California - Northern

[chrissyr]

Thank you! Jeff produces nice birds! Unfortunately the cockerels are destined to become dinner for my parents and siblings, as roos are illegal here. At least they will go to good use, to feed the family, and will have lived a great life. My parents are interested in trying a home grown chicken, they've never had one before!
They have until they start crowing, unless there's a better age to butcher them at(before they start crowing)? Anyone know?

I had to process some CL boys. They were still small but will do the job. The Marans fared well as far as meat goes. And the Bresse are amazing.
I have 19 birds in my freezer. Raised on grass and fed organic. You can't beat that kind of food. Even if I didn't feed organic, it would be much healthier than the stores.
Have you heard they are shipping U.S. chickens to china for processing and then ship back for u.s consumption?
I guess labor is cheap enough for there to be a profit.
But china is so polluted they can't eat the fish and not much poultry there either. And the dog food recalls: from bad ingredients (one was gluten), that came from china.
So be very proud if you can eat what you raise. You can't buy that quality at any store. And those birds had an amazing life. You can't beat that.
I don't know about all breeds but I've heard many are ideal size 18-20 weeks. But if you have to do earlier, there's still meat on there

 

[BCollie]

Quote:
I will not be eating them, it goes against my beliefs(vegan), but my family will eat them. I will not eat them but I am not one of those crazy "save all the roosters" type vegans. I can't stand people like that - there are simply NOT enough homes for all the roosters in the world. It's sad, but it is what it is.
Did you know some vegans are against keeping chickens because we're "enslaving" them? I'm like...uhhmm, my chickens are officially enslaved the day I FORCE them to go to the coop at night. Haha!!
I have to say one thing...if it were up to me everyone would be vegan, but it's not, so they're not. But if butchering these cockerels convinces my parents that we should start raising at least some of our own chickens for meat, that will be a huge step. They just buy factory farmed chickens from the store, and eat chicken at least once a week. That's a LOT of chicken raised in horrid, disgusting conditions. I cry every time I watch the videos...I would be more than happy to buy the eggs, hatch, raise, and help process the birds if my parents want to start raising our own meat birds. I've heard they taste better, but even better than that is that they will be raised with a bunch of open space, in humane conditions, with good food, and lots of love and treats up until their last day.
So,

that these cockerels taste good enough, and are easy enough to process, that my parents want to start raising our own meat birds.

 

[SpringPeeper]

I must say...I am disappointed in you guys. I feel that it was very irresponsible of ya'll to not let me know that I might die of cuteness overload when seeing a Salmon Faverolle chick!!

Oh my gosh. I picked up my chicks from Jeff's house today and it took all my will power to not open the box before driving home. Got home, brought it to my parents house, opened it...and my mom and I both immediately grabbed Salmon Faverolle chicks. It was like...an instinct. Our hands just reached towards the balls of fluff that we saw. Feathered legs, beards of fluff...and very long, fluffy, yellow down feathers. Tell me this is not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Yep- you should have seen me when I found one as a packing peanut in with our meat cockerels. The way I reacted, you'd have thought I found a winning lottery ticket in there. He definitely couldn't hold his own growing out with the other cockerels. He'd try, but he was no match for Marans or Rocks the same age. Now George has his own little flock of Faverolles and EE hens, and he is such a gentleman to his them. I'm hoping to get a 'favaucana' pullet or two from him next year. With the extra toes, fluffy legs and muffs Fav chicks are like the kryptonite of anyone with estrogen

Since I processed quail today, I saved some bits (like the necks and some of the organs) and offered them up to my snakes with their usual meals. Most of them gobbled it down, the ones who didn't at first took it after I shook the parts up inside a bag of defrosting rodents. The only hold out was a crochety old ball python, but he's always been particular about his food.

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Ok, I'm a little freaked out. Littlest bird died a couple hours after they arrived. This morning another one can't stand or right itself if knocked over. A third is sluggish (one of my three remaining blues!). Does this sound like coccidiosis? Something is clearly wrong and of course today I had to go to work so I can't do anything until after work.

 

[ronott1]

Ok, I'm a little freaked out. Littlest bird died a couple hours after they arrived. This morning another one can't stand or right itself if knocked over. A third is sluggish (one of my three remaining blues!). Does this sound like coccidiosis? Something is clearly wrong and of course today I had to go to work so I can't do anything until after work.

What you are describing in common with shipped chicks. They get cold for too long and then die up to three days later. It is an organ damage problem so it takes time for the toxins to become lethal. It is similar to a person needing dialysis.

poly vi sol without iron is a good thing to try. You can add chick saver(comes in packets from the feed store) to their water instead.

Usually the ones that are going to die die within the first two days so by the third day what is left should be fine.

I hope they make it!

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. They have chick saver and probiotics in their water (glad I did that right off the bat). I guess I'll see what I see when I get home. *sigh* At least it hopefully isn't something that will ravage them all.

 

[chiqita]

Thank you, I will try incubating a bit cooler. I also have an accurate digital thermometer with probe that I will use to check the incubator next time I incubate.

Here is the tldr on thermomters and why an incubating one is different.

2 expensive things need to be on an incubation thermometer. One is the sensivity and one is how often it checks to tell you. You need a thermometer that will tell you 99.5 then when it goes up .1 degrees. Even when calibrated most thermometers are not sensitive enough to tell these changes.

On top of that it does not think it needs to tell you as soon as it notices a change it might only post a difference at a full degree or worse a full c degree.

In fact most thermometers are +/- 3 degrees so might only change every 3 degrees. For almost all things 3 degrees are close enough. But not incubating.

The parts to do those things are pricy and a cheap thermometer won't have then very sensitive.

But your eggs id guess the issue is temperature fluctuation. My little serema just.had a 1 out of 10 hatch she is just too small to hold.stable.temps the weather swings were too much for her.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I've read enough of other people's posts to know a loss or two is normal. And yeah, I have a lot of seating and several dog beds scattered about. The pups take up a lot of space, but they're so worth it.

This is my guy up at the cabin last week:

He looks quite comfortable.

 

[casportpony]

I must say...I am disappointed in you guys. I feel that it was very irresponsible of ya'll to not let me know that I might die of cuteness overload when seeing a Salmon Faverolle chick!!

Oh my gosh. I picked up my chicks from Jeff's house today and it took all my will power to not open the box before driving home. Got home, brought it to my parents house, opened it...and my mom and I both immediately grabbed Salmon Faverolle chicks. It was like...an instinct. Our hands just reached towards the balls of fluff that we saw. Feathered legs, beards of fluff...and very long, fluffy, yellow down feathers. Tell me this is not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Faverolles are my favorite large breed. Your chick makes me wish I had some.

-Kathy

 

[HighStreetCoop]

He looks quite comfortable.

He's a *very* comfortable dog, LOL! Kinda like owning a 200lb cat. It takes a lot of effort to go from the bed to the sofa to the dog bed outside and back to the sofa.

He hasn't noticed the peeps coming from the back room at all. His sister on the other hand (who is at my place during the day while her owners are at work because their new place has no fence) perks up every time the loudest chick peeps (and that chick has quite the peep, it's like a mini-airhorn). If I have any problem with the dogs and the birds, I foresee that it might be Tallulah wanting to play with them. I think Clancy is more likely to just lay in the garden and let them climb on top of him, as he does with small dogs at the park.