BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Kassaundra]

I've heard the reference to other states as well Lol, I got it from Jeff Foxworthy;

"You know you are a true upstate New Yorker when..."​

You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.
You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend/wife knows how to use them.
You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.
Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
"If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Upstate New York."
"If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights a year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, and Syracuse gets more snow than any other major city in the US, you might live in Upstate NY."
"If your local ice cream stand is closed from October through May, you might live in Upstate New York."

You actually understand these jokes, and you send them to all your Upstate New York friends and to those who used to live here and left (Chickens).

I can't believe there was no mention of your mosquitos!

 

[dfr1973]

You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.
You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching. (That's more like Michigan drivers ...)
You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.

Those often get emailed to me with the heading of "You know you are from Indiana when ... " sometimes with the notation that someone has seen the first orange road cones of summer out.

Down here in Florida, the jokes are a slight bit different. The seasons are: almost summer, summer, still (*bleep!*)in' summer, and OMG! we might get below 35F! frost warnings. The other year, I almost wussed out of the Christmas Day baking because it was over 80F on Christmas Eve. We often have a back-up plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas that includes grilling outdoors to avoid heating up the house. Then we often get a frost warning 36 hours afterwards.

Right now I am slaughtering the remaining cull cockerels - 4 done, 4 more to go - to make room for the newest batch of chicks. Hubby and I got weights yesterday on them, which was a little challenging because they kept trying to hop out of the paper bag. There is not so much a difference now between the two largest cockerels' size, and the fourth biggest I am pretty certain is a pullet. So, at 4 weeks old, my largest cockerel is 11.3 ounces, second largest K is 10.9 oz,, 3rd largest K is 10.4 oz, and largest pullet is 9.9 ounces. I have a 9.2 oz chick I think is a pullet also, so those are the highlights from the batch of 18 GLW chicks. Low end of the scale are at 5.4oz (that pullet with the shaky problem), 7.0 chick I can't tell if K or P, and then 7.6 oz pullet.

 

[DesertChic]

Those often get emailed to me with the heading of "You know you are from Indiana when ... " sometimes with the notation that someone has seen the first orange road cones of summer out.

Down here in Florida, the jokes are a slight bit different. The seasons are: almost summer, summer, still (*bleep!*)in' summer, and OMG! we might get below 35F! frost warnings. The other year, I almost wussed out of the Christmas Day baking because it was over 80F on Christmas Eve. We often have a back-up plan for Thanksgiving and Christmas that includes grilling outdoors to avoid heating up the house. Then we often get a frost warning 36 hours afterwards.

Right now I am slaughtering the remaining cull cockerels - 4 done, 4 more to go - to make room for the newest batch of chicks. Hubby and I got weights yesterday on them, which was a little challenging because they kept trying to hop out of the paper bag. There is not so much a difference now between the two largest cockerels' size, and the fourth biggest I am pretty certain is a pullet. So, at 4 weeks old, my largest cockerel is 11.3 ounces, second largest K is 10.9 oz,, 3rd largest K is 10.4 oz, and largest pullet is 9.9 ounces. I have a 9.2 oz chick I think is a pullet also, so those are the highlights from the batch of 18 GLW chicks. Low end of the scale are at 5.4oz (that pullet with the shaky problem), 7.0 chick I can't tell if K or P, and then 7.6 oz pullet.

What breed are these? Gold Laced Wyandotts? I remember falling in love with the beauty of that breed and almost bought some to work with, but right now I think I'm glad I didn't. Your largest cockerel at 4 weeks is the same weight as my smallest of the same age in both NN Turken and my Bielefelder/Australorp mix. Are they good egg layers though? I'm still curious about this breed.

 

[dfr1973]

What breed are these? Gold Laced Wyandotts? I remember falling in love with the beauty of that breed and almost bought some to work with, but right now I think I'm glad I didn't. Your largest cockerel at 4 weeks is the same weight as my smallest of the same age in both NN Turken and my Bielefelder/Australorp mix. Are they good egg layers though? I'm still curious about this breed.

Yes, these are my GLW chicks, and this is my very first batch of F1s. I am using black phase BLRWs with hatchery GLWs - my "mad scientist" project to see how long it takes me to get productive and good-looking Wyandottes. This batch is the cockerel hubby named Tiny, from Luanne's breeding program, and three GLW pullets from Ideal Poultry. The Ideal pullets are good layers, and their eggs are in the large-extra large range, which is where I'd like to keep the egg size. The pullets from Luanne (in with Feyd though now molting) lay at a decent rate, but so far the eggs have been in the medium-small range.

As for Wyandottes, the breed, I will likely be working with them the rest of my life.

The APA recognizes nine different varieties, and I am now on a list for a second variety: silver-penciled, which is extremely hard to find so imagine how jazzed I was to discover someone in Tampa who has them. The other color varieties I'll get into eventually are: buff, black, and partridge. Silver laced are also pretty, but I just like the silver-penciled more. The other varieties are blue, solid white, and columbian.

In most varieties where there are hatchery stock available, there is a big difference in egg laying, size, and body type. My pullets from ideal are small. In fact, the group from Cackle Hatchery looks about the same size even though they are twelve weeks younger and just now started to lay, a month older than when the Ideal ones started laying.

 

[bnjrob]

This is kind of my process as well....especially since I'm still working out my plans. Since I did so many hatches throughout the year in the hope of maintaining egg production no matter the season (and so far that's working out really well), I culled as I went, butchering the mean and under-performing cockerels as time progressed. I think having such mild autumn, winter and spring weather is conducive to this method for the time being, but I've been thinking that I may have to eventually adopt an annual or semi-annual culling "season" just to keep the chicken math from overtaking me.

Once or twice a year butchering sounds nice to me, because then I wouldn't have to drag out all the equipment, but doing that much meat at one time would cause other problems for me. For housing chickens, I would need a lot more housing in order to hatch a lot of eggs at one time. Right now we have smaller periodic hatches and they rotate from the brooder, to the garage, to the pasture. And if there was a hatch before them that is already in the pasture, then the oldest birds in the pasture houses get culled to make room for the younger groups, and each group moves to a different housing setup. If I didn't do staggered hatches and cullings, I just wouldn't have enough room for them all. Then the other issue for me would be where to put all the meat from once or twice yearly butchering. I'd need a lot more shelving and freezer space to store all that meat at one time.

 

[Our Roost]

Beekissed, A big thanks and a great explanation on the so called egg of the day! The normal marans dark egg coloring has been depleting from her and gradually been turning lighter to cream color with dark brown spots. Yes, it is just this bird and everyone else has been laying super good. I will keep an eye on how this situation might progress. No signs of illness and she seems fine. I think she is 2 years old now. She may be having some internal problems unknown to me. She hasn't laid an egg yet today and will know more tomorrow I'm sure.

 

[DesertChic]

Yes, these are my GLW chicks, and this is my very first batch of F1s. I am using black phase BLRWs with hatchery GLWs - my "mad scientist" project to see how long it takes me to get productive and good-looking Wyandottes. This batch is the cockerel hubby named Tiny, from Luanne's breeding program, and three GLW pullets from Ideal Poultry. The Ideal pullets are good layers, and their eggs are in the large-extra large range, which is where I'd like to keep the egg size. The pullets from Luanne (in with Feyd though now molting) lay at a decent rate, but so far the eggs have been in the medium-small range.

As for Wyandottes, the breed, I will likely be working with them the rest of my life.

The APA recognizes nine different varieties, and I am now on a list for a second variety: silver-penciled, which is extremely hard to find so imagine how jazzed I was to discover someone in Tampa who has them. The other color varieties I'll get into eventually are: buff, black, and partridge. Silver laced are also pretty, but I just like the silver-penciled more. The other varieties are blue, solid white, and columbian.

In most varieties where there are hatchery stock available, there is a big difference in egg laying, size, and body type. My pullets from ideal are small. In fact, the group from Cackle Hatchery looks about the same size even though they are twelve weeks younger and just now started to lay, a month older than when the Ideal ones started laying.

I really, really hope you post photos of your birds as your project progresses. Lots and lots of photos please! They sound beautiful!

 

[dfr1973]

I really, really hope you post photos of your birds as your project progresses. Lots and lots of photos please! They sound beautiful!

LOL ... you do realize photography is one of those things I don't seem to be very good at?

My dad's wife was amazed to see my chickens in person, despite being subscribed to my blog and seeing pics of them for months. Her comment about my GLWs was, "I always just thought chickens were chickens ... I had no idea they could be so PRETTY!" Y'all have seen some of my attempts at photography, so extrapolate out by Tammy's reaction. She and dad both had quite a bit to say about the Silkies, who just finished their juvenile molt and "furry" feathers are still strewn about around their tractors. I'll still post up my attempts at pics. Right now hubby has my digicam for a big pic-taking session tomorrow of a painting commission he's finishing up, so it may be a few days. I do need new pics of this batch of F1s, although often my pics of chicks at this age tend to be black and gold blurs.

Your largest cockerel at 4 weeks is the same weight as my smallest of the same age in both NN Turken and my Bielefelder/Australorp mix.

I took a couple hours to mull over this. First, initial thought/reaction: "Well, that really took the wind out of my sails!" Second: "Maybe she free-feeds her meat birds?" followed quickly by: "These are Wyandottes, not broilers, so maybe I should feed more?" Third reaction: "This gives me an idea where I'm at and where I need to go with this." A while back I posted up a pic of Tiny and the Flashy Girls (from Ideal) where Little Girl, the single comb runt pullet from Luanne, was also in the pic. Lemme see if I can dig that back up ...

OK, these are all within a week to ten days' age, and Little Girl is far enough back it isn't obvious that she is actually larger than the other three pullets. Lemme go scrounging around my hard drive. No joy. I am not sure I can get a pic comparing sizes, but there is a definite size difference with the Flashies being smaller than the Bigg Butt Girls from Luanne, and now the Pretties from Cackle appear to be the same size despite being twelve weeks younger (April hatched versus January hatched).

I'll add more feeding times for the babies - they cheep-cheep-cheep at us for food pretty much every time they see us.

 

[DesertChic]

LOL ... you do realize photography is one of those things I don't seem to be very good at?

My dad's wife was amazed to see my chickens in person, despite being subscribed to my blog and seeing pics of them for months. Her comment about my GLWs was, "I always just thought chickens were chickens ... I had no idea they could be so PRETTY!" Y'all have seen some of my attempts at photography, so extrapolate out by Tammy's reaction. She and dad both had quite a bit to say about the Silkies, who just finished their juvenile molt and "furry" feathers are still strewn about around their tractors. I'll still post up my attempts at pics. Right now hubby has my digicam for a big pic-taking session tomorrow of a painting commission he's finishing up, so it may be a few days. I do need new pics of this batch of F1s, although often my pics of chicks at this age tend to be black and gold blurs.

I took a couple hours to mull over this. First, initial thought/reaction: "Well, that really took the wind out of my sails!" Second: "Maybe she free-feeds her meat birds?" followed quickly by: "These are Wyandottes, not broilers, so maybe I should feed more?" Third reaction: "This gives me an idea where I'm at and where I need to go with this." A while back I posted up a pic of Tiny and the Flashy Girls (from Ideal) where Little Girl, the single comb runt pullet from Luanne, was also in the pic. Lemme see if I can dig that back up ...

OK, these are all within a week to ten days' age, and Little Girl is far enough back it isn't obvious that she is actually larger than the other three pullets. Lemme go scrounging around my hard drive. No joy. I am not sure I can get a pic comparing sizes, but there is a definite size difference with the Flashies being smaller than the Bigg Butt Girls from Luanne, and now the Pretties from Cackle appear to be the same size despite being twelve weeks younger (April hatched versus January hatched).

I'll add more feeding times for the babies - they cheep-cheep-cheep at us for food pretty much every time they see us.

"Bigg Butt Girls"....

Your birds are very pretty! BLRWs are some of my absolute favorite birds aesthetically, but GLW come in at a close second. There's just something about those feathering patters and color combinations that I adore.

I hope I didn't come across as snarky with my comment. I'm so sorry if it seemed that way. I totally recognize that Wyandotts and NNs are completely different breeds, and I was sort of thinking-typing my thoughts as they came into my head. (Sorry....writing is another of my hobbies and this habit sometimes gets the better of me.) This is actually the first time I've gotten any kind of statistics on Wyandotts that I could really sink my teeth into, which I've been dying to do. I'm actually very grateful for the info since I'm always toying with the idea of adding different birds to my gene pool.

I do give all of my chicks free access to food 24/7 for the first four weeks of their life while their feathers are coming in and they're under the heat lamp. Right around 5 weeks I take the feed away at night while I begin weaning them off the heat lamp, but they stay on 20% protein with supplements of sprouted greens until they're about 8-9 weeks old, which is when I typically see a decline in their growth rates. Since my goal is to use the NNs as meat birds....yeah...growing big birds is definitely a goal. I culled all but three of my original NN cockerels, and then culled one of those three after breeding him. These were my three biggest and fastest growing boys and my goal was rapid growth and impressive size (6-7 lbs) by 18 weeks.

That said, some of the girls I bred my boys to were actually part of my egg laying group, so I expect their progeny to be smaller, which they are. I'm hoping the pullets as good of layers as their mothers. From the sounds of it, your Wyandotts are probably better layers of bigger eggs than my NN girls. Most of my girls average 5 eggs per week ranging from 1.8 to 2.08 ounces each. They don't hold a candle to my primary laying flock of Australorps and Barred Rocks, but I'm pretty happy with them nonetheless.

 

[dfr1973]

"Bigg Butt Girls"....

Your birds are very pretty! BLRWs are some of my absolute favorite birds aesthetically, but GLW come in at a close second. There's just something about those feathering patters and color combinations that I adore.

I hope I didn't come across as snarky with my comment. I'm so sorry if it seemed that way. I totally recognize that Wyandotts and NNs are completely different breeds, and I was sort of thinking-typing my thoughts as they came into my head. (Sorry....writing is another of my hobbies and this habit sometimes gets the better of me.) This is actually the first time I've gotten any kind of statistics on Wyandotts that I could really sink my teeth into, which I've been dying to do. I'm actually very grateful for the info since I'm always toying with the idea of adding different birds to my gene pool.

I do give all of my chicks free access to food 24/7 for the first four weeks of their life while their feathers are coming in and they're under the heat lamp. Right around 5 weeks I take the feed away at night while I begin weaning them off the heat lamp, but they stay on 20% protein with supplements of sprouted greens until they're about 8-9 weeks old, which is when I typically see a decline in their growth rates. Since my goal is to use the NNs as meat birds....yeah...growing big birds is definitely a goal. I culled all but three of my original NN cockerels, and then culled one of those three after breeding him. These were my three biggest and fastest growing boys and my goal was rapid growth and impressive size (6-7 lbs) by 18 weeks.

That said, some of the girls I bred my boys to were actually part of my egg laying group, so I expect their progeny to be smaller, which they are. I'm hoping the pullets as good of layers as their mothers. From the sounds of it, your Wyandotts are probably better layers of bigger eggs than my NN girls. Most of my girls average 5 eggs per week ranging from 1.8 to 2.08 ounces each. They don't hold a candle to my primary laying flock of Australorps and Barred Rocks, but I'm pretty happy with them nonetheless.

The Bigg Butt Girls are in with Feyd for a very good reason: Feyd is like a living representation of the caricature of a rooster with a huge chest and itty-bitty hips and legs. No big surprise, I am hoping for chicks with his chest and their nice wide back ends. Feyd's four test breeding chicks all have his nice breast musculature, and his two daughters will go in with Spikey the single comb (shorter) round meaty medicine ball brother to Tiny.

No offense was taken, you just kind of deflated my bubble a bit, but now I can see why: different feeding style. Mine have set feeding times, and if they want a snack in between feedings they have to catch bugs. It's not like there is a shortage of insect life here in Florida! These are also the first set of data points on Wyandottes for me as well ... I didn't track that in the P generation. I also have not been weighing eggs ... there's an idea. I think I'll weigh the ones for hatching before I set them.