BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Beer can]

That's something that is hard to explain to people. Chickens are not human's or pure breed limited genitics dogs. Many animals in the wild do not travel to the next town or county, state, to find a mate. Turkey's, deer, wild rabbits, squirrels etc..they do not go out of their way for genetic diversity. Most of what I have read on SOP pure breed chickens is line breeding is the only way to reach SOP.
I prefer pure breeds, crosses are side projects. A pea comb NN intrigues me now though, to the best of my knowledge, no American breed of chicken is a true pure blood, all crosses and then standardized? ?

 

[Beekissed]

Agreed. I'm currently breeding a male back to his mother, aunt and all his sibling sisters. And I'll likely breed him right back to his daughters this next season if I like what he has turned out this year. My flock is small and it's going to stay that way, so by those perimeters, the breeding will stay tight and inbreeding will continue until I see a reason to bring in new blood. Right now the flock is laying like gangbusters, I've got a few broodies and 23 vigorous chicks on the ground, with more on the way, and I see no reason to bring in any new blood. Time will tell if this type of breeding will work or if I will breed myself into a corner.

 

[lpatelski]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/13/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 14 - looking a bit cockerel today. Starting to color and broaden at the comb and waddles.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

@canadianbuckeye,Is your chick a slow grow type? I raise my chicks with 30% gamebird starter and vitamin mixed in the water. They are in an aquarium until 18 days when I move them out to the farm

They are just hatchery cornish, I don't think they are of any particular type except brown

the buff rocks look bigger and meatier! I've been having the devil of a time getting higher protein feed. It's still on back order...... So for now they are on free choice 20% crumbs, and free choice 18% starter that's non soy and non GMO, and I give them mashed hardboiled egg every other day and grass and chickweed. I do have vitamins in the water. They are still upstairs in my spare bedroom in connected totes but I need to get them out into the barn- it's getting uncivilized, the oldest chicks will be 2 weeks old on the weekend, the younger ones 10 days. But we've had cold weather, and I'm a bit worried that if I put them out they will get chilled despite the heat lamps. It's supposed to warm up later next week, but they are getting somewhat cramped. I did not expect so many eggs to hatch!!!!
I'm actually selecting for egg laying properties, not meaties. So I have a bit of a wait before I can start selecting- I'll be looking for the earliest egg layers. I have hatchery barred holland chicks, buff rock chicks, dark cornish, and my own crossbred and purebred Buckeyes, crossbred Buckeye and dark Cornish and Buckeye/sex link, and some Buckeye/production red chicks I ordered from Alberta that have excellent breeding having been selected for good egg laying. Sadly none of the shipped Buckeye eggs I got to improve my stock made it to hatch. I have around 90 chicks. If I get a decent Buckeye rooster from my own breeding I'll keep him, and a decent Cornish rooster to maintain a breeding population of Cornish (just for looks), and I'm most interested in a good rooster from my Buckeye/Cornish cross and one from the Buckeye/sex link cross. That will be four roosters, plenty for me. Only the good layers will stay so I will have a lot of culling to do, but at least I have a good number of chicks to choose from. I'll be selecting for egg production and temperament from among the crosses, and for type as well from my Buckeyes.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

That's something that is hard to explain to people. Chickens are not human's or pure breed limited genitics dogs. Many animals in the wild do not travel to the next town or county, state, to find a mate. Turkey's, deer, wild rabbits, squirrels etc..they do not go out of their way for genetic diversity. Most of what I have read on SOP pure breed chickens is line breeding is the only way to reach SOP.
I prefer pure breeds, crosses are side projects. A pea comb NN intrigues me now though, to the best of my knowledge, no American breed of chicken is a true pure blood, all crosses and then standardized? ?

I would not be surprised if that's true for almost all the pure breeds of chicken- I'd be very surprised if there was a breed of chicken anywhere that was not outcrossed to something else at some time.
It should be pretty easy to breed a pea combed naked necked chicken, both are dominant traits so both will show up in the first generation. Although some of the hybrid pea/single combed combs can look a bit strange!
You can get a pea comb from Buckeyes, Cornish, Brahma. I'm not sure exactly what the combs of some of the Oriental breeds like Malays are, some are walnut combs where the pea and rose combs are combined. Me personally I would not want rose comb genetics in my chickens because of the poor fertility that's linked to the rose comb.

 

[bramblefir]

Whoa, whoa, whoa @hellbender (Jason)! You can't go posting stuff like that without sharing it over here too. Stinker.

Tell your sister congratulations and cheers to a happy and healthy 9 7 months!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Does anyone have a link to that good video on skinning (rather than plucking)? I have some small cockerels to cull tomorrow, and would prefer to skin them, but haven't done it before...

- Ant Farm

 

[NanaKat]

Does anyone have a link to that good video on skinning (rather than plucking)? I have some small cockerels to cull tomorrow, and would prefer to skin them, but haven't done it before...

- Ant Farm 

I skin a lot of mine....with practice you can do this in 5 minutes or less per bird. This is what I do.
After removing the head and hanging to drain, cut off the last section of the wings and remove the leg shanks.
Lay the bird in its back with the neck toward you. Slit the skin down to the end of keel bone. Slit the skin to the wings and with you hands slide in between the skin and the body...rolling the skin over the feathers as you go. Loosen as much of the surface as you can reach. Slit the skin to the legs down to the shank.
On a clean surface like a cutting board place the bird on its breast and begin peeling the skin down the back pulling it away from the wings. Use a knife to separate the skin from the back peeling down from the neck to the tail.
Put the bird back on its back . Now gut the bird and remove the innards along with the opening. Pull off the skin usually in one big piece.
Rinse in cold water and set in ice water in a cooler. If you keep organs like heart, liver, gizzard. Separate into bags for cleaning in the kitchen. Put on ice.
Go to the next bird.

 

[bluejean55girl]

I skin a lot of mine....with practice you can do this in 5 minutes or less per bird. This is what I do.
After removing the head and hanging to drain, cut off the last section of the wings and remove the leg shanks.
Lay the bird in its back with the neck toward you. Slit the skin down to the end of keel bone. Slit the skin to the wings and with you hands slide in between the skin and the body...rolling the skin over the feathers as you go. Loosen as much of the surface as you can reach. Slit the skin to the legs down to the shank.
On a clean surface like a cutting board place the bird on its breast and begin peeling the skin down the back pulling it away from the wings. Use a knife to separate the skin from the back peeling down from the neck to the tail.
Put the bird back on its back . Now gut the bird and remove the innards along with the opening. Pull off the skin usually in one big piece.
Rinse in cold water and set in ice water in a cooler. If you keep organs like heart, liver, gizzard. Separate into bags for cleaning in the kitchen. Put on ice.
Go to the next bird.

great info!

 

[angry rooster]

Does anyone have a link to that good video on skinning (rather than plucking)? I have some small cockerels to cull tomorrow, and would prefer to skin them, but haven't done it before...

- Ant Farm 

It is easier than plucking all you need is a good knife and a stable cutting surface I cut around the joints and then split the skin on the beast and the iner thy and pull off the feather sweater and if it is a nice saddle I dry it and sell it for 15 bucks to people that tie Flys for fishing
Ps if you wet them down you can move the feathers out of the way of your knife for a clean cut
But that is jest what I have been doing there is more than one way to skin a chicken good luck