black meat breeds, silkies ect....

[bluenkimchi]

8 months for me is not a problem, since I do like gamefowl and oriental gamefowls. They probably be to texture/tough for you, but they are fine for me. 6-8 months is when we usually process the games.

But, yeah, older birds are great for slow cooking/soup/stews etc.

On the same note as tough/texture birds, i've had layer hens that are past their prime egg laying(2+ years old), they were still more tender than the games at about a year old. I guess it has to do with the how the bird was raised. Games(except Cornish game Lf & bantam) are usually more flighty and so use more muscle to move around, thus tougher meat, but so much flavor going on.

Anyway, I guess Bresse must be raise accordingly to get an older tender bird.

 

[DCchicken]

I'm getting my bresse from dcchicken's sister btw. I didn't know she caponized them too, as that's my plan for the roos I don't decide to breed with (they will get the decrowing surgery via local vet that I got a semi-quieted rooster from)... too bad I can't just buy young capons from her.

The 6 chicks I have atm have no destiny set in stone per se. My friend that has the not Smithsonian line of ayam cemani from Mike Bean is hatching 20+ purebreed ayam cemani, not the haffies in the next 2 weeks (she has 9 more of my batch atm) for me to still choose from. What should I be looking for in newly hatched chicks? As far as both breeding a larger black/gray/blue meat chicken that will dress out at 4 lbs within 6 months as a capon.

I'm really hoping that out of 6 4 aren't roos, or 5 lol, but if they are, they're likely headed to freezer camp. One seems quite large and I suspect it's definitely a roo. Idk anything about sexing chicks though.

Next weekend I'm picking up 40 gallons of raw goats milk to feed the chickens to soak their feed after caponizing, I hear that makes them even more tender? I'm hoping to have 1 of these chicks ready for Christmas dinner? Is that a realistic goal for a dinner for 2 people?

Ginseng has a very earthy flavor to me, but it has great beneficial properties and effects, does the black chicken soup need to have it as a component?

This could turn out to be very interesting, I'm especially keen on the auto sexing of the fm roo over non fm hens producing mostly pullets that are fm to a degree and low % of males and they are mostly clear/pink skinned, is that correct from my understanding?

If you want capons instead, just email her and see if she has some young ones that she can caponize and ship. The shipping might be a little expensive but she might work with you.

The ginseng is part of the Korean soup. I only use a little bit and used ginger to balance it out. I may have to post the recipe but you can just do a search on Youtube as there is a video.

 

[maranfarmer563]

I just purchased a couple of Cornish pullets to cross my extra cemani cockerel on. Will raise pastured poultry next spring

 

[Double Kindness]

Maranfarmer- most excellent! Black meat pasture raised chickens sound wonderful! We can compare notes of our different projects, but mine are still 3 weeks old or younger lol.

We built a huge brooder box out of closet doors yesterday. From the track of chick droppings, the explored a bit, but not much. There's an injured 7 week old slw at one end they keep company in the barn instead of my bathroom now.

I looked today at my chicks, I still can't tell which is male or female, so I'm really guessing, but it seems they are mostly roos.

 

[maranfarmer563]

My cemani eggs from Colorado are in lock down today,8 of 12 look good. Not bad for shipped eggs from Colorado to Pennsylvania,they actually got here in one day

 

[Double Kindness]

You might have gotten your eggs from the same lady my chicks are from maranfarmer

 

[lauraschicks]

"That might be totally doable. I will probably choose from the biggest purebreed ayam cemani from my friend's chicks when the bresse arrive in a couple of weeks (I hope). Ideally I'm planning on housing all my new chicks together plus the 6 in the brooder box between 3-4 weeks old atm.

I started naming them. Well, one of them. The biggest haffie that is orpington leaning looking has been named Oreo. I think only 2 of my 6 may be pullets, but I've got one with very bkack pigmentation except white toenails that I suspect is a roo and pretty big with big feet/legs, no tail feathers, black under tongue, but not black mouth. I think I will make him a capon, but his size/growth so far is nice. Since so many are suspected roos, it's good I have access to 30 more chicks to choose from & getting caponizing equipment very soon! I do want to have a few of these in my freezer, as silkies seem to not be as meatie, and ayam cemani are kinda small from my seeing them vs English orpingtons, but not as small as bantam orpington... like a 2/3 size lf?

DC- no honas laying again yet? I'd gladly bring you this cooler weather we're getting right now. It's really making me think, if I don't get chicks that are very cold hardy breeds within the next 2-3 weeks then I can't get any more new chicks until the springtime, by then the ones I have now/getting in the next 2 weeks or so will be laying fertile eggs. I'm gathering separate crates to house the roos I want to breed with soon.

For 24-30 chicks how big a brooder box is best? I was thinking 2 or 3 doors with a screen door top to put in the barn so I can reclaim my bathroom."

I'm in the same boat as you with chicks in the bathroom and brooder in process of building. I've now got it where they are in the bathroom the first week, then the porch brooder, then the pen brooder, then they are free to leave, roam, and come back if they love me...or their coop/flock.

I just hatched my first crosses of my Partridge Silkie Roo over my Tetra Tint and Golden Buff laying hens. They don't seem to have a lot of FM characteristics, though I do see some darker pigmentation around the head and one has a black stripe on top of head. Both have the five toes of the Silkie. It was hard to get a picture of them, as I obviously picked the wrong color to place them against, and they kept digging in and falling asleep. But my Fm projects are now officially underway. I have even witnessed my Svart Hona cockerel getting busy with some of the hens so will hopefully have some half SHs soon. I also have a new batch of Sulmtaler chicks to add into my mixes at a later date as well as my B/B/S American Bresse juveniles. I also have some Orpington Pullets that I'm going to try since I liked the sound of that mix.

 

[Double Kindness]

My haffies the ayam cemani x spangled orpington look nice, but are pink skinned, but the meat under it appears darker? I won't know until time to process though, 2 of my ac/haffies are headed to freezer camp, Nugget and Reginald.

It appears I have an even 50/50 split between roos and pullets, 1 each of the haffies and 2 each of the ac.

The white bresse ship Monday to me from tx and are from gff lines through dcchicken's sister.

In the spring I will be getting svart honas, ac, smithies from dc. I'm on the hunt for nice marans pullets, black ameracuana or auracana to get a fm blue egg layer?

I'm trying to get hmong chickens too. The demand for black meat and capons is high in my circle of friends, I'm getting offers of $25 a lb for black meat and bresse capons from my foodie friends. I am thinking of getting a trio or quad of muscovy ducks this weekend to over winter, I would probably house them with my 24 dp meaties that just started crowing this morning to my chagrin, caponizing equipment isn't here yet!!! It looks like we're getting velcro straps today to curb the crowing contest that I see about to get annoying to my neighbors really quick! 2 wl and 1 slw 8-9 week old started this am when I just let them out. My bf had to jinx me bu saying "when will they stop peep peeping all the time and start bawking?". Well now it sounds like a chair being scraped against stone floors or similar. If we can't stop the crowing before the caponizing equipment gets here, it might be 3 chickens going to early freezer camp.

I took these picts of my black meat project chickens

 

[maranfarmer563]

I have some maran chicks now

 

[Double Kindness]

How many chicks would I need to get to ship them safely to Colorado?

How are your chicks maranfarmer563 from your ac shipped eggs? I think we have them from the same person. I'm still getting 6 more from my friend when they all finish hatching, as there was only 1 new hatchling so far that I wanted to add to my project.

I definitely want to add nice dark chocolate eggs to my daily egg basket of pink, blue, green and white. I want lavander eggs too, if anyone knows of any? I will probably keep the 1 haffie pullet Oreo and Morgana the ac with red leakage and a white feather into my laying flock when they are big enough (to refine the project line anyways). Morticia and Boss have good black saturation and size so far. I'm learning!