BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Yeah, I try to keep an eye on that, with regard to going by weight.

Right now I have Chunky Monkey (the Splash Maran) and three German New Hampshire boys in the growout area, age 18 weeks. Not outright fighting, but Monkey is clearly top, and is sometimes the only one that will come out of the coop most days. The others like to sit on the perches (well, ok, there's shade in there...) It would be easiest to keep them all together as long as I can, but I may separate out Chunky Monkey on his own if he's keeping the other three from growing. (The GNHs are pretty mild mannered...). For that matter, honestly, he's big, but I don't have the bandwidth for a jerky cockerel right now, so it's possible he'll be a big dinner...

- Ant Farm

 

[ejcrist]

Gotta agree - feet make the best soup ever.

You betcha. MUCH easier to process. (I just processed 9 fully feathered boys last week, such a chore compared to the Naked Necks...)

- Ant Farm

Now you got me thinkin'. I'm not much of a Naked Neck fan but I'm giving them another look. The first time I seen them I thought I'd never want to own a bird that looked like it belonged on the Serengeti but I wasn't thinking about the other qualities like heat tolerance, processing, etc. Ease of processing is certainly a great characteristic to have.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I can't believe you haven't considered them yet, given where you live. I adore mine. While it's not as easy as skinning, I've dry plucked mine when I only had one or two to cull, and it wasn't all that bad (I can't imagine dry plucking a fully feathered chicken). When I first saw photos, I thought they were ugly, but was swayed by the heat tolerance, size, and taste (had a source for them at the farmers market). In person, I now think they're adorable. (Oh, and you know all that energy that a chicken puts into growing feathers? NNs put it into growing muscle instead.

). My primary hatchery stock NN rooster is 9 pounds, not bad for hatchery anything, I figure...

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

Yeah, I try to keep an eye on that, with regard to going by weight.

Right now I have Chunky Monkey (the Splash Maran) and three German New Hampshire boys in the growout area, age 18 weeks. Not outright fighting, but Monkey is clearly top, and is sometimes the only one that will come out of the coop most days. The others like to sit on the perches (well, ok, there's shade in there...) It would be easiest to keep them all together as long as I can, but I may separate out Chunky Monkey on his own if he's keeping the other three from growing. (The GNHs are pretty mild mannered...). For that matter, honestly, he's big, but I don't have the bandwidth for a jerky cockerel right now, so it's possible he'll be a big dinner...

- Ant Farm

I'm reminded of a recent comment on individual vs cage breeding for egg production.

choosing the most productive individual resulted in accidental selection for the worst bullies, leading to a drop in egg production overall.

Using cage selection improved egg production- birds tolerated each other and stressful conditions better, production went up.

Not sure how this directly applies to meat breeding but I'd think if less aggression= the longer one can keep the cockerels/roosters together, less stress in general amongst them- better growth and so on?

sometimes perch sitting is symptom of a bully being present. I would suspect this if the bully/annoyance is removed and they're no longer on the perches so much.. may take a day or two as they can get into and stay in habit for a bit after a situation has changed.

it could be as simple as him chasing the others as if they were pullets- not deliberately aggressive.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I'm giving it a little time - the dynamics changed a lot last week when they suddenly went from 13 to 4 (including removal of some really obnoxious fighters/bullies) and I wonder if some of it is their adjustment to that. I can't watch them all the time, but there's not a lot of outright bullying or picking that I can tell, and most of the time they coexist well. I'll get a better look over the weekend. As I had not originally intended to keep any marans, if I have to, I'll cull him, or at a minimum separate him. Last week's growth chart (representing when there were 13 cockerels) showed flattened growth of the GNHs and continued growth of the Marans. I figured molt, as there were orange feathers everywhere, and no white ones. Alternative explanation is food denial, though. We'll see what Sunday's weights show.

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

Now you got me thinkin'. I'm not much of a Naked Neck fan but I'm giving them another look. The first time I seen them I thought I'd never want to own a bird that looked like it belonged on the Serengeti but I wasn't thinking about the other qualities like heat tolerance, processing, etc. Ease of processing is certainly a great characteristic to have.

NNs are AWESOME, especially out here in AZ. They have fantastic personalities, outstanding meat and egg production, and are a whole lot easier to process. I originally wanted "a few" NNs. Now I turn just about everything into a NN.

 

[Kev]

Now you got me thinkin'. I'm not much of a Naked Neck fan but I'm giving them another look. The first time I seen them I thought I'd never want to own a bird that looked like it belonged on the Serengeti but I wasn't thinking about the other qualities like heat tolerance, processing, etc. Ease of processing is certainly a great characteristic to have.

the summers are very long and hot here- normal to have 110-120F days during July-Sept.

early on tried to have all sorts of different breeds. So many of the dual purpose breeds had problems, especially the roosters, meat bred lines were clearly the worst affected. It was quite the work and effort to keep them alive from June-July-Sept, once the nights started to stay above 65 degrees. It was frustrating and off-putting to invest several weeks of keeping them cool only to have them expire while I was away from home for a birthday or family event, a weekend or a vacation...

The NN always looked better and needed much less care than anything else, even if they were big heavy birds. Sticking with NN.. much less headache.

 

[Beer can]

They darn well better be awesome and survive our super cold winters also...

 

[Kev]

They darn well better be awesome and survive our super cold winters also...

Haha I could not confirm. the coldest it gets here is a couple nights dipping to low 30s.. if it dips below 30 it makes the local news lol.

 

[ejcrist]

NNs are AWESOME, especially out here in AZ. They have fantastic personalities, outstanding meat and egg production, and are a whole lot easier to process. I originally wanted "a few" NNs. Now I turn just about everything into a NN.

I remember you saying that before several times. I think I'm going to take your advice this time. I might add a few to my fall order and give 'em a whirl. I didn't think too much of them for a while since my Leghorns and Barred Rocks seemed to tolerate the heat pretty good in their first year but when I heard talk about them making good meat birds they got my attention pretty quick. I read before that Dorkings make for some very good eating birds too but I don't know much about their other qualities like egg laying and heat tolerance. I don't know if Dorkings would work well here in AZ. If they would I'd certainly like to sample them for the grill since I read so much about their fine taste.