BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Kusanar]

Quote:
Chickens love eating chicken! They wouldn't have a problem with eating your leftovers.

As for pork, I forgot to turn on the crock pot one morning and came home to a pork roast that had been sitting at room temp for 12+ hours... I cut that up and gave it to the cats since I feed them raw and I don't have chickens.

 

[bramblefir]

Ok, gotcha - thanks. We have some leftover roast pork in the fridge I'm going to try feeding them tomorrow. A couple are undergoing a light molt but they're still pretty young - won't be a year old till January. My rooster Hoss is about 2/3 of the way through his full-blown molt so I'm feeding them all Feather Fixer and giving them mealworms to help 'em get through it. Hoss is lookin' pretty rough so hopefully the pork might help a little. My wife suggested leftover chicken but I'm thinkin' that wouldn't be ethical, would it? But then again, heck, they'd probably eat me if I had a spell while cleaning the coop so I guess it'd be ok.  

Our chickens favorite foods are chicken and mashed potatoes. The little cannibals even flock around me waiting for "treats" when I'm butchering their flock mates.

 

[DesertChic]

Ok, gotcha - thanks. We have some leftover roast pork in the fridge I'm going to try feeding them tomorrow. A couple are undergoing a light molt but they're still pretty young - won't be a year old till January. My rooster Hoss is about 2/3 of the way through his full-blown molt so I'm feeding them all Feather Fixer and giving them mealworms to help 'em get through it. Hoss is lookin' pretty rough so hopefully the pork might help a little. My wife suggested leftover chicken but I'm thinkin' that wouldn't be ethical, would it? But then again, heck, they'd probably eat me if I had a spell while cleaning the coop so I guess it'd be ok.

LOL! We humans have more of an issued with chickens eating chickens than chickens do. They're a very cannibalistic species, and pretty indiscriminate when it comes to finding a good protein source. Trust me, whatever form of meat you opt to give them they will DEVOUR it, and be better for it. A molting chicken needs lots of protein and some healthy oils to get through the challenge of growing all of those feathers. My "secret formula" for them isn't Feather Fixer, which I've had only mediocre improvements with, but a combination of animal protein including animal fat(raw unless it's chicken), either black oil sunflower seeds or a wild bird seed mix with black oil sunflower seeds in it, and some fresh greens like kale or young sprouts. I've seen the most stubbornly bald birds suddenly sprout new feathers all over their bodies by feeding them this combo.

To keep the cost of the protein down, I sometimes visit the meat department at the local grocery store and seek out the markdown meat that's reached its expiration date. I've literally gotten flats of meats for a couple of bucks because it was expiration day, including grass-fed bison and beef that I would normally pay a premium for for my family. Just a thought...

 

[bnjrob]

LOL! We humans have more of an issued with chickens eating chickens than chickens do. They're a very cannibalistic species, and pretty indiscriminate when it comes to finding a good protein source. Trust me, whatever form of meat you opt to give them they will DEVOUR it, and be better for it. A molting chicken needs lots of protein and some healthy oils to get through the challenge of growing all of those feathers. My "secret formula" for them isn't Feather Fixer, which I've had only mediocre improvements with, but a combination of animal protein including animal fat(raw unless it's chicken), either black oil sunflower seeds or a wild bird seed mix with black oil sunflower seeds in it, and some fresh greens like kale or young sprouts. I've seen the most stubbornly bald birds suddenly sprout new feathers all over their bodies by feeding them this combo.

To keep the cost of the protein down, I sometimes visit the meat department at the local grocery store and seek out the markdown meat that's reached its expiration date. I've literally gotten flats of meats for a couple of bucks because it was expiration day, including grass-fed bison and beef that I would normally pay a premium for for my family. Just a thought...

Yep! Our free range chickens know when we're butchering. They hang out in a group around us, just hoping that something will fall off the table that they can eat. Just gross. Last time I killed a turkey, I didn't get out all the tables, I just laid the turkey on my garden cart and sat on a stump to skin it - darn chickens came up and tried to pull the body off the cart so they could eat it.

 

[ejcrist]

Chickens love eating chicken! They wouldn't have a problem with eating your leftovers.

As for pork, I forgot to turn on the crock pot one morning and came home to a pork roast that had been sitting at room temp for 12+ hours... I cut that up and gave it to the cats since I feed them raw and I don't have chickens.

Our chickens favorite foods are chicken and mashed potatoes. The little cannibals even flock around me waiting for "treats" when I'm butchering their flock mates.

LOL! We humans have more of an issued with chickens eating chickens than chickens do. They're a very cannibalistic species, and pretty indiscriminate when it comes to finding a good protein source. Trust me, whatever form of meat you opt to give them they will DEVOUR it, and be better for it. A molting chicken needs lots of protein and some healthy oils to get through the challenge of growing all of those feathers. My "secret formula" for them isn't Feather Fixer, which I've had only mediocre improvements with, but a combination of animal protein including animal fat(raw unless it's chicken), either black oil sunflower seeds or a wild bird seed mix with black oil sunflower seeds in it, and some fresh greens like kale or young sprouts. I've seen the most stubbornly bald birds suddenly sprout new feathers all over their bodies by feeding them this combo.

To keep the cost of the protein down, I sometimes visit the meat department at the local grocery store and seek out the markdown meat that's reached its expiration date. I've literally gotten flats of meats for a couple of bucks because it was expiration day, including grass-fed bison and beef that I would normally pay a premium for for my family. Just a thought...

Yep! Our free range chickens know when we're butchering. They hang out in a group around us, just hoping that something will fall off the table that they can eat. Just gross. Last time I killed a turkey, I didn't get out all the tables, I just laid the turkey on my garden cart and sat on a stump to skin it - darn chickens came up and tried to pull the body off the cart so they could eat it.

Wow, no kiddin'. Yeah I figured that was the case. Ok then, it'll be chikin' for supper for them tonight. I gave them the pork around lunchtime and I felt like a Trump supporter in the middle of a Hillary rally - they were all over me - I thought I might not see my family again. I remember at the time wondering how they could be so infatuated with something they've never even had yet. I thought that was pretty interesting.

 

[DesertChic]

Wow, no kiddin'. Yeah I figured that was the case. Ok then, it'll be chikin' for supper for them tonight. I gave them the pork around lunchtime and I felt like a Trump supporter in the middle of a Hillary rally - they were all over me - I thought I might not see my family again. I remember at the time wondering how they could be so infatuated with something they've never even had yet. I thought that was pretty interesting.

They can smell that meat from a mile away. And fear...they can smell fear, LOL!

 

[Beekissed]

Butchered today and had to run the rooster off the table....twice. Last time he grabbed the leg of a carcass and pulled the whole bird half out of the basin before I could stop him...I had my back turned killing another bird and he saw his opportunity. The old retainers know what butchering day looks like and come to wait for their parts...the newbies will catch on soon enough.

They compete with the dog about licking the blood off the killing tree...when they are done it's pretty much spotless.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Does anyone have any thoughts on breeding a marans rooster to a white leghorn? Im looking for what people would think about egg production numbers, good feed to egg ratio and what color do you think the eggs would be?

It would depend on the parents. If your Marans rooster's mother was a good layer, and the leghorn is a good layer, you can expect decent layers, and most of the pullet chicks from this cross will lay more than the Marans but less than the leghorn. You would have to assess each pullet for egg laying ability to identify the superior layers. The eggs will be mid brown to light in colour. Some lines of leghorns carry a brown eggshell inhibition gene so you may even get white eggs. Egg size should be large.
Nothing converts feed into eggs better than a commercial leghorn layer. When you breed them, it's unlikely that the offspring will be as good, but they should still be decent egg layers.

 

[bnjrob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ejcrist

Wow, no kiddin'. Yeah I figured that was the case. Ok then, it'll be chikin' for supper for them tonight. I gave them the pork around lunchtime and I felt like a Trump supporter in the middle of a Hillary rally - they were all over me - I thought I might not see my family again. I remember at the time wondering how they could be so infatuated with something they've never even had yet. I thought that was pretty interesting.

 

[DesertChic]

Butchered today and had to run the rooster off the table....twice. Last time he grabbed the leg of a carcass and pulled the whole bird half out of the basin before I could stop him...I had my back turned killing another bird and he saw his opportunity. The old retainers know what butchering day looks like and come to wait for their parts...the newbies will catch on soon enough.

They compete with the dog about licking the blood off the killing tree...when they are done it's pretty much spotless.

Well that creates quite the visual! You could make a Looney Toons cartoon outta that story!