BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[gjensen]

I think a huge part of it is just the resources needed to do a good job breeding the birds. Few of us have the facilities for hundreds of birds, which is really needed to do a good job with this hobby. Me personally, I think it would be a lot of fun to be involved in serious breeding, but right now I'm limited to under a dozen birds, and realistically, I may never be able to keep more than two or three dozen.

You can do well enough if the dozen birds is a dozen breeding hens. 3 cocks and a dozen breeding hens is a workable number.

Then if the birds are already in good shape, we can hatch 32 in the spring and fall. Work through the growers fast etc. Some do fine with some strains hatching 40 chicks in a season. These are in strains that are already in good shape. Heck you can get rid of 30% of them at 8 wks, and another at 12 wks. It is not as if all 40 are grown all of the way. There are ways to work it out. 20 in the spring, and 20 in the fall. 10 breeding hens, a cock and a cockerel, and a partner . . . .

It does help to have a partner or two.

I hatched out 120 in a single breed this spring. That is no small amount, but it was an appropriate amount. I will hatch more from them this fall (God willing). It is a project though. Projects require numbers. Single or simple colors in already good shape does not require nearly as many.

Bantams are better options for many. There is nothing wrong with bantams. Some are productive layers, and some proportionally are quite meaty. They grow faster, and eat far less. A much more practical option for many. There is no actual logical reason that excludes them from consideration. I would have been just as content, working with a flock of bantams. I often consider them for on the side.

What it would costs to feed 12 large hens, you could feed 24-36 bantam hens. The housing requires less space and investment.

And you are right, it is not for all. It may not be for me at some point. Time will tell. My remarks are usually based on that some say this or that, but that is not really where there interests are.

 

[bmvf]

Last night we've had a huge storm roll through with maybe 70+ mph winds. In 2011 Hurricane Irene rolled through and in 2012 the eye of a weakened Hurricane Sandy passed within miles of the farm. So I've seen wind, but not like last night. A roof of one of my sheds blew 300 yards to the north until it hit a tree line. I have an empty calf hutch that blew the same way but is out of sight. My shed for the NH's flipped but somehow the nests stayed laying on blocks on the ground with the broody hen still inside. Her eggs are now wet and dirty. The wind also caught the chicken tractor with my 5 week old NH chicks and killed 4 of 17. There was some hail and with the driving rain I'm surprised more didn't die. I thought the tractor was protected from the storm by my barn but the wind somehow whipped the other way for apparently a brief moment and caught the tractor. Then there's the tractor for my Dels that stayed put....even with the roof of that shed flying over it en route to it's final destination.

It all comes back to my last post. What type of housing fits my management style and will work. After last night I think it's a stable structure that will work best

 

[ronott1]

That which is lacking in many birds bred for meat can be ameliorated with just a 'Nip@Tuck'.

We are experimenting with castrating some of the hybrid rabbits as soon as their nutz can be easily distinguished from their skin and tying a tight piece of cat gut very firmly around them.

The first process is tried and true but castrating rabbits is my daughters latest addition to the brain trust. She likes rabbit meat but finds it too firm and 'fat free' to enjoy. In all fun...leave it to a woman to start castrating the males...lol

I was in doubt they'd live but they are thriving. Just have to let a few of them 'grow old' by meat rabbit standards, so to speak, and see what the flesh is like!

Will report back.

Will caponing make a cockerel ready faster?

 

[hellbender]

Will caponing make a cockerel ready faster?

Certainly not in my experience. It simply allows the bird to mature without the male hormones having a 'toughening' effect on it. Same applies to poulardes bur again...in my opinion, will not speed growth or 'readiness' of the birds.

 

[Our Roost]

I have a rule of thumb I work with mostly and that is to never raise more than I can handle. A very well known mentor I enquired information from told me to either go big or go home basically. She said there is no other logical way to achieve my ambitions without sufficient numbers. So I hatch a significant amount of birds and either sell or cull the unwanted. It can be difficult, but this is what works for me.

 

[dfr1973]

Do not buy into the build it before you paint it, unless you are working with single color varieties. There are some colors that you can get away with doing that for a time, but any color that has any challenge to it . . . be careful what you ask for. We can spend more time painting it than we did building it, or have to rebuild it to paint it. That catch all phrase is useful in some cases, but very misleading in others. It is only really useful as a matter of priority, but many understand it as a license for neglect. I have heard it over and again while watching a relatively simple color go down hill in the hands of the adherent. There are entire threads of this as an example on this board. And they think they are making progress is the irony.

This may be more about interpretation than the actual phrase itself. The way I take it to mean is: "Don't sacrifice type and body for color or fancy feathers." If two birds are equal in type and body and size, then you select for the coloring, but don't keep a pretty-feathered bird with poor body over the one with excellent body but not as good of color. With the gold-laced, I will have quite a bit going on, colorwise, and I found a nice little chart on the Wyandotte lacing that shows what missing genes looks like, as the proper lacing takes three sets of genes.

Hubby asked a really good question the other week when we were sitting out one evening watching the chickens. He asked about where the gold color will come from if I am using Luanne's black phase BLR. I explained that she is still culling for "brassiness," which is the gold gene showing through. Last night we were looking at the pullets from January, who are beginning to pink up in the face, and I pointed out all three pullets have the brassiness, plus a bit of gold on their wing primaries. It is a bit of luck there, but I will happily take it.

Another interesting little aside, I emailed a fellow named Chuck Hagi, who had a GLW project using Sandhill and Cackle stock. He responded, saying he abandoned the project because while he got great lacing and good profile, he could not get size in the two years he worked on them. I know I have seen his name before in regards to breeding chickens, but still have not been able to place where I saw him mentioned before. Luanne's birds definitely have size, as that is one thing she told me she will not compromise on since it is so hard to get it back if lost.

 

[hellbender]

This may be more about interpretation than the actual phrase itself. The way I take it to mean is: "Don't sacrifice type and body for color or fancy feathers." If two birds are equal in type and body and size, then you select for the coloring, but don't keep a pretty-feathered bird with poor body over the one with excellent body but not as good of color. With the gold-laced, I will have quite a bit going on, colorwise, and I found a nice little chart on the Wyandotte lacing that shows what missing genes looks like, as the proper lacing takes three sets of genes.

Hubby asked a really good question the other week when we were sitting out one evening watching the chickens. He asked about where the gold color will come from if I am using Luanne's black phase BLR. I explained that she is still culling for "brassiness," which is the gold gene showing through. Last night we were looking at the pullets from January, who are beginning to pink up in the face, and I pointed out all three pullets have the brassiness, plus a bit of gold on their wing primaries. It is a bit of luck there, but I will happily take it.

Another interesting little aside, I emailed a fellow named Chuck Hagi, who had a GLW project using Sandhill and Cackle stock. He responded, saying he abandoned the project because while he got great lacing and good profile, he could not get size in the two years he worked on them. I know I have seen his name before in regards to breeding chickens, but still have not been able to place where I saw him mentioned before. Luanne's birds definitely have size, as that is one thing she told me she will not compromise on since it is so hard to get it back if lost.

Do you have an opinion of Cackle's Black laced Red Wyandottes?

 

[dfr1973]

Do you have an opinion of Cackle's Black laced Red Wyandottes?

I have no experience with those, therefore cannot form an informed opinion. I am quite happy with my black phase BLRs from Luanne (cpartist here on BYC). She does ship eggs and chicks, although we are already in the "no-ship" hot season down here.

 

[gjensen]

Will caponing make a cockerel ready faster?

No. It keeps them tender longer and larger.

 

[hellbender]

I have no experience with those, therefore cannot form an informed opinion. I am quite happy with my black phase BLRs from Luanne (cpartist here on BYC). She does ship eggs and chicks, although we are already in the "no-ship" hot season down here.

Thank you very much!

ANYONE ELSE? That is the breed/color phase I had 'squashed' from the order placed (using my credit card) but I'm not having second thoughts. I might just go ahead and order them, just to see what they will do with them.

ANY INFORMATION WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. The description of the color phase says it has a double dose of mahogany.... I was thinking of picking out a nice cockerel (provided I re-order them) and use him to cover two or three nice Dark Cornish.

The least would be capon/poularde material with pretty feathers??? lol