BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Arielle]

Hellbender-- I have only tried to save ONE. My Am rooster from GFF. Others get tossed into the soup pot. I just don't have time for it. My rooster is 2 years now since Rx and doing great. ( ps. the Bi--tch has been bred again!!!!)

 

[DesertChic]

What incubator do you have?

An Rcom MX-20. I needed something fairly idiot-proof.

 

[ronott1]

An Rcom MX-20. I needed something fairly idiot-proof.

You should have a great hatch!

 

[bmvf]

I'm hoping to put some eggs in the incubator too. My NH's started laying regularly once I got the light put in their coop. I guess I should check over the hens and make sure there aren't any that I don't want to hatch from. My wife is due with our third child in late March so I need to get eggs hatched and new chicks under control by then. The garden will start demanding attention around that time too.

My Delawares are at the size that they need to be moved. At 7 weeks old I'm impressed with their size. This means I either need to make a third coop for chickens or move my rainbow layers to a new home. With a dozen eggs a day and no desire to try to market eggs, I think I'll be selling the Rainbows to a new home.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Found this surfing poultry subject's.
Happy New Year,
Karen
Factors Affecting Poultry Meat Quality
Published on: 1/12/2009
Author/s : Julie K. Northcutt - The University of GeorgiaCooperative Extension Service - College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Department of Poultry Science (Bulletin 1157)
http://en.engormix.com/MA-poultry-i...ctors-affecting-poultry-meat-t1218/471-p0.htm
" Before poultry meat quality is addressed, the term quality should be clearly defined as it relates to poultry. "

 

[draye]

Hello all, hope your holiday was great.  Mine was.        I'm gearing up my production starting in January.  First order of business is going to be 30 ISA browns from Townline.  Shipped to my place for $100.50.  This just so happens to be the amount of my DD Christmas check to me.  Woohoo.  I have a dozen Marraduna Basque eggs on day 9 in the 'bator right now.  And one more purchase will be a couple of dozen Lavender Australorp eggs at the end of Jan.   The Basques are going to be my hobby.  Pets.  I probably won't breed them this year. The quality is not what I want.   I'm going to concentrate on the Blosl/XW cross (White Rocks) I'm going to be breeding.  And I hope to sell many of them.    
I've decided to start with Azure organic feed the first of the year also.  I want to be able to advertise the extra quality in the birds and eggs.  When we bought this land fifty years ago it was the back of beyond.  Literally.  Now,  Shreveport/Bossier City is growing so much and new subdivisions are going up right and left.   I have 5 or 6 new subdivisions within 2-5 minute drive from me.  Upscale.  And I believe that they will be happy to pay $4-$5 per doz.  WE SHALL SEE.  :yiipchick

Fresh eggs are worth that according to what I have to pay for feed, I have folks gripping about $3.00 a dozen around here.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
I stopped selling fresh eggs. Some customers expect to have special service: eggs right out of the hens at 10 am on a SUnday. Grrr. Only a few friends get my eggs now. $6 is the going price at the local farmers market; so I think $4 at my door was a steal. SOme folks felt that was too much and buy theirs for $3. THough I'll bet they are not free range chickens. So try to get what you deserve for those good eggs!! ( I didn't lower my price for the woman that griped about the price, though now I wish I had offered her a one time deal so she could taste the difference in the eggs and perhaps lure in another long time customer. ) But as I said, selling became a PITA.

 

[Arielle]

A question has come up.

I have a number of my first girls, that are soon to be 4 years old. I am trying to figure out my options. THey have survived my first attempts at chicken raising, they have survived the predators, they have survived the nonsense of the many roosters. I am thinking they have value as hens that I cant kill very easily. lol

Here is my question. If a hen is too old to be laying, will she also be too old to become broody? ( I think I know the answer but would like to hear from the more experienced folks.)

( Not on very often due to PC failure. )

 

[bnjrob]

I stopped selling fresh eggs. Some customers expect to have special service: eggs right out of the hens at 10 am on a SUnday. Grrr. Only a few friends get my eggs now. $6 is the going price at the local farmers market; so I think $4 at my door was a steal. SOme folks felt that was too much and buy theirs for $3. THough I'll bet they are not free range chickens. So try to get what you deserve for those good eggs!! ( I didn't lower my price for the woman that griped about the price, though now I wish I had offered her a one time deal so she could taste the difference in the eggs and perhaps lure in another long time customer. ) But as I said, selling became a PITA.

$6 is a good bit of change. Around here, most folks are selling for $2.50-$3. That is not enough to cover costs especially when you have to supply egg cartons too.

"Natural" and "organic" eggs are selling from $3.50-$5 at Walmart here in a small town that is about 40 miles from a metro area. There is a Kroger closer to the Metroplex that sells eggs in their organic refrigerator counter for anywhere from $4 up to a whopping $8/dz.

Only thing I can figure with the folks that sell for around $3/dz, is that they either are not really trying to break even between feed costs and selling eggs, or they don't provide any feed at all, or they supply really lousy feed to their hens. Or they have cheap egg laying machines and are not raising birds for anything else - unlike those of us with dual-purpose large fowl where we have to look at other things besides just egg production, and maintain good chicken health to be able to breed.

We have a few people that will pay the hubby to bring them some eggs occasionally, and they give $5/dz, but otherwise we use the eggs for ourselves, feed back to the chickens, or on rare occasions, give some to special people. We had given some away and had people complaining when all we had were small pullet eggs because we were hatching from full size eggs. Really??? You're going to gripe about the size of the eggs when you just got a couple dozen eggs for free???? After that, hubby said he wasn't going to be nice to his coworkers anymore.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
OMG, to compain about free eggs ?

I really do think people are speaking/behaving out of a lack of knowledge. If they only knew the life of a factory hen . . .

THe $6 is to help cover the outlandish charge that goes to the committee that organizes the farmers market. THe fee was over $200 ( cant remember the exact cost now) for a season of about 3-4 months. I thought ALL the goods were too expensive and didNOT buy a thing.

edited to add NOT, lol