BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[lcertuche]

Different chickens lay different colors according to breed and the color may vary somewhat between hens of the breed, darker, lighter, pinker, etc. Mixed breeds may produce a lighter, darker, white, etc. with the gene pool.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I posted this in the Buckeye thread but wanted to post here to see if anyone has any thoughts.


Had an interesting processing experience this morning and curious if anyone has had this before.

We processed a Buckeye pullet. This bird was approximately 8 months old give or take a week. Her lower abdomen was FULL OF FAT. Never seen anything like it before. HUGE AMOUNT OF FAT.

My Bucks that are this age have not started laying yet, though possibly one has this week. (Not this girl that we processed.)

This girl that we processed had SO MUCH FAT that it seems like it would have been difficult for her to lay an egg. Anyhow, just wondering if anyone has seen this with any birds you've processed? I haven't seen this on any of the birds I've processed before but I have to admit that I haven't done many and the ones I did were males.


It's making me nervous that more of my birds may had that kind of fat. But I have SFH that seem to be bony kids that are the same age as this girl.


Thoughts? Experiences with this?

 

[bnjrob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leahs Mom

I posted this in the Buckeye thread but wanted to post here to see if anyone has any thoughts.


Had an interesting processing experience this morning and curious if anyone has had this before.

We processed a Buckeye pullet. This bird was approximately 8 months old give or take a week. Her lower abdomen was FULL OF FAT. Never seen anything like it before. HUGE AMOUNT OF FAT.

My Bucks that are this age have not started laying yet, though possibly one has this week. (Not this girl that we processed.)

This girl that we processed had SO MUCH FAT that it seems like it would have been difficult for her to lay an egg. Anyhow, just wondering if anyone has seen this with any birds you've processed? I haven't seen this on any of the birds I've processed before but I have to admit that I haven't done many and the ones I did were males.


It's making me nervous that more of my birds may had that kind of fat. But I have SFH that seem to be bony kids that are the same age as this girl.


Thoughts? Experiences with this?

I know that this CAN happen and there are a lot of warnings in the old literature about it causing decreased egg production. I've only seen a good deal of intra abdominal fat in some cockerels that we had - who were put into a small enough pen that they couldn't run around like lunatics fighting all the time, and they were fed a good deal of corn because it was an exceptionally cold winter for us. Otherwise, our Javas are lean birds with minimal fat anywhere, even in the old hens we've processed. I would say that either this is an isolated occurrence with this one bird and how she processed food, or their diet regimen needs tweaking if you find it in more birds.

 

[bnjrob]

double posted and erased

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm definitely thinking I need to tweak something!

Interestingly, the intestines were beautiful and clean; organs healthy.

Fat even looked very good and a friend of mine is going to render it for cooking. But if I had to guess without having measured, I'd say there was at least 1C of fat in that abdominal. In a dry measure cup it would have been more than a cup even if I tried to pack it in. I just kept looking at the amount of fat with my mouth hanging open and eyes wide.

 

[NanaKat]

We are part of the winter weather advisory in the central states....freezing temp, ice accumulation and power outages...but my hens gave us 17 eggs yesterday and 27 the day before! Good girls.

 

[Leahs Mom]

We are part of the winter weather advisory in the central states....freezing temp, ice accumulation and power outages...but my hens gave us 17 eggs yesterday and 27 the day before! Good girls.

What age are your Birds that are laying?

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I posted this in the Buckeye thread but wanted to post here to see if anyone has any thoughts.


Had an interesting processing experience this morning and curious if anyone has had this before.

We processed a Buckeye pullet. This bird was approximately 8 months old give or take a week. Her lower abdomen was FULL OF FAT. Never seen anything like it before. HUGE AMOUNT OF FAT.

My Bucks that are this age have not started laying yet, though possibly one has this week. (Not this girl that we processed.)

This girl that we processed had SO MUCH FAT that it seems like it would have been difficult for her to lay an egg. Anyhow, just wondering if anyone has seen this with any birds you've processed? I haven't seen this on any of the birds I've processed before but I have to admit that I haven't done many and the ones I did were males.


It's making me nervous that more of my birds may had that kind of fat. But I have SFH that seem to be bony kids that are the same age as this girl.


Thoughts? Experiences with this?

I culled a Buckeye hen that had some weird things going on with her abdomen- I thought it was ascites so I euthanized and did an autopsy. It was just fat, and there was tons of it. She had a fatty liver too- the liver was large and pale. Perhaps Buckeyes are super easy keepers and we don't need to feed as much?

 

[Leahs Mom]

@CanadianBuckeye
Have you seen that in more than just that one bird? Maybe it is a Buckeye thing. There were some other birds processed at the same time from another friend's flock. They had some fat in the same area but nothing like this. Different breeds and all laying birds. The fat from my girl looked healthier than what was on the other birds and my friend that was going to render the fat isn't going to use the fat from the other flock because she didn't think it looked as healthy as what this Buck had.

This girl's organs were very nice. She didn't seem to be ailing in any way.

Only reason I took her out is that she was aggressive and attacking other birds (not normal pecking order but flying through the air, landing on the back and ripping feathers out of select birds). I'm not willing to put up with that and her hatch-mates don't behave like that at all.

 

[NanaKat]

We are part of the winter weather advisory in the central states....freezing temp, ice accumulation and power outages...but my hens gave us 17 eggs yesterday and 27 the day before! Good girls.

What age are your Birds that are laying?

Of the 35 layers...A few are point of lay...the rest are 1 to 6 years of age. More than half are Wyandotte with a couple of Australorp, an Orpington, a couple of Buckeye, a few Cochin, a Minorca (the oldest) and about 10 Bantam breeds.
I have a red heat lamp on to keep their water from freezing.