BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[holm25]

Ah, yes, otherwise known as "flighty"? 

I guess "flighty" works too

 

[lpatelski]

Gathered a couple of FFA project CX this weekend for genetic diversity. We will see how they fare through their quarantine period. Two pullets and two cockerels. All heavy. I have not weighed them yet, but I'll bet the boyz are well over 12 pounds.

 

[NanaKat]

When will your breed pens be ready for eggs collection for incubating?

I'm setting my pens the end of this month and will begin collecting the middle of February.

 

[GabrielBane]

So, we picked our first Silver Wheaten boy to eat. He'll be processed in about 3-4 weeks, when we travel down to Orlando


It's a fault with his coloring, his brothers are just... so much more striking. All four have faults. Black/red leakage in the face and crest(I like my Silver Wheaten boys to have none, some Sulm breeders breed for either a red OR black crest. The males crest should be minimal anyways), but this boy lacks so much "unf"

Here are his brothers;

(Raiding our front yard garden... stinkers)


And then there's him....

This guy was the chick who was feathering our excessively silver. I'll be culling for that in the future now that I know how it looks grown out (although, he'll be delicious regardless...)

edit for typos!

 

[Turk Raphael]

While on vacation I made the decision to lighten my responsibilities as opposed to gathering more types of animal. Nothing left but chickens, everything else was sold or given away.

Likely will sound silly to some but I dubbed all (4) NN cocks, with the help of a guy who raises game birds. I would have had to build a holding device or grown a third hand to do the job and since I have no plans to bring in any birds with straight combs, the time spent on building a bird holder didn't seem worth while.

They will be bred over birds with cushion and other types of 'flat' combs but they just aggravated me. The offspring from the NN crosses should produce no straight combs to speak of and since many or most of the cockerels will be caponized and I'm pretty sure the resulting pullets will produce non-straight combed birds. I honestly don't know what caused my aversion to straight combed birds...it just sort of crept up on me. I guess if I'm going to feed and house them, I might as well appreciate their countenance.

Someone mentioned putting up breeding pens...I simply leave mine up all the time. They have come in handy when I needed to isolate birds in the past.

Aaron

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

While on vacation I made the decision to lighten my responsibilities as opposed to gathering more types of animal. Nothing left but chickens, everything else was sold or given away.

Likely will sound silly to some but I dubbed all (4) NN cocks, with the help of a guy who raises game birds. I would have had to build a holding device or grown a third hand to do the job and since I have no plans to bring in any birds with straight combs, the time spent on building a bird holder didn't seem worth while.

They will be bred over birds with cushion and other types of 'flat' combs but they just aggravated me. The offspring from the NN crosses should produce no straight combs to speak of and since many or most of the cockerels will be caponized and I'm pretty sure the resulting pullets will produce non-straight combed birds. I honestly don't know what caused my aversion to straight combed birds...it just sort of crept up on me. I guess if I'm going to feed and house them, I might as well appreciate their countenance.

Someone mentioned putting up breeding pens...I simply leave mine up all the time. They have come in handy when I needed to isolate birds in the past.

Aaron

How are those Dominique capons coming along?

 

[Turk Raphael]

How are those Dominique capons coming along?

I believe they're doing fine. They went along with all but three cockerels to West Virginia with my house sitters. I don't know how long their lives are safe for the winter because my friends are still very fond of chicken, especially capon.

I'm down to very few birds, only my core breeding stock which will allow me to 'fly the coop' more easily. I enjoy traveling and all it's perks and it will be easier to find a local person to take care of this place after I get the breeding plan completed. I don't think it will happen but it's not beyond the pale for me to eliminate everything that binds me. I'm still young and otherwise unencumbered so the delights of distant exotic places present a very strong pull on my mind. It might be hard to keep me 'down on the farm'.

Thanks for asking.

 

[DesertChic]

I believe they're doing fine. They went along with all but three cockerels to West Virginia with my house sitters. I don't know how long their lives are safe for the winter because my friends are still very fond of chicken, especially capon.

I'm down to very few birds, only my core breeding stock which will allow me to 'fly the coop' more easily. I enjoy traveling and all it's perks and it will be easier to find a local person to take care of this place after I get the breeding plan completed. I don't think it will happen but it's not beyond the pale for me to eliminate everything that binds me. I'm still young and otherwise unencumbered so the delights of distant exotic places present a very strong pull on my mind. It might be hard to keep me 'down on the farm'.

Thanks for asking.

Good for you for enjoying life while you're still young enough to really enjoy it! I've been advising my son to do the same if he can. My husband and I always talked about traveling once we were retired, but now that retirement is on the not-as-distant horizon we've come to realize that being homebodies isn't so bad right now. I wish we'd been able to travel more when we were younger and more energetic and less jaded.

 

[Kusanar]

I believe they're doing fine. They went along with all but three cockerels to West Virginia with my house sitters. I don't know how long their lives are safe for the winter because my friends are still very fond of chicken, especially capon.

I'm down to very few birds, only my core breeding stock which will allow me to 'fly the coop' more easily. I enjoy traveling and all it's perks and it will be easier to find a local person to take care of this place after I get the breeding plan completed. I don't think it will happen but it's not beyond the pale for me to eliminate everything that binds me. I'm still young and otherwise unencumbered so the delights of distant exotic places present a very strong pull on my mind. It might be hard to keep me 'down on the farm'.

Thanks for asking.

I have the horses and cats, but I don't think I'm going to be getting anymore horses. My youngest ones are around 10 years old, so that's another 10 years at a minimum with them. I love them, but it's very hard to be able to go out of town and get someone to take care of 6 horses, 7 cats and a dog...

 

[DesertChic]

I've been trying to get some decent photos of Monty's son, Andres, as well as my big NN boy, Lenny to show the amazing beauty of their feathering so far, but they don't like to work with me at all. That said, these are the best I've managed to take to date:



Andres continues to outpace his father in both growth rate and size for his age, which just blows me away. I thought Monty was big! And just since I took this photo three days ago he's got more color coming in on his wings...more of a red than pale buff. And he's super sweet so far without being overtly affectionate, a tendency I hope he maintains.

And now Lenny:




He's less than half an ounce smaller than Andres but with a slower overall growth rate. I'd considered butchering his father (I still have too many roosters around here), but I'm going to weight until Lenny's 10-week weigh-in to compare growth rates and really get a feel for his body shape. At least Lenny has a better personality than his daddy, who's a bit flighty for me taste.

My big surprise is a chick from my most recent hatch - no name yet, but he's actually bigger than either of the two boys above were at 3 weeks, but has a slower overall growth rate. Still, I see potential here: