BCM Roo x Red Selinks - 3 generations and they're a new BCM?

[NTBugtraq]

How old were those birds? We're they free ranged?

The birds were 15 weeks and 5 days old. I prefer to go with 16 weeks +, but it was the only day they had an opening for them. About 4 weeks prior to taking them for processing, I built an encaged run of about 1,000 sq. ft. on the front of their main run, and after they'd gleaned every weed off the ground in there, I fed them tons of weeds off the garlic beds. The bigger problem was earlier in their life, from about 5 weeks to say 10 weeks they only got scratch. With 4 dogs very interested in attacking chickens, I can't free range here.

 

[draye]

Well I don't know then. I wouldn't think a 16 week old chicken that's cooped would be tough and stringy.

I feed mine out with non-medicated chick starter ( actually its game bird feed) and sweet feed mixed together. The sweet feed mix I get for about $6.00 a bag they call it floor sweepings, it is totally good feed just what drops to the floor while milling it. They guarantee a 8% but I think it's really more a 14 to 15% protein.

Maybe the next ones will turn out better.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Well I don't know then. I wouldn't think a 16 week old chicken that's cooped would be tough and stringy.

I feed mine out with non-medicated chick starter ( actually its game bird feed) and sweet feed mixed together. The sweet feed mix I get for about $6.00 a bag they call it floor sweepings, it is totally good feed just what drops to the floor while milling it. They guarantee a 8% but I think it's really more a 14 to 15% protein.

Maybe the next ones will turn out better.

Well, I've decided to take my last birds for processing this year just before Christmas. That will give me birds that are 24, 23, 19, and 15.5 weeks old. I could also take some cockerels that will be 12-weeks-old at that time if I want (haven't decided.) That should give me a comparison to what I got the first time, as well as birds that should be bigger...the question is will they be tastier?

Anyway, decided that my current hatch, which has just begun day 8, will be my last setting until Jan. 22, 2016. Saves me worrying about culling them myself.

This should let me cull my existing laying flock by as early as Dec. 22nd. I have already put the 2 additional BCM roo's in with the main flock, and while they are avoiding my Rooster, they are gaining confidence (they will be 20-weeks-old tomorrow). So hopefully my January setting will have a great fertility rate, and will all be 2nd generation.

I have made a lot of mistakes in this first year, and hopefully they are behind me now. My last hatch has been through a cocci epidemic during which I lost 17 of 32 (so far), so I think the only thing I haven't experienced is a predator attack on the runs.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Just finished moving my 10/1 setting into the juvenile run. I moved 35, so again, a better than average brooding. I have my processing date for cockerels set for 12/9, and I am about to make a crude killing station for culling cockerels after that date. I am already getting 1st generation eggs, ~5/day, which from the 7 who are mature enough to possibly lay, is not bad. I have so far moved 29 pullets into my main flock. I re-homed 11 1.25 year-old hens, and will process my 12 3 year-olds on 12/9. That eliminates all my Generation 0 layers.

My next setting is on 1/6/16, which will make the cockerels old enough to be processed on the first day the processor is open next year (5/31).

My last 2 hatches have done well being put out in colder weather. I fed them more vitamin water than I had in the past (every other bottle of water during brooding), and I blocked off a corner in the juvenile run that seemed to lead to chicks dying due to being compressed. I haven't lost a single 3+ week old in the 4 days they've been outside.

So, shortly, all of my eggs will be 1st generation, and even better, there are now 3 BCM Roosters in the main flock to hopefully improve on my 75% fertility rate. I can't say all 3 are getting along (I have 1 who is just over 1.5 year-old, and 2 that are > 25 week old), but all 3 are unharmed.

I can tell the young pullet eggs based on their size (I get up to 55g, and then 60g+ eggs, the separation is due to the age of the layers), and there's an interesting phenom. About half of the eggs are very much darker than the other half. Still not yet reaching a darkness as shown on a BCM egg color chart (which goes from 4-10), but much darker than my average color from my original laying flock. So the plan is to incubate based on egg color...darker eggs yes, lighter no.

I am hoping to find an Ova 100, and sell my Octo 40, but I doubt I will have enough eggs by 1/6/16 to fill an Ova 100.

And for those who think hatching at the end of January is a bad idea (let alone hatching at the beginning of October), I am breeding birds hearty enough to survive my climate. In the next day or two I am closing up my runs to prevent cold winds and snow...so I am giving them an environment that should help. No heat, no insulation, but tons of fresh, unfrozen, water.

The experiment continues.

 

[junebuggena]

FWIW, I have had 3 reports from customers who ate the meat birds. 2 say they were tough and stringy...ouch...the other says the smell from using the carcass and wings for stock was "Amazingly good". So, the judge is still out. I contacted everyone and insisted they take their money back...so far nobody has showed up for their money, but I still feel bad selling them something that isn't awesome.

People expect all chicken to be just like what they get from the grocery store. Non Cornish cross birds just aren't going to be the same, no matter what.

 

[NTBugtraq]

People expect all chicken to be just like what they get from the grocery store. Non Cornish cross birds just aren't going to be the same, no matter what.

Next year I plan on getting a bunch of those franken-birds to grow as meat birds, just so I can have that conversation with people and offer them something they will actually enjoy. I have learned that I have customers who really want a heritage bird, and others who haven't a clue what the difference is. To avoid unhappy customers, if I have both to sell, I can give them what they expect...and maybe, convince them to try a heritage bird.

 

[NTBugtraq]

People expect all chicken to be just like what they get from the grocery store. Non Cornish cross birds just aren't going to be the same, no matter what.

I have a Chinese woman as a regular customer for eggs, she buys all I have every time she comes. She wants "small birds", which is how I saw 10-12 pullets explained by a local breeder. Next year, once I reach 100 layers (my legal maximum), I will get to start trying that idea. Certainly its a way to sell heritage that cost closer to the franken-chickens.

 

[keesmom]

FWIW, I have had 3 reports from customers who ate the meat birds. 2 say they were tough and stringy...ouch...the other says the smell from using the carcass and wings for stock was "Amazingly good". So, the judge is still out. I contacted everyone and insisted they take their money back...so far nobody has showed up for their money, but I still feel bad selling them something that isn't awesome.

Non-Cornish X birds often benefit from slow, low heat cooking. Maybe that was the problem. They aren't the baby meaties that people find in the grocery store, and will never be.

I have a Chinese woman as a regular customer for eggs, she buys all I have every time she comes. She wants "small birds", which is how I saw 10-12 pullets explained by a local breeder. Next year, once I reach 100 layers (my legal maximum), I will get to start trying that idea. Certainly its a way to sell heritage that cost closer to the franken-chickens.

Around here the more recent immigrants vastly prefer non-Cornish X birds. Extra cockerels, roosters, spent hens, some even seek out dark skinned birds such as silkies. They have so much more flavor. Unfortunately most of the US has had only tender, very young Cornish X to eat that they wouldn't know what to do with even a young heritage bird (not sure about your location in Canada). Is there any way to try to market your birds to the local immigrant population?

 

[NTBugtraq]

I just got off the phone with a local famer's market/auction barn, who've told me they sell chickens every Saturday throughout the year, yeah! I will have somewhere to take my maturing cockerels through the winter when there's no processing facility available. I probably won't get much for them, but at least I will be able to stop feeding them as they reach appropriate ages. That's a huge relief.

I have ordered my Ova Easy 100, and will shortly put my Octo 40 up for sale on Kijiji. So, the trick will be to see if I can come up with 100 eggs by 1/6/16 to fill it. These will be Generation 2 hatchlings, so I have decided that the first hatch need not be selected by egg color...just quantity. This will give me Gen 3 layers laying by ~7/1/16 (by which time I will have sold all my Gen 2 layers). Since there will be so many more of them than in the past in a relatively similar timeframe, I hope I will then be able to choose by color from those Gen 3 eggs and still have the quantity I need to set.

So my first Gen 4 eggs should arrive around the first week of January 2017. Pls lolz with me as this is all based on a spreadsheet, not reality, but I am incorporating my past losses into the sheet. Hopefully, as generations progress, losses should decrease.

By March 2016, when I start to cull the Gen 1 laying flock, I will reach 60 layers (I was never higher than 23 with Gen 0), so more eggs to sell. Gen 2 layers get to 100 (my legal maximum) by September 2016. After that I keep 100 layers...so even more eggs to sell. Throughout this process whatever excess birds I can't presell as meat will go at auction (hopefully)...so no need to invest in fridges/freezers to store tons of process birds in.

If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to send you my Excel spreadsheet I use for scheduling...

 

[draye]

Here in Arkansas we are allowed 199 hens after the 200 th comes along then it is considered a business.

That is laying hens only not roosters and baby chicks.