BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Kev]

ayam ketawas are the way to go.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I love when they first start crowing! Cracks me up every time with their little kazoo voices and awkwardness, as if they're looking around for approval or something after that first crow. My breeding Bielefelder cockerel began crowing at 3 weeks and it literally sounded like a child screaming. When I burst out laughing he looked positively indignant, repositioned on his roost and screamed again at full volume before fluffing his feathers and hopping away. Hilarious!

Would you be willing to message me with the largest cockerel weights you have for you NNs at 6 weeks? I'd like to compare your results with my current hatch and my first hatch...just for my own reference. My current hatch, while developing well, isn't growing as quickly as the parent stock did, and I'd appreciate another node for comparison.

No, post it up here as well. My GLWs will be 6 weeks on Tuesday, and I'd like to see if they've gained any ground with the expanded feeding schedule.

As for that first week's attempts at crowing ... I do not call it crowing, I call it kazooing.

First time we heard one, we were laying in bed in the morning, the cockerel kazooed, and hubby and I both burst out laughing. Hubby remarked, "Ah, puberty!

Sure!!! Here are all of them, at 6 weeks and at 10 weeks (because of some late growth spurts) - in ounces. (Interestingly, the New Hampshires are catching up some - they as a group have a different shape to their growth curve - though, as I've said, I'm not so sure about the genetic health of this batch, and will be starting over with German New Hampshires from a breeder...)

Males:

27.50 / 57.00 Tank
23.43 / 52.36 Dozer
20.69 / 56.10 Bane
21.64 / 49.63 Apoc
21.86 / 50.20 Mouse
21.62 / 48.00 Neo
21.10 / 47.50 Cypher

Females:

20.47 / 40.36 Mystique
18.81 / 40.00 Trinity
15.10 / 33.30 Switch
17.97 / 37.18 Puppy
18.18 / 36.85 Buffy
16.81 / 36.70 Sweetie

To me, the first crows sound a lot like stepping on a squeaky toy...

- Ant Farm

 

[Beer can]

ayam ketawas are the way to go.

Yeah, forgot about them! Singing dogs and laughing chickens! It would sound like a zoo here Lol!!
My white giants sounded horrible when they started crowing, like dying animals. They finally got it right, boy they're loud. My main coop is way behind the house in the far corner. The giants and sussex I put down on my garden area with a 14x50 run. Four cockerels just in that spot crowing their heads off well before daylight every morning. Can't be maybe 50yrds from the neighbors house. Kinda feel bad even though I've heard no complaints.

 

[hellbender]

Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread. Perhaps it's time to close it.

 

[Mini Meat]

Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread. Perhaps it's time to close it.

No No No.

I, for one, still have much to glean from y'all.

For instance, I would love to hear about how folks manage their breeders. I would love to see pics of breeding pens and hear about successes, and failures with different breeding plans Pair, trios, quads, what ever.

I love the concept of breed few hatch many but, I also hate brooding chicks. I am leaning t'words keeping three trios of my DC's to breed from next year and then also keeping a 10-12 of my Cubalayas to hatch and raise the DC chicks. I may also keep a Cuba Cock to guard the Cuba flock and to have a bit of fun doing mad science (cross breeding).

My birds are eight months and I have a pretty good idea who the keepers are. I also have a 24'wx32'l building that I lease out that is supposed to be vacated by the 1st of the year so I have a lot of options for build out.

Since I did end up with enough nice birds to consider breeding them, It is time for me to make final decisions on how to best manage my birds going forward.

Any input?

 

[draye]

[COLOR=FF0000]Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread.  Perhaps it's time to close it.[/COLOR] 

I wouldn't have it closed.

There are times a lot if the threads slow down, it will eventually perk back up and take off again.

Sometimes folks have other things going on and can't get on a lot. Also, they may be holding off until something new comes along that they feel needs to be reported or asked.

 

[DesertChic]

Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread. Perhaps it's time to close it.

Please don't! This is one of the best threads on here! I've learned more here than just about anywhere else, and met some really amazing and sagacious people too.

 

[dfr1973]

Interest seems to have disappeared in this thread. Perhaps it's time to close it.

Ya know, we just slaughtered our first full capon this morning. Beautiful carcass, even for a scrawny hatchery cull. I have 100% seal rate on my canning this time around: six carcasses yielded seven quarts of stock and eight pints of meat. Two whole birds going into the freezer, one a cull Am from Luanne and the other is Brother, the larger of Feyd's sons from the small test breeding that hatched in mid-June. As I hoped, Feyd's sons have his nice meaty breasts, and Brother has the nice meaty leg quarters to go with it. Feyd's two daughters are getting big, and Greyscale is beginning to redden up - they will go in with Spikey the meaty medicine ball.

My first batch of F1 chicks only grow so fast. Next week Tuesday I'll get some 6 week weights for them out of curiosity, as FAF was kind enough to post some of her 6 week weights for her NNs. Once things calm down and get squared away again, I'll start collecting eggs for the next hatch.

Be patient with us!

 

[dfr1973]

For instance, I would love to hear about how folks manage their breeders. I would love to see pics of breeding pens and hear about successes, and failures with different breeding plans Pair, trios, quads, what ever.

Any input?

I use triangle shaped tractors made from 3/4-inch PVC pipe, hardware cloth, and painted plywood. The black bear could not tip the triangle shape, but certainly did get the corner up on the house-shaped tractor. The house shaped one now has pressure-treated 2x4 base, with four built-in nest boxes in a row in back ... oh, and about a week after the bear hit us we has electric fence netting as a perimeter. I only know of one other neighbor on this series of dirt roads who does electric fence (registered Angus and Lowline cattle) so the bear seems to prefer softer targets. I'll have a better idea of how well the electric fencing works over the next month, as she and her cub work on fattening up before hibernation.

Right now, I am doing small groups of breeders. My F1 GLWs are from one cockerel and three pullets. I have my "Meaties" as a group of six, another GLW cock, three pullets, and one black sex-link hen (the suspected dam of Bertha, the huge crossbreed pullet from the test mating), and I have five pullets who just came into lay that will soon get a breeding cockerel instead of the young yard ornament currently in with them.

I have a growing number of Silkies here to handle the main incubating, hatching, and brooding, along with a couple Ameracauna hens from Luanne, and so far one Ameracauna capon who is inclined to nanny/brood chicks. I now have an electric incubator, for "off-season" hatching and also in case Bossy decides to quit again.

 

[Kev]

Yep, don't close!

I check in often, but often times I just have nothing to contribute to the latest topic or someone else already has or it's not my interest but still actively reading along.....