makes things tough. It's white skinned; so that narrows it down. It's a European bird. From there, I've got nothing. If you're tempted by that meat history. You might want to try some Dorkings.
 
Wow - beautiful! Now that's what I'm talking about. Please post info when you find out. The legs are as large as a turkeys!
yippiechickie.gif


I wonder if he was milk fed at finishing? The French have poultry raising down to an art, unfortunately most of the US is far removed from the process.

This is a milk fed Marans pullet I processed last week. Well, not in France but she was French.
wink.png

 
Extra Java said:
Wow - beautiful! Now that's what I'm talking about. Please post info when you find out. The legs are as large as a turkeys!
yippiechickie.gif


I wonder if he was milk fed at finishing? The French have poultry raising down to an art, unfortunately most of the US is far removed from the process.

This is a milk fed Marans pullet I processed last week. Well, not in France but she was French.
wink.png

Click to expand...
Yes, the breast was not overly large compared to the legs, which were huge. I had the breast meat and it was so flavorful. It was a very large family gathering and I didn't get a chance to sample the dark meat. I'll ask my mother-in-law over there to contact her brother and track down what it was, she is good at that, she grew up on a farm and her father was a butcher. Your Marans roast looks great, I've heard they are especially flavorful also and would love to try them.


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Yellow House Farm said:
Hmmm...it's just too hard to tell, and being white, although black wouldn't be any better, it makes things tough. It's white skinned; so that narrows it down. It's a European bird. From there, I've got nothing. If you're tempted by that meat history. You might want to try some Dorkings.
Click to expand...
Your Dorkings look really good, and similar to the mystery French roaster. I will work on convincing my sister in VT to try some in the meantime, she's already retired, raises Orpingtons for eggs, and a large batch of those hybrid broilers every year for her freezer. Those broilers taste nothing like the French roaster, for sure.
 
Of course not, they have no age. The length of leg in your roaster speaks to its development. Those hybrids are big chicks--literally. They have stubby leg, older birds have longer, more developed legs. That roaster also had muscling in the breast that was large, but natural in dimensions. It looked earned and not simply superimposed.
 
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Extra Java said:
I'm going to process some Dorking hens in a few weeks - I already know they'll taste wonderful.

Yes - that's what we call the hybrids... "big flavorless chicks".
Click to expand...
I'd love to see pics of the roasts when you do that. (I'm always taking pics of food, LOL, our French family probably thought I was a little nutty photographing the bird, as well as the bread all the time - I'm a bread-baker so I'm always interested in the bread in France of course).

Forgive me if this has been discussed already, but does anyone have any books or articles they recommend for how to properly grow out a bird like a Dorking for meat? Age, diet, etc? I assume many of the usual chicken care books discuss the speedy production of the broilers instead.
 

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