black meat projects

[Double Kindness]

I took pictures the other night

This is Oreo

 

[Double Kindness]

We made a much bigger brooder box for the chicks yesterday

They have lots of room to romp and play, hide if they want to lol. There's an injured slw 7 week old pullet in the chicken er cage at the end and they keep each other company. The barn doors are open during the day and there is a heat lamp on at night a distance away.

12 white bresse and 6 more ayam cemani & haffies will join in this brooder box in less than 2 weeks. Winter is coming, I hope they're all be ok.

 

[Double Kindness]

2 of my chicks have pink/clear skin. They are the ones that look more orpington, the other 4 have fm skin.

They are getting bigger by leaps and bounds.

I read on byc where another member crossed a fm roo onto regular non fm pullets and got auto sexing fm chicks that the fm were pullets and a high % were female and the roos had clear skin but some were gray? That seems interesting to me, so with the white bresse coming, I plan on using my biggest cemani roo to keep to breed with black color saturation being a bit secondary atm, unless I don't get any better looking roos than the 1 I suspect of being a roo is quite large!

I'll just have to see as everything progresses.

 

[Double Kindness]

The chicks have names now!

The big haffie pullet is Oreo, the big black pullet is Morticia, the small fm pullet is Morgana.

The haffie roo is Nugget, the small fm roo Reginald and the big fm roo is Boss.

 

[Double Kindness]

I took this little picture today they look like little vultures

So far I'm planning on breeding with Boss the biggest rooster so far. I might be still getting 6 more from my friend when they finish hatching.

On Monday my white bresse chicks ship and I plan on breeding Boss onto them for fm auto sexing pullets.

 

[Double Kindness]

This is Nugget

Morgana

Boss

 

[Double Kindness]

I added 6 more haffie/ac chicks and 8 white bresse chicks to this project

 

[pdirt]

I have 6 little chicks that are ayam cemani x paint orpington cross. Some are more cemani leaning in appearance than their orpington fathers.
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FM meat and it's health/medical benefits are a part of the motivation behind this project, as well as creating a sustainable flock of meat chicken both pure breed and hybrid.

What has everyone else experienced so far with black meat chickens and hybrids as well as purebreed? What does everyone feed? How long to raise until time to go to freezer camp and what have the weights been? Feed to weight ratios? Fermented feed? Caponizing? Finishing the chickens on a specific regimine similar to the bresse? Other variations?

Hello, Double Kindness... My apologies, can you tell me what FM stands for? Also, I am aware that Silkie meat is considered medicine food from a Chinese Medicine perspective. Are you saying there are other medicines, perhaps Western Medicine, that is also claiming health benefits from black meat chickens? If so, this is the first I've heard of it. Thanks

 

[Double Kindness]

No problem, FM stands for fibromelanistic which is black meat / bones / organs like the silkie. The silkie though doesn't have much meat, not like the ayam cemani is a big black meat chicken either... which is why I got the white bresse, known for excellent meat. I'm hoping for a bigger black fm meat chicken eventually.

I'm down to 7 white bresse atm, 8 ayam cemani and 4 haffies, which are ayam cemani x orpington.

This weekend we're going to be getting muscovy ducks that are 8-9 week old. 2 of them will be headed to freezer camp in 4-5 weeks in time to grace my thanksgiving table. I'm excited to raise my own meat for the holidays this year.

 

[pdirt]

Thanks for explanation of FM. I just butchered some silkie roosters and what I think is black in them isn't the meat or bones per say, but the fascia invested in the meat and bones. I could see the fascia (connective tissue) between the internal organs and it wasn't clear/white-ish like most chickens but yes, rather black colored. I also looked up the ayam cemani breed from Greenfire...wow, those are some pricey birds! $2000 for a breeding pair. I had no idea that some chickens could be that expensive! I thought maybe a few hundred dollars for rare/show birds, but not that much!

Good luck with your ducks