BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Beer can]

I prefer the dark meat. I've only ate one of these white jersey giants so far, best tasting chicken I ever ate, legs were huge drumsticks and very dark, like a turkey leg but still nice and tender. The legs were so dark wife thought it was the silkie, "It doesn't look right'' she says, ummm, silkie is black not dark brown, it looks like turkey legs, and it's twice the size of the silkie Lol!
Had plenty of breast meat also even though he was young and not filled out, still a big breast in length/size if not thickness. I've had my extra cockerel free ranging 24hrs a day for a month now, kinda on accident, he got loose and I got sick of chasing him, couldn't even get him in the dark at night. I think this weekend I'll try a little harder and put him in the chick coop run, and sock the corn and whey to him for a bit.
Yeah, kinda hard to believe there is a 'best tasting chicken', and if the NN is, they sure don't advertise it, probably cause they can't make $$ off them.

 

[alisar]

I have three naked neck cockerels in growout right now, depending if they make it to maturity and have a properly docile attitude that we breed for, I'll have the best one cover the White Bresse pullets that won't make it to the breeding pens. I'd be glad to disperse some eggs for cost of shipping before they all go get processed. I don't want to devote a permanent pen for it but I'm interested to see what comes of that cross.
They still have to survive the coccidosis/fowlpox punch though, so we will see.

 

[Beer can]

1960

I just turned, yup still today, 40

I might have not been from that era but I've listened to plenty of it. Bought all my parents, well they actually gave them to me, saw they were selling them in a lawn sale and I nailed them, pile of records and eight tracks, most original, can't even name all of them, most original first cut records, not worth much cause they were well listened to, tons of great music. Reminiscing here, I spent many a night back in the mid-later 90s? in my first car, a '80 t-top Camaro bought off a younger friend of my parents, his first car he bought brand new when he got out of high school. A little rough around the edges, but I loved that car, and the motor he put in it was...lucky we didn't have many cops around back then Lol! I had put one heck of a booming amplified bass thumping awesome speakers system in it, got lucky all of it second hand, friends wrecked car, cousin lost his job needed cash, didn't spend much. Back when I listened to everything from Metallica to White Zombie, Ministry, Pantera, to Garth Brooks, The Highwaymen, Willie, Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Creedence, .....I spent many a night all messed up in that car, Floyd is the one I remember the most, unreal awesome, like a orchestra of sound running through you...now I have a phone and a radio in my garage...our vehicle radios stock, they suck...I'd rather listen to talk radio on them...

 

[Beer can]

I have three naked neck cockerels in growout right now, depending if they make it to maturity and have a properly docile attitude that we breed for, I'll have the best one cover the White Bresse pullets that won't make it to the breeding pens. I'd be glad to disperse some eggs for cost of shipping before they all go get processed. I don't want to devote a permanent pen for it but I'm interested to see what comes of that cross.
They still have to survive the coccidosis/fowlpox punch though, so we will see.

Devoting permanent pens is the hard part, for me anyway. I've heard of some doing multiple breeds in tractors to keep them separate, I thought about it, but I don't like the idea.

 

[Mini Meat]

Breeding pens... That is what I am about to get started on. I have a 32' L X 24' W steel shop that is almost vacated, it should be empty by the 1st. It is going to have one large Turkey coop and run, 4 chicken coop/runs for up to ten chickens, 4 condos for extra cocks, one large coop for grow out pullets to free range from. The cockerels will be grown out in my old trailer in a run made of Electric fence. It will also have one extra pen and run for some Guinea hogs in the future. I should easily be able to house 40 + adult birds and grow out a couple hundred. I'll just have to figure out how to feed all those birds.

I may start a thread about in the next few days in order to get input and feed back. I'm sure I'll need to be talked down from some bad ideas.

And I want to give to whole chicken yard a name since it is secluded from my house, I'm leaning t'word...
The Meat Garden

So excited!

 

[DesertChic]

Has anyone ever tryed the bresse Canadian chicken aperintly they have marbled meat like beef or pork
Still wating on eggs and that is another breed that the breeder that I am getting eggs from carrys them

How funny, I was just going to ask if anyone had tried Bresse. I thought the were French though but maybe it's the French- Canadian connection?

Quite a while back... I think it was on this thread...we had a discussion about Bresse and concluded that much of the purported exceptional flavor is resultant of the way the French finish the birds before processing. If I recall correctly, they're rotated on fresh pasture where they're permitted to graze freely until closer to butchering age, and then housed and fed a diet of grain and buttermilk to give them a better flavor and fat content. That's not to say that attention hasn't been afforded to breeding certain meat qualities into them, but proper finishing can make a world of difference in any bird you plan to eat.

I'd enjoy trying some Bresse if for no other reason than to compare them to the other breeds I've butchered and consumed, but truth be told I'm pretty happy with how my NNs turn out.

 

[DesertChic]

Breeding pens... That is what I am about to get started on. I have a 32' L X 24' W steel shop that is almost vacated, it should be empty by the 1st. It is going to have one large Turkey coop and run, 4 chicken coop/runs for up to ten chickens, 4 condos for extra cocks, one large coop for grow out pullets to free range from. The cockerels will be grown out in my old trailer in a run made of Electric fence. It will also have one extra pen and run for some Guinea hogs in the future. I should easily be able to house 40 + adult birds and grow out a couple hundred. I'll just have to figure out how to feed all those birds.

I may start a thread about in the next few days in order to get input and feed back. I'm sure I'll need to be talked down from some bad ideas.

And I want to give to whole chicken yard a name since it is secluded from my house, I'm leaning t'word...
The Meat Garden

So excited!

"The Meat Garden"....what beautiful imagery that suggests. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I've managed to create dedicated pens a couple times, and then chicken math gets the better of me again and chaos resumes. And allowing my various flocks to free-range together has presented its own challenges as I've found that some birds suddenly change their minds about where they want to be and begin roosting in a completely different pen at night. I'm working through some ideas in my head to begin separating a few flocks from the rest of the groups. My house got hit with a nasty micro-burst today and a couple of my pens got damaged. Nothing major, but definitely more work to do now. I'll get there eventually.

 

[Beer can]

Quite a while back... I think it was on this thread...we had a discussion about Bresse and concluded that much of the purported exceptional flavor is resultant of the way the French finish the birds before processing. If I recall correctly, they're rotated on fresh pasture where they're permitted to graze freely until closer to butchering age, and then housed and fed a diet of grain and buttermilk to give them a better flavor and fat content. That's not to say that attention hasn't been afforded to breeding certain meat qualities into them, but proper finishing can make a world of difference in any bird you plan to eat.

I'd enjoy trying some Bresse if for no other reason than to compare them to the other breeds I've butchered and consumed, but truth be told I'm pretty happy with how my NNs turn out.

Poulet rouge chickens aka redbro cou nu chicken....Label Rouge ....

 

[Beer can]

"The Meat Garden"....what beautiful imagery that suggests. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I've managed to create dedicated pens a couple times, and then chicken math gets the better of me again and chaos resumes. And allowing my various flocks to free-range together has presented its own challenges as I've found that some birds suddenly change their minds about where they want to be and begin roosting in a completely different pen at night. I'm working through some ideas in my head to begin separating a few flocks from the rest of the groups. My house got hit with a nasty micro-burst today and a couple of my pens got damaged. Nothing major, but definitely more work to do now. I'll get there eventually.

If I could have every chicken breed I ever wanted....Sand hill, Frank Reese,Blosls, Horstman, all of them, my hero's, I would be broke....Can't wait to get a couple more though....debating good RIR against good New Hampshire reds right now....Just know if I do, they should be bred right, that's a big commitment to make....for someone like me that just wants to help preserve them and eat them...

 

[cyborg]

 

"The Meat Garden"....what beautiful imagery that suggests. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. 

I've managed to create dedicated pens a couple times, and then chicken math gets the better of me again and chaos resumes. And allowing my various flocks to free-range together has presented its own challenges as I've found that some birds suddenly change their minds about where they want to be and begin roosting in a completely different pen at night. I'm working through some ideas in my head to begin separating a few flocks from the rest of the groups. My house got hit with a nasty micro-burst today and a couple of my pens got damaged. Nothing major, but definitely more work to do now. I'll get there eventually.

If I could have every chicken breed I ever wanted....Sand hill, Frank Reese,Blosls, Horstman, all of them, my hero's, I would be broke....Can't wait to get a couple more though....debating good RIR against good New Hampshire reds right now....Just know if I do, they should be bred right, that's a big commitment to make....for someone like me that just wants to help preserve them and eat them...

I was the middleman for a friend that was looking for a NH cock, so I bought 2 and let him pick which one he wanted. I kept the other, and I'm pretty impressed with his size and demeanor. Now I need some NH hens, chicken math strikes again! Guess I need to build some more #$%@ pens, too!