BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

Hi All, well I haven't been on here this year as I lost all my birds in a fox attack while I was working away !!!!
I was devistated, but now I'm ready to start again in creating the best stastainable table bird I can.

I do have pals who live close that have some of my stock so I could start again with similar projects.
But I'm taking this as an opportunity to start fresh.

My question to you guys is this, if you had to start again, knowing what you now know, what would you do different ??

I'm sorry you lost your flock, it's very brave of you to start over. I hope this time all goes well.
I don't know much but I've learned this already: I plan to hatch a lot more eggs so I have more to select from, and I plan on separating out the cockerels from the pullets. Running them all together is a disaster.

 

[varidgerunner]

Here is a pic of what my meat and egg mutts flock looks like. The rooster is out of some eggs I got from a guy locally. He has some BLR and splash wyandottes. The blue hens came from the same place, dark legged pea combs, the only non wyandotte birds he has are speckled sussex and barred rocks, so your guess is good as mine. The hen in the back is dorking, pretty sure grey crossed on red, got her from another local source. Missing from the pic are some BO Red sexlink crosses, I got from another local source. All raised by game hens, free range. Caught these getting ready to head in for the evening, they are in the fenced run that the henhouse dumps into. I open the gate to the run sometime late morning. They have no trouble going deep for their own grub. The chicken yard is also a bone yard. My wife has a broth addiction, everytime we butcher all the bones get cooked down and she cans broth, when she is done we dump the bones to the chickens, they pick them clean. Time for spring cleaning, I usually try to bury the bones in my orchard.

 

[hellbender]

Here is a pic of what my meat and egg mutts flock looks like. The rooster is out of some eggs I got from a guy locally. He has some BLR and splash wyandottes. The blue hens came from the same place, dark legged pea combs, the only non wyandotte birds he has are speckled sussex and barred rocks, so your guess is good as mine. The hen in the back is dorking, pretty sure grey crossed on red, got her from another local source. Missing from the pic are some BO Red sexlink crosses, I got from another local source. All raised by game hens, free range. Caught these getting ready to head in for the evening, they are in the fenced run that the henhouse dumps into. I open the gate to the run sometime late morning. They have no trouble going deep for their own grub. The chicken yard is also a bone yard. My wife has a broth addiction, everytime we butcher all the bones get cooked down and she cans broth, when she is done we dump the bones to the chickens, they pick them clean. Time for spring cleaning, I usually try to bury the bones in my orchard.

You could re-cook the bones under pressure and let the birds eat 'em all up! Essentially bone meal...they get very soft and easy for them to eat.

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Christine,
I think C13 the Biel/ Aussie mix is a cockerel with that comb starting already at 2 weeks old.
Kurt

 

[varidgerunner]

You could re-cook the bones under pressure and let the birds eat 'em all up! Essentially bone meal...they get very soft and easy for them to eat.

She uses vinegar to make broth, cooks them twice, drains off and cans the broth. The smaller ones get pretty soft this way, and they do eat a lot of them, most of what's left are the bigger beef and pork bones. That is good to know though.

 

[DesertChic]

You could re-cook the bones under pressure and let the birds eat 'em all up! Essentially bone meal...they get very soft and easy for them to eat.

I'm going to have to try that.

 

[DesertChic]

Christine,
I think C13 the Biel/ Aussie mix is a cockerel with that comb starting already at 2 weeks old.
Kurt

Yeah, I'm a little worried about that comb, but my other Biel/Aussie female from my previous hatch also had an early comb so there's still hope. I should know for certain in about 2 more weeks. Gender becomes very obvious at that point. I really, really want it to be a pullet since I only got one pullet out of my last Biel/Aussie hatch. My track record of hatching more cockerels than pullets is still holding strong.

 

[Mini Meat]

I finished weights and measures on my latest hatch yesterday and I continue to be really impressed with overall growth rates, which are still unlike anything I've seen in any of my other hatches. At two weeks of age, the combined gender average chick size is 4.98 ounces and average growth rate is 84.27%, with my largest chick coming in at 5.5 ounces and my highest growth rate coming in at 112.6% for the past week, and 365.52% since hatch. Here are some photos of the most photogenic in the group:

Comet: Ameraucan-mix/White Rock - One of my biggest and fastest growing


C4 - no name NN


Ziggy: Ameraucana-mix/Dorking-mix - I love the cushion comb!



Simon - NN/White Rock, and one of the chicks I'm most excited about.


C12 - no name yet - Ameraucana-mix/White Rock - I'm pretty sure this is a cockerel, and his shanks are surprisingly huge. I had to remove his bands, the largest I had, after taking this photo.



C13 - no name yet: Bielefelder/Australorp - This is one of my "surprise" chicks as I didn't know I'd get another Biel-mix from my Aussie girls. I suspect it's a girl, but not yet certain.



Gypsy - NN/Bielefelder - She wasn't feeling very cooperative for photography. The diva wasn't into the mood.

Willow - NN/White Rock and another chick I was really coveting, this one a pullet.

Okay, I have this thing where I think I can tell the sex by the eyes. The cockerel seem to have a "hard" eye to me. So since I have no chicks of my own right now I'm going to test it on yours.

Here goes: let me know how I do when you know for sure. (never tried it from a Photo before)

1,2,3 Pullets
4,5,6 Cockerels
7,8 Pullets

 

[DesertChic]

Okay, I have this thing where I think I can tell the sex by the eyes. The cockerel seem to have a "hard" eye to me. So since I have no chicks of my own right now I'm going to test it on yours.

Here goes: let me know how I do when you know for sure. (never tried it from a Photo before)

1,2,3 Pullets
4,5,6 Cockerels
7,8 Pullets

I hope you turn out to be right about #1, because if it turns out to be a pullet I'm breeding her with all of my biggest boys. It's one of my largest chicks with the best growth rate, which is part of the reason why I suspect #1 is a cockerel.

 

[Mini Meat]

I hope you turn out to be right about #1, because if it turns out to be a pullet I'm breeding her with all of my biggest boys. It's one of my largest chicks with the best growth rate, which is part of the reason why I suspect #1 is a cockerel.

Well, then, I hope so too.

I really have no science behind it, I just noticed that after a week or two the rims of the eyes on the cockerels seem thicker and "fleshier", the pullets seem thiner and "downier".

I have not yet tried to track my accuracy, but plan to do so when I have chicks again. It may turn out to be hooie.