BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

Down to two naked cockerels, a white and my biggest red/black, culled four the other day, just shy of three pounds dressed. Wish you all told me to be careful plucking. Wish I didn't dry pluck, figured I would being I was skinning the jersey giant cockerels (weighed about the same) plucked one jersey giant/silkie cross cockerel also, blueish black skin, same age, four pounds!
Ripped the skin with the feathers off the first biggest NN......

was very careful with the next, they do have way less feathers, patches, but dang there was a lot of new feathers starting that took some time. Did up a few giants, skinned, tried to be careful on the rest of the NN, ugghh,

ripped the skin of all the rest..... Well I have one with skin to roast and see how good they are, and like someone said, NO HAIR!!!!

the giant silkie was ridiculous, could have made a pillow out of the feathers, and then the hair.....blow torch....
Going to rethink dry plucking, like the skin better, sometimes it becomes tough when scalding, maybe I'll monitor temp better next time. Have a few more giants to do, just not sure how long I want to feed them.

Plucking those NN reminded me of skinning fresh shot rabbits, skin like tissue paper, comes off in patches.

Hmm....I've never had a problem with tearing NN skin, but I've also always scalded them first.

You're right about the Silkies though. They are the WORST birds to pluck, even when scalded. If I ever have to cull another one I'll definitely skin it instead of pluck.

 

[DesertChic]

Does anyone on this thread raise auto-sexing breeds? I have posted about some of the ideas floating around in my head about them on various threads and never gotten much of a reply. I know fi you are raising for meat, some say auto-sexing is a useless trait, because by the time you butcher it's obvious what sex they are... but the thing is I sell chicks locally, and I have zero issue selling sexed female chicks for $5-6 as day olds. I also think if I truelly had a bird I could show had really good meat characteristics, I bet I could sell male chicks for $2-3 each. So I think by catering to the different purposes people have I would be able to make more money per chick and have a steadier demand.

But I am also of the opinion most so called "dual purpose" breeds are really just large egg layers, not something I would really be interested in the investing the food into the males that it would take to get them to a decent size... But one that I have not had personally but I think shows promise from doing a lot of reading is the Rainbow Dixie. It is supposed to breed true, develop early, are very meaty, and the girls are supposed to excellent and early egg layers. It seems like you might be able to get the consistent meat and egg qualities far sooner breeding from them than some of the traditional dual purpose breeds (unless you were able to find someone to get birds from who had already invested a lot of time into breeding them up). In addition most/many Dixie Rainbow cocks seem to have barring, which mean you could probably produce your own auto sexing strain within a few generations. I also thought adding some Bielefelder blood could help in introducing that trait, since they are auto sexing and beefy in their own right.

What do you guys think... I also think after you had a decent line developed if you crossed some with EEs, to produce a meatier, better winter laying, early developing, auto-sexing EE it would sell like crazy. Around here at least EEs sell like hotcakes.

EEs are definitely very popular almost anywhere, it seems, but I've found that most of them are far better for eggs than for meat. I have 2 EEs, one hen and one rooster, that are actually pretty meaty but have had problems with egg fertility.

If you can develop a truly dual-purpose auto-sexing bird then yeah, I suspect you'd find a good market for them. My personal favorite dual purpose breed is still the Naked Neck Turken (NN). Even my meatiest girls supply me with large to jumbo eggs 5 days per week and they have outstanding personalities to boot...but I recognize that not everyone falls in love with the breed as I have. I just hope whatever birds you decide to use in your endeavors that you keep us update on your progress.

 

[abbevilleoz]

We just feathered out a dozen EEs for a friend. We got the eggs from a farm nearby. The birds are all beautiful shades of blue and the cockerels are quite stout. The hens were
RIR, Brahmas, and Australorpes. She said the sire is an AM. We've got a well bred Ameraucana that is quite huge at seven months.

 

[NanaKat]

Will be moving those Turken eggs I bought a few weeks ago into the hatcher tomorrow. Since the eggs also represent some other breeds, I'm hoping for some Turkens to hatch.
Started with 18 eggs...moving 12.
The Pekin duck eggs have another week.

 

[Beer can]

Quote: Just searched back, missed your edit, miss that 'wild hare' Hellbender is the reason why I now have naked necks, and was hoping for dark cornish also from Cackle. Will be crossing them with cornishX instead, a local raises them and will be picking up some alive pullets, hope it works out.....will hatch out pure NN also.

Quote: Someone on here has Malines, they sound like good meat birds.

Hmm....I've never had a problem with tearing NN skin, but I've also always scalded them first.

You're right about the Silkies though. They are the WORST birds to pluck, even when scalded. If I ever have to cull another one I'll definitely skin it instead of pluck.

Definitely scalding them first next time, might have helped if they cooled a little and toughened the skin up, was basically, decapitate and pluck. They say they have thin skin that roasts up nice, they look good, not disappointed.

 

[ronott1]

Just searched back, missed your edit, miss that 'wild hare' Hellbender is the reason why I now have naked necks, and was hoping for dark cornish also from Cackle. Will be crossing them with cornishX instead, a local raises them and will be picking up some alive pullets, hope it works out.....will hatch out pure NN also.

Someone on here has Malines, they sound like good meat birds.

Definitely scalding them first next time, might have helped if they cooled a little and toughened the skin up, was basically, decapitate and pluck. They say they have thin skin that roasts up nice, they look good, not disappointed.

Don't go over 150 for the water temperature and it only takes a couple of minutes. Use a thermometer to make sure the water is not too hot. What you do is use tongs to push them down and swish them about. You are ready to pluck when a wing feather pulls out easily.

A squirt of dish soap in the hot(150F) water helps too, likely by breaking down oils so that the water gets to the skin.

My plan is to process 4 cockerels tomorrow.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I have to get going on a chicken dinner too. I plan to dry pluck, it doesn't seem that difficult (we'll see) and it looks less messy and less stinky than the scalding.

 

[ronott1]

I have to get going on a chicken dinner too. I plan to dry pluck, it doesn't seem that difficult (we'll see) and it looks less messy and less stinky than the scalding.

One advantage of dry plucking is that you can use the feathers for art and jewelry stuff--like tying fish lures.

Does anyone sell feathers here?

 

[ronott1]

And it is a lot harder to dry pluck a chicken.

 

[NanaKat]

 

 

What do you guys think... I also think after you had  a decent line developed if you crossed some with EEs, to produce a meatier, better winter laying, early developing, auto-sexing EE it would sell like crazy. Around here at least EEs sell like hotcakes.

Sounds like a plan! I wonder if it would be useful to use a number of EE hens in this project, as I believe one of the traits people like about the Easter eggers is the wide variety of egg colours.


Don't forget about Malines! They are barred too.

Someone on here has Malines, they sound like good meat birds.

Yes, there are several including a thread on Belgian Maline.
One of our regulars on this thread is Our Roost who has Malines and is crossing them back to Cochin to improve egg laying and stabilizing vigor.
Also Bart Nagel is on BYC and has Maline in Canada.