BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[hellbender]

Related but not related to the current theme of this thread.....I have a breeding question pertaining to production of meat and eggs.

If I'm looking for particular traits, and for the sake of argument lets say meatiness and broody hens are my focus, and hatchery stock actually provides those traits in spades.....what would be the advantage in hunting down standard bred fowl? Even if this theoretical hatchery stock was marginally smaller than standard bred stock, could they not be bred up over a few years? Or perhaps that's the problem....that they do't have the genetic bandwidth for that.

Also, if said standard bred stock seemed to be a caricature of itself and was mostly for exhibition only, what purpose would the SOP serve when breeding up the hatchery birds?

M

The SOP folks might respond with their usual glorification of Heritage birds but if meat and eggs are your goal...deal with a good hatchery.

EDIT:When will I learn to preview for spelling???

 

[hellbender]

Ok ROn,I'm in. You touched a nerve!

A few years ago, I talked to a now retired uncle about what happened with the most recent banking crash; the conversation left me cold and confirming my worst thoughts. Nothing has effectivly changed despite all the new rules and regs. I have great respect for the man as he spent much of his career helping foreign governments get their banking up to par, including RUssia. (AUnt has a few stories about the KGB . . but being a good Swede, she just laughs it off.) We are not as safe as we think. It is all a shell game.

THis fueled my push to try to increase my own food production. ANd realize a need to protect it.

Sustainable farming is tough work . . . not sure many of us are up to the task. I know there are a few here who are light years ahead of me in skills and ability. I'm learning bit by bit to be independent for food sources, but the learning curve is steep.

From what I gather, You're doing just fine. I see talk by others of paying someone else to dress a bird....There goes what is saved in raising it in the first place!

 

[southernmomma]

nevermind.

 

[hellbender]

Ok...I don't mind...chickens were first and formost bred for food production. Those who breed for 'show' generally fail to include production when working toward getting the blue ribbons.

All one need to do is read some of these breed threads to see how difficult it is to get fertile eggs and most of them have hatchery stock on the side to produce eggs for their families and even for sale.

What more proof do you need that function is what counts in the real world of eating or starving?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: At $5 a bird plus the gas for drop off and pick up, I pushed myself to butcher my own. Besides the processing did not include bagging properly!! lol

A friend ask me to give him a ride last night, he usually walks but this was a situation that was an exception. He is homeless and lives in the woods.ANd loves living this way. A very capable man. We have wonderful conversations about farming and gardening. We talked about the simplicity of focusing on eating good foods and producing them. He is rarely sick. ANd he has a lifetime of farming information he is happy to share. HE keeps me grounded.

Ok...I don't mind...chickens were first and formost bred for food production. Those who breed for 'show' generally fail to include production when working toward getting the blue ribbons.

All one need to do is read some of these breed threads to see how difficult it is to get fertile eggs and most of them have hatchery stock on the side to produce eggs for their families and even for sale.

What more proof do you need that function is what counts in the real world of eating or starving?

You caught on faster than I did Ron. NOthing wrong with breeding a bird for showing, but a bird for eating either eggs or meat is likely to come from a different source.

I could find a few breeders here on BYC though that are good possibilties.

 

[hellbender]

As I recall MR Warren Buffet said he has a silver mine--- in another country!

WHatever happen to the old VIctory Garden mentality??? Was this all government driven?? IS that why the bush admin and subsequent admins have not pushed this adjenda as it makes us look like we are in desperate straits?? I have long felt that we are living in a house of cards.

Cards are heavy duty compared to the veneer that shoulders the weight of the American economy.

 

[chickadoodles]

I know I have spent well over my budget but bought I hope enough birds to keep me stocked up for several years I hope. Most will be for meat and eggs a few for pleasure that I bought from the President of the breeders club and I am waiting on. I am growing our vegies and freeze or can them and fruit. This year I am going to try canning some poultry. I got a pressure canner last year and this year I want to try some of our own meat for the first time. I am very excited about that! I also have planted a small orchard over the last several years and will can all the extra that I can get.

I also contacted a local grocery store to buy their old produce every week to feed to our chickens and cows. Very excited about that!

 

[Arielle]

YOu have made strides!! What did you plant ih the orchard??

I want to get an orchard going again-- we have only the peach trees left. Need to cut more trees down. THe brush gets stacked to make a fence in hopes of protecting the flock that lives in that section from the roaming coyote. Awkward to climb over a brush pile hundreds of feet long!!


OVer the winter I did some reading and found a number of veg can be stored in the ground over winter ie parsnips , or harvested after frost, like kales. We bought a few pounds of potatos to introduce the family to a root cellar concept. We did hold over several winiter squash, and those that lastest the longest were fed to the chooks last week, and a few of the seeds saved!!

I have noticed that the birds will leave squash plants alone, but not the fruit-- if the mature plants can cover the fruit with their huge leaves, the free ranging birds leave the fruit alone then I can decide when the birds get the summer squash . ALso I hold summer squash well into the fall-- they too put on a heavy rind like the winter squash if allowed to mature to the super sizes we usually dread finding. lol

 

[LindaB220]

YOu have made strides!! What did you plant ih the orchard??

I want to get an orchard going again-- we have only the peach trees left. Need to cut more trees down. THe brush gets stacked to make a fence in hopes of protecting the flock that lives in that section from the roaming coyote. Awkward to climb over a brush pile hundreds of feet long!!


OVer the winter I did some reading and found a number of veg can be stored in the ground over winter ie parsnips , or harvested after frost, like kales. We bought a few pounds of potatos to introduce the family to a root cellar concept. We did hold over several winiter squash, and those that lastest the longest were fed to the chooks last week, and a few of the seeds saved!!

I have noticed that the birds will leave squash plants alone, but not the fruit-- if the mature plants can cover the fruit with their huge leaves, the free ranging birds leave the fruit alone then I can decide when the birds get the summer squash . ALso I hold summer squash well into the fall-- they too put on a heavy rind like the winter squash if allowed to mature to the super sizes we usually dread finding. lol

Now this is very interesting about the squash plants. I'm in the deep south so no root cellar. So what I have to do is pick and freeze for the birds. All this is in retrospect because the guy is here today to finish predator proofing my kennels and my (16) 5 wk olds can go outside TONIGHT.

 

[hellbender]

I know I have spent well over my budget but bought I hope enough birds to keep me stocked up for several years I hope. Most will be for meat and eggs a few for pleasure that I bought from the President of the breeders club and I am waiting on. I am growing our vegies and freeze or can them and fruit. This year I am going to try canning some poultry. I got a pressure canner last year and this year I want to try some of our own meat for the first time. I am very excited about that! I also have planted a small orchard over the last several years and will can all the extra that I can get.

I also contacted a local grocery store to buy their old produce every week to feed to our chickens and cows. Very excited about that!

'Cold Packing' chickens is not a bit hard. We do more freezing of the capons but we also have quite a bunch of older cockerels cold-packed (canned). It makes what would be a rather tough bird quite tender and so easy to work with. You can even let it come to room temperature, (save the juice for soup or dumplings), dab with a paper towel and dredge with flower or roll in batter for quick fried chicken! Just fry it quickly so the flour or batter browns and that's it! Mashed Taters and gravy and you're eating like a king!!!