BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

I wonder how much that has to do with climate. Fat is an insulator. I wonder if warm climate = less fat / cold climate = more fat.

I know my body temp runs hotter when I am packing more fat.

Edit: May also relate to season. More fat fall, less spring.

Good point. We don't experience very much cold here, and when we do it's quite temporary.

 

[DesertChic]

Okay, I just have to share a funny story...

One of our vendors at our business asked if I have any "extra" chickens I would like to sell to his father, who wants to become more self-sufficient. I asked if he wants chicks, started pullets, hens, cockerels or roosters, because while I have plenty of extra cockerels getting ready for butchering I'm pretty comfortable with the rest of my numbers. He called his dad, who told him he'll take all of my extra cockerels as long as they're good egg layers.

 

[angry rooster]

Okay, I just have to share a funny story...

One of our vendors at our business asked if I have any "extra" chickens I would like to sell to his father, who wants to become more self-sufficient. I asked if he wants chicks, started pullets, hens, cockerels or roosters, because while I have plenty of extra cockerels getting ready for butchering I'm pretty comfortable with the rest of my numbers. He called his dad, who told him he'll take all of my extra cockerels as long as they're good egg layers. 

Ha ha we all have to start somewhere but some of us start a little behind the race line

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

For my roasters - whether cockerel, slip, or capon - I certainly do!   Yum yum yum ....

ETA: The fat will only be as unhealthy as the bird's diet.

Yeah, people want to know how long it takes to get to butcher weight. I don't know ... I should, but I've got other considerations at the moment. I want my cull cockerels to be done enough putting on muscle that they've started putting on fat.

But layers shouldn't be fat unto they retire.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Caponized or intact, the way the bird is finished is of considerable importance to the end product...IMO As most of you know, we've been caponizing/poulardizing birds for decades and our experiences have been consistent.

Hellbender this is the shortest extended time away period ever........ LOL Glad to see you are posting while you are away.

How long do your finish your capons for, and on what?

 

[NanaKat]

Okay, I just have to share a funny story...

One of our vendors at our business asked if I have any "extra" chickens I would like to sell to his father, who wants to become more self-sufficient. I asked if he wants chicks, started pullets, hens, cockerels or roosters, because while I have plenty of extra cockerels getting ready for butchering I'm pretty comfortable with the rest of my numbers. He called his dad, who told him he'll take all of my extra cockerels as long as they're good egg layers. 

Ha ha we all have to start somewhere but some of us start a little behind the race line

Yep! One of our older nephews asked me if we bleached the brown eggs to get them white when his wife opened the carton of eggs we gave them.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Not related to chickens, but...

I went to college in rural New England. One of my housemates freshman year was a young man from New York City. While riding along Route 2 in a car, he was admiring the scenery, and was wondering how people managed to maintain it. We couldn't quite figure out what he meant at first - turns out he thought the birch trees in the forest had all been painted white by hand. (And the peeling ones were clearly overdue for repainting!)

- Ant Farm

 

[Beer can]

@Fire Ant Farm Lol! Probably not the first to think that either! Back to chickens Bobby Flay was on one of the news networks, don't remember which one, news woman asked him the difference between brown and white eggs. I thought the guy knew everything, great cook, he said brown eggs come from dark colored chickens, white eggs come from white chickens, and he prefers brown cause they taste better, Lol! He's hails from NYC also, maybe something going on there? Maybe we upstaters should stop peeing in their water every time we go fishing in their reservoirs? Lol!

My part time neighbor from NYC stopped by to chit chat ( up for deeya season ) on Thanksgiving, I was in a hurry to get to work, 'they make you work on Thanksgiving?!' yeah someone has to, it is a dairy plant, someone has to take in the farmers milk, everyone else has the day off but me and the farmers and truck drivers, I even work Christmas, get double time and a half pay on holidays. 'Your kidding! Why doesn't the farmers leave the cows alone, would it hurt them to give them a day off on a holiday, is money that important, that's sick!'......

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Fire Ant Farm
  Lol! Probably not the first to think that either! Back to chickens Bobby Flay was on one of the news networks, don't remember which one, news woman asked him the difference between brown and white eggs. I thought the guy knew everything, great cook, he said brown eggs come from dark colored chickens, white eggs come from white chickens, and he prefers brown cause they taste better, Lol! He's hails from NYC also, maybe something going on there? Maybe we upstaters should stop peeing in their water every time we go fishing in their reservoirs? Lol!

My part time neighbor from NYC stopped by to chit chat ( up for deeya season ) on Thanksgiving, I was in a hurry to get to work, 'they make you work on Thanksgiving?!' yeah someone has to, it is a dairy plant, someone has to take in the farmers milk, everyone else has the day off but me and the farmers and truck drivers, I even work Christmas, get double time and a half pay on holidays. 'Your kidding! Why doesn't the farmers leave the cows alone, would it hurt them to give them a day off on a holiday, is money that important, that's sick!'......  

...

I... Have... No... Words...

...

 

[Kassaundra]

My brother lived his entire adult life in south Florida. He decided to make a change and move to Oklahoma. He took a bus from FL to OK in late winter / early spring before the trees leaved out. Buses seldom take a direct route so he had ridden through a good part of eastern OK by the time I met him at the bus stop. The winter just before his trip we had a near biblical ice storm, one of the worst on record, so most of the trees were broken, maimed and deformed still. On the car ride to my house he was asking me about all the broken trees and what had happened. I told him we had a real bad ice storm earlier this winter, his eyes got big he got real quiet, then real serious and then asked me is almost a whisper ............................. do "they" give us hard hats???? I almost wrecked the car I was laughing so hard. I still give him a hard time about it.