BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[hellbender]

My son Aaron and his friend are coming up tomorrow to visit for a few days and bringing me 2 dozen fertile Dark Cornish eggs. This will be my chance to get my hands on that new incubator he got last year. It's still in the box and never even been opened.

The truth is, I paid for it so I just might lay claim to it! I know they enjoy having chickens but I also have come to understand they would rather get just deep enough into breeding that any broody hens can handle their goals...lolol

It will be handy for us now since we don't want to fire up our old one for just a few eggs. When he offered to bring it, I believed he was planting this notion in my head...

 

[DesertChic]

My son Aaron and his friend are coming up tomorrow to visit for a few days and bringing me 2 dozen fertile Dark Cornish eggs. This will be my chance to get my hands on that new incubator he got last year. It's still in the box and never even been opened.

The truth is, I paid for it so I just might lay claim to it! I know they enjoy having chickens but I also have come to understand they would rather get just deep enough into breeding that any broody hens can handle their goals...lolol

It will be handy for us now since we don't want to fire up our old one for just a few eggs. When he offered to bring it, I believed he was planting this notion in my head...

Isn't it wonderful when their plans coincide nicely with your own?

I was planning ordering half a cow to pack our freezer with and had planned on feeding the dogs and chickens all the organ meats and such...but now I may just have to try preparing that tongue for our consumption. Heck, I've eaten rattlesnake, octopus, eel, crickets, and ants, so beef tongue seems pretty tame by comparison. Have you ever had sweetbreads?

 

[hellbender]

Isn't it wonderful when their plans coincide nicely with your own?

I was planning ordering half a cow to pack our freezer with and had planned on feeding the dogs and chickens all the organ meats and such...but now I may just have to try preparing that tongue for our consumption. Heck, I've eaten rattlesnake, octopus, eel, crickets, and ants, so beef tongue seems pretty tame by comparison. Have you ever had sweetbreads?

Absolutely correct on the plans..In fact, this is all coming to the conclusion as I almost knew it would. The only surprise is the DC eggs...lol

sweetbread...who below the Mason-Dixon line has not enjoyed that delicious treat...(For the record, WV is not below said line but we butt up against it...lolol

 

[Dead Rabbit]

Not starting a war here but WV has an interesting history on how it came to be a state .......illegally. Lol.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

I'd like to lay out my next breeding plan and get thoughts and opinions.

My goal is for egg production. I sell eggs. I no longer butcher chickens. It's too much work. And I'm never impressed with the quality of flavor in meat in comparison to what's store bought.

I've also come to appreciate the darker egg colored shell. I think it has that cool factor most folks have never seen. It's impressive to the customers. But dark egg layers are not known for either being ex large eggs or being prolific.

So this yr I've ordered cinnamon queens from cackle hatchery. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/cinnamonpage.html If they are similar to what the ISA BROWNS could do, I'm thinking the eggs will be plentiful and x jumbo size. The eggs are to big and It wouldn't hurt to slow down production slightly. So I've gott them coming and they should be laying in June/ July. I've bought a proven copper maran cock to cross over these cinnamons. I theorizing the cross will slow production some, make eggs slightly smaller. And little darker.

Any thoughts?

 

[hellbender]

Not starting a war here but WV has an interesting history on how it came to be a state .......illegally. Lol.

Well? Get to it. People want to hear what you have to say about our purloined statehood..You know...Inquiring minds and all that.

You have me curious as well.

 

[dfr1973]

I'd like to lay out my next breeding plan and get thoughts and opinions.

My goal is for egg production. I sell eggs. I no longer butcher chickens. It's too much work. And I'm never impressed with the quality of flavor in meat in comparison to what's store bought.

I've also come to appreciate the darker egg colored shell. I think it has that cool factor most folks have never seen. It's impressive to the customers. But dark egg layers are not known for either being ex large eggs or being prolific.

So this yr I've ordered cinnamon queens from cackle hatchery. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/cinnamonpage.html If they are similar to what the ISA BROWNS could do, I'm thinking the eggs will be plentiful and x jumbo size. The eggs are to big and It wouldn't hurt to slow down production slightly. So I've gott them coming and they should be laying in June/ July. I've bought a proven copper maran cock to cross over these cinnamons. I theorizing the cross will slow production some, make eggs slightly smaller. And little darker.

Any thoughts?

Have at it. Sounds like an interesting experiment.

 

[LindaB220]

Isn't it wonderful when their plans coincide nicely with your own? 

I was planning ordering half a cow to pack our freezer with and had planned on feeding the dogs and chickens all the organ meats and such...but now I may just have to try preparing that tongue for our consumption. Heck, I've eaten rattlesnake, octopus, eel, crickets, and ants, so beef tongue seems pretty tame by comparison. Have you ever had sweetbreads? 

man I love both tongue and sweet breads They are not hard to cook and they're so good a lot of people don't realize it but they're wonderful

 

[Beer can]

That's what I heard, the darker the egg, the fewer they lay. I went with Welsummers cause they lay more than Marans. I've saw breeder quality Welsummers that lay as dark as Marans, though they lay less eggs the darker you get them. Those dark chocolate Marans eggs do look awesome!
Here's a couple from my Welsummers

 

[Arielle]

Have tried many oddities: sil, eel, pig tail, octapus in ink, squid, shark. I didnt know what the salty black pearls were on the cream cheese until many years later.

LIving costal most of my life, other food opportunites. Have not tried hagas yet. I feed the humans first, and what we wont eat and left overs go to the animals.Cats will eat the chicken lungs. ( shutter) NO waste here!

beer can-- a couple things to consider. I have BCM.These are not great producers of eggs. A nice tempered bird yes, and the egg is a novelty, and it gets me another color range, the olives!! THe eggs often have dark granules inside the egg, in the albumen. Asethetically, it bothers me. I've not had complaints from customers but it is something to consider.

dead rabbit-- trial the cinnamon queens. IMO the sexlinks from my first hatchery buy were no better than other girls from the same hatchery. Knowing what I know now, I would go for a powerhouse line like the ISA browns instead as strictly egg layers.

We process by hand, if all 4 of us chip in, We can process about 20 a day. Makes for a long day. But the labor is free. Would like to make a tub to defeather faster-- THAT is the time killer. Gathering the ideas and the parts will take time. REcently thought of how touse gears to spin the tub and the goalis hand crank or use a bicycle to drive the spinning. ANyone found anything like this??