BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

I kinda think that the larger ones are males the 2 smallest females, and the middles are a toss!

I tried incorporating a graph straight from the info, but it doesn't look right

its so not working for me

I just sent you a PM with a Word Document based graph of your growth rates.

 

[FaerieChicken]

I canNOT believe I am giving serious thought to raising roaches for my chickens. You are such a bad influence on me!

Ive recently began raising mealworms. However haven't had the chance to harvest any as my colony hasn't expanded much. I am not sure if I am doing it right, but I am getting pupae and beetles, also new worms so they are multiplying, just not to the mass that I need to be able to feed my girls. I usually go through 1.5 lbs dried within 2 days.

 

[FaerieChicken]

I just sent you a PM with a Word Document based graph of your growth rates.

Thank you, I really felt like I was having a crisis. I couldn't get it to set up the way I wanted.


Do I keep the faster growing one, the big one "Orange" ( I am guessing male for it)? How do I know which ones to keep for continuing to breed? I know they are all mixed, but I want to be able to have birds on the larger, or meatier side rather, but do I keep Daddy, or Son..... Both? I am hoping that one of the larger is a girl to use to cross out too! I really don't want to end up with Cornish X, I want to be able to breed on my farm and keep a rotational stock growing so I can go out and just grab up a few birds for processing when needed, even at different stages of life.

 

[Kassaundra]

I raised mealworms also for a short time. They were a pointless waste of time in my opinion. I almost never got any harvest out of the colony, they are small and hard to harvest take forever to get enough going to make any difference at all to a chicken snack let alone any meaningful addition to protein feed. Easy to get mite infestations, and moths. If you are raising for a small lizard possibly. The only worse one would be super worms, basically a bigger mealworm w/ all the problems of meal worms plus add a putzy hands on obnoxious mating issue.

My first choice would be black soldier fly larva b/c it is completely outside, second would be dubia, and dubia might be bumped to first if I could keep them outside.

 

[DesertChic]

Thank you, I really felt like I was having a crisis. I couldn't get it to set up the way I wanted.


Do I keep the faster growing one, the big one "Orange" ( I am guessing male for it)? How do I know which ones to keep for continuing to breed? I know they are all mixed, but I want to be able to have birds on the larger, or meatier side rather, but do I keep Daddy, or Son..... Both? I am hoping that one of the larger is a girl to use to cross out too! I really don't want to end up with Cornish X, I want to be able to breed on my farm and keep a rotational stock growing so I can go out and just grab up a few birds for processing when needed, even at different stages of life.

I'm going to rely heavily on other more experienced breeders here to answer your question about whether it's better to breed father vs. son, etc. Truthfully, I'm still working through that little conundrum myself.

As far as determining which to keep and which to cull, that depends largely on your goals. For example, like you I want nice meaty birds with equal emphasis on thigh/leg and breast meat rather than those huge, breasty CXs. But I also want longevity and hardiness, including heat tolerance since that's crucial in my climate, and decent overall size and shape, and good foraging. So I have a few birds that are nice and big and I will definitely breed at least once to my NNs, but I sincerely doubt those birds will survive our harsh summers here so I'll be butchering them right around a year old or younger, depending up on when our heat sets in.

When my chicks are growing the growth charts help me a lot. I've had birds that were slow growers but had amazing body shape, so I held on to them a bit longer and was rewarded for my patience. Other birds have grown quickly but were too narrow for my taste. They were butchered while still young and tender and I never regretted culling a single one of them once I got all of the feathers off and was able to really see the carcass.

I also breed for temperament. I refuse to tolerate "mean" or flighty birds because they just irritate me. Is feather color a variable? Yes and know. For some of my projects I'm definitely working towards SOP requirements, but for others it may not be a factor unless I just really fall in love with how a particular bird looks.

So....decide what's important for you, monitor the birds' progress in every way, and make your choices.

 

[ejcrist]

Thank you, I really felt like I was having a crisis. I couldn't get it to set up the way I wanted.


Do I keep the faster growing one, the big one "Orange" ( I am guessing male for it)? How do I know which ones to keep for continuing to breed? I know they are all mixed, but I want to be able to have birds on the larger, or meatier side rather, but do I keep Daddy, or Son..... Both? I am hoping that one of the larger is a girl to use to cross out too! I really don't want to end up with Cornish X, I want to be able to breed on my farm and keep a rotational stock growing so I can go out and just grab up a few birds for processing when needed, even at different stages of life.

I'm brand new to breeding and only started very recently so take my info with a grain of salt. I've done a lot of research on the subject and I still have a lot more to do but I might be of some help. The Livestock Conservancy has info on selecting birds for breeding and here is one of their papers on selecting for meat qualities (https://livestockconservancy.org/images/uploads/docs/ALBCchicken_assessment-1.pdf). That might be enough to get you started. There's a gazillion books on the subject and I found most of the best books were written before 1950. You can find the reprints on Amazon or in a lot of cases download the books for free at (https://archive.org/).

As far as which birds to breed, like DesertChic said, that'll depend on your goals and there are different breeding methods to use. Breeding father to daughters and mother to sons is one part of line breeding and is covered in detail in several books; one is "The ABC of Breeding Poultry for Exhibition, Egg Production, and Table" published in 1919 by William Powell-Owen. There are several illustrations in there to make it easy to understand (the methods not the actual breeding - that would be found in the adult section for poultry books). Seriously though, there's a lot of variations to line breeding such as spiral breeding which involves forming clans of females and rotating the cocks between the hens/pullets. The downside to some methods such as spiral breeding is you only know the sire's lineage whereas with line breeding you breed individually and know both parents which is necessary to be successful. For my program I'm breeding individuals for my SOP birds but will use spiral breeding for my layers since I have large enough populations and housing to make it work. If you ever have any questions feel free to ask or PM me and I'll be happy to tell you what I know, which isn't a lot yet. The funny thing is I learned 10x more in a couple of months from the few breeders I know than all the material I've read so far. If you haven't talked to a breeder yet you can find them at the shows breeding SOP meat birds such as the Cornishes and they'll be more than happy to share info it took them years to learn. You could also join the specific organization for the breed you're interested in that's closest to your mixed breed birds and they'll they'll be good to network with too.

 

[NanaKat]

Merry Christmas .... May the reason for Christmas fill your heart with Joy and your family share your Love.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Merry Christmas everyone although I suppose we are winding down now...... almost happy new year!

 

[DesertChic]

Happy New Year!

And now....my latest hatch is already a week old. There's one chick in particular that I'm keeping a close eye on...the result of another pairing of my big boy, Monty, and my Dorking-mix, Bubbles. The first pairing of these two gave me Andres (the Giant)...still the largest and fastest growing cockerel to come out of my breeding program. I'm truly hoping that this little chick is a pullet.




I thought it would turn out to be all black just like its down, but the feathers are growing out with a very interesting Sepia-toned pattern on them. And....the chick has cheeks! I guess that Ameraucana blood from Monty came through.

And this little fully feathered chick currently holds the growth rate record for the chicks I've weighed from this hatch so far:


I'm loving that feather pattern so far, and I'm thinking this one may be a cockerel.

 

[FaerieChicken]

Omy gosh, I need to snap some photos of the little babies, so ya'll can see what I am working with.....

Heres this weeks update, Orange has gone well over 1lb in weight already....




Hatch Wt - Oz 11/23 (@2 days) Wk 1 11/28 Wk 2 12/7 Wk 3 12/13 W4 12/20 W5 12/27
Blue Band 1.58 2.58 4.85 7.2 10.07 14.27
Green Band 1.35 2.15 4 6.37 9.14 11.46
Purple Band 1.44 2.13 2.52 4 5.34 6.91
Orange Band 1.27 2.62 5.4 8.64 13.23 18.17
Pink Band 1.49 2.59 4.59 6.74 9.21 11.76
Yellow band 1.17 1.7 2.63 4 5.43 6.19