Buckeye Breed Thread

[Arielle]

Quote:

No, but I can see that their crops are full. Buckeyes can really eat compared with some of the other chickens I have had.

I have noticed that, in general, a bird that eats more, grows more. Maybe faster is a better term. I'm sure rate of growth and max body size/ weight has a limit too.

 

[karenbrat1]

In response to post #4332 from cgmccary:
You will have to check with your state's Ag department to find out how many birds you can sell butchered on farm before having to be USDA inspected. Most states (including mine, Idaho) use the standard USDA exemption of up to 1000 bird units... 1 chicken = one bird unit, one turkey = 4 bird units for example. But some states go as high as 10,000 bird units, and some states may not allow ANY (a few years ago, Idaho did not allow it at all). However, you can get around that last by selling the birds at the same per-pound price whether live or processed, and doing the processing as a "free service" to the customer. Some ethnic/religious groups insist on buying their birds live anyway and processing themselves. You would make more money per bird that way, because they're paying the same per-pound price for feathers and guts.

Your state may also have different laws for selling the birds whole and freshly butchered as opposed to frozen and/or cut up, i.e. it may be okay to sell fresh processed but if frozen or cut up must be USDA inspected.

For prices in your area check craigslist, farmers markets, localharvest, etc. In my area they wouldn't go for enough to make it worthwhile (maybe $2.50/lb), but in western Oregon they go for $4/lb or more. In my area people think they should only have to pay $1.75/dz for farm fresh eggs, in western Oregon they are $5/dz.

I've been raising all our family table chickens for some years now; Cornish X at first, but the past two years I've had Too Many traditional dual-purpose breed cockerels (Welsumer, Wyandotte, Marans) and did not raise any CX for myself. I just raised 50 CX as a favor for coworkers for cost but don't want to do it again... it was too much extra daily work, and even though they helped butcher it still took basically an 8 hour day set-up to put-away because I don't have a dedicated butchering area. The CX are so disgusting... yeah they're meaty, but they're pooping machines and even moving pens twice a day they left a carpet of poop behind every time. I cannot free range, we have coyotes. Even cutting their feed with scratch, I lost 5 of 51 to flip.

Got rid of the Marans and Wyandottes (too slow growing and not great egg producers either), keeping the Welsumers for eggs, and just obtained a really nice Buckeye trio to experiment with. I may (or not) try some Freedom Rangers next year, and/or experiment with crossing the Buckeyes with Barred Rocks and/or Dark Cornish as some other breeders are doing for faster growing table birds.

 

[Arielle]

Does anyone have more information on crossing the buckeyes with BR or dark cornish?? Cross breeding usually results in better growth. I crossed my black sexlink rooster with an Easter egger hen--the resulting cckls outgrew daddy by 25%. Would love more info on any cross breeding with BUckeyes.

 

[cgmccary]

Quote:
Thank you for very informative response.

 

[Marengoite]

Does anyone have more information on crossing the buckeyes with BR or dark cornish?? Cross breeding usually results in better growth. I crossed my black sexlink rooster with an Easter egger hen--the resulting cckls outgrew daddy by 25%. Would love more info on any cross breeding with BUckeyes.

I plan to have some info next year. I know a couple folks are crossing Buckeyes for various purposes. Basically a Buckeye roo over a BR hen should yield sex-linked offspring. Chipmunk colored girls and boys with a large white head spot. Theoretically. We'll see if it works out. Also, hybrid vigor would produce some excellent laying hens and since they're both dual purpose, some nice eating fowl. We'll see.

 

[knittychickadee]

cgmcary, forgive me for taking so long to answer you. My son left for Army basic training a few days ago and I stayed off the computer for a while before he left, doing family things. He's down there close to your part of the country right now, in Fort Benning, GA!

Karen already covered regulations. For me, I will never come close to the number I would need to be inspected for. If I wanted to sell at farmer's markets as I used to with vegetables, it would be a different story. Much different from direct from farm.

I have a very basic butchering set up, and once I start my culling process I go out every night with my notebooks full of notes on everyone. I find the color and numbers of the legbands that I have marked as possible culls, go over them one more time and put them in the portable dog kennels til morn. I use a plastic lawn chair to sit on while plucking, a steel chair in front of me that I can sanitize to pluck/gut on, ice cream buckets lined with plastic bags on my right (separate ones for organs and heads/feet, and the organ ones are half full of cold water to chill organs quickly), and a couple feed bags laying down flat on my left to toss feathers and intestines on. I use the slice the throat method and put an ice cream bucket lined with a plastic bag on a stool under the bird to collect blood. That gets frozen in portions for my dog. I use the drywall type knife with the removable razor blades so it is always sharp for killing. I use a turkey fryer for my scalding water. I can do around a doz a day in about 2-2 1/2 hrs and that's all my back is good for, lol. I do them in batches of 4, so kill 4, pluck them, ( putting them in cold water after being plucked til I've plucked them all), then gut them. That way rigor doesn't start up on me. Then do another 4. I keep my knives sharpened every couple birds. You can go much faster with good sharp knives.I am lucky to be a super fast plucker since I was in a hurry to be done with that job as a kid and learned to do it quickly. I have a large cooler full of cold water they go in after processing. I sell the meat for $4 a lb. Old hens for $3 per lb. That is non-organic but pastured. Organic around here goes $5-6 lb. I have a vacuum sealer that I will use for those that want them frozen (they pay for the bags) but most want them fresh.

 

[Arielle]

Thanks for sharing the details--I'm still working up to it. Been working up to it for a month now. I did practice on a BR turkey killed by a fox. Killed it ran for another bird and ran off when it saw me. I quickly plucked it as I heard plucking is easy when it is still warm. Kids keeep asking if I have cooked it. WIll put in refrig a few days first.

 

[cgmccary]

Quote: Thanks knittychick. $4 lb is good. I am impressed with your speed at hand plucking. Also, I am impressed by the numbers you hatch, raise and process, jus saying, you have a really good gauge on this breed. There is nothing like seeing what you got when you butcher them yourself & with your numbers, then I'd listen to what you got to say.

I thought the hand plucking was the hardest part of the butchering process so we broke down and bought a plucker. We have one killing cone so we just process two at a time but even with the plucker, it takes us about 3 hours to do a dozen. After cutting their throats, letting the blood drain in a bucket lined with a trash bag, we dip them in hot water (I think it is about 140 F) to loosen the feathers (we learned that too long a dip or too hot will ruin the bird so we check the water temp and also pull on the wing feathers to know when they are loose) -- the hot water we change out every two birds and heat up fast and keep hot with a propane burner. Once dipped, plucked and dressed, we put immediately in ice bath (closed ice chest), then bag up and put in fridge 2-3 days before freezing. We have saved the heads and feet because we want to make our own broth (they are in the freezer).

 

[jenjscott]

My Husband has been skinning and dressing game for years, and his family had chickens when he was growing up. He can pluck and gut a bird while I'm still halfway through plucking. Of course, I always tell him it's because I have to finish his sorry plucking job. He can actually do 2 or 3 to my one.

 

[Arielle]

Here is something I noticed. THe skin on turkey or chicken, is much thinner than the birds from the grocery store? Is this typical? Has the commercial chicken been bred for a thicker skin??