Chicken business ideas...

[Ruthster55]

You could put Cornish Cross or young recovered capons into a chicken tractor. I don’t think it really matters what is in a chicken tractor as long as it is young birds foraging around on grass and bugs along with some supplemental feed.

You would want to size the tractor appropriately with whoever is dragging it around.... usually the smaller the better....

You could also range capons or Cornish Cross big chicks using electro-netting or a dedicated coop and pasture.

With chickens I think the caponizing is the big Yikes thing.

Once they have recovered from their surgery at the farmer’s hand, young capons can be sold at a higher price or put on free range and later fattened in cages for a couple of weeks with dairy products.

They force feed geese in France to make Foie Gras which is sold in the US....I don’t want to force-feed anything....

 

[jmanaba]

Okay i don't want anything to do with the wild chickens here. They're full of mites, wild as heck, flighty. Really small...

I just bought an incubator also. So don't need the broody hen. We also don't have that many wild chickens on my island compared to other islands.

What to grow in the greenhouse depends a lot on how much rain you get and how long the dry season is. The pictures show two different greenhouses. The one with the tropical plants is at around 1600 m elevation in a place that gets a lot of rainfall. The one with the cacti and succulents is at around 2400 m elevation in a place with a strong dry season.

It's great (for you) that there is a shortage of eggs in the area. To sell eggs and distinguish yourself from supermarket eggs, I would strongly recommend having a variety of breeds of hens to get a variety of egg colors. Delawares are great as dual-purpose chickens as are Plymouth Barred Rocks. For egg production, it's hard to go wrong with Rhode Island Reds (Production Reds or regular RIRs) or Golden Comets. You probably want to get some other breeds for variety. You could get some Easter Eggers (or Araucanas) plus some Black Copper Marans. The Marans lay a dark brown egg that sometimes has speckles. You might gamble on a few Minorcas too. They are known for laying large white eggs and might be a little less flighty than Leghorns. Leghorns would work great in your climate if you have a way to keep them in the coop.

With the warm weather of Hawaii, any Mediterranean breed would be a good option as a part of the flock. Can you get any Andalusians or White-Faced Spanish?

Glad you got a Hawaiian chicken to use as a broody! Try to capture a few more hens! You could even catch a hen on her nest and scoop up the eggs and move them all to your farm. Might want to wear gloves for that, though.

Just a small nitpick - when they're broody, they don't lay eggs. That doesn't really matter, because the purpose of keeping Hawaiian chickens is as broody hens rather than as egg layers. I often move broody hens with their babies to cages to keep the babies safe from inclement weather. A few weeks ago, we had to release a broody mom who told us vehemently that she was finished doing her "mom" duties. She laid an egg in the cage!

The difference in meat tenderness between Cornish X and heritage breeds has to do with the length of time to growout the bird, plus also the fact that heritage males are slaughtered closer to their time of sexual maturity. Cornish X are babies when they are slaughtered, which is why the meat has little flavor. A disadvantage of the Cornish X that I forgot to mention in the other post is that they don't do well in the heat. Given your climate, you might want to try just a few, like 10 or 15, for the first order.

For raising meat birds in a hot climate, look into giant Naked Necks and Naked Neck crosses. Advantages (if you can deal with "ugly"): heat tolerance and less feathers to pluck! People have tried crossing Naked Necks with meat hybrids like Freedom Rangers. We once had a frizzled NN freak!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-for-meat-hot-climate.1009669/#post-15634778

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/naked-neck-or-nn-crosses-for-meat-hot-climate.1009669/

Have you read anything about Brahmas as meat birds? The grow a lot slower than the Cornish X, but they grow really big. One potential disadvantage with Brahmas is that they have a lot of feathers, which could be a problem if you're processing several at one time. They are really pretty, but that beauty translates into more work at processing time.

Naked necks qould be great for the heat. How do they taste full grown?

I think having Easter eggers would be a good treat for the local kids. Do you know of any heat resistant broiler breeds? Its hard because you can't beat the feed conversion on the Cornish Crosses.

 

[Kabootar]

Okay i don't want anything to do with the wild chickens here. They're full of mites, wild as heck, flighty. Really small...

I just bought an incubator also. So don't need the broody hen. We also don't have that many wild chickens on my island compared to other islands.



Naked necks qould be great for the heat. How do they taste full grown?

I think having Easter eggers would be a good treat for the local kids. Do you know of any heat resistant broiler breeds? Its hard because you can't beat the feed conversion on the Cornish Crosses.

To be frank I am not a big fan of Naked Necks, they surprisingly don't do to well in heat. Their neck gets red in summer and they look stressed. The naked neck gene is dominant. Mine were picked on by other hens. For some reason other breeds liked pecking on their exposed necks. They also don't lay enough and they rarely went broody. Customers didn't like them. They thought they were sick.

 

[jmanaba]

To be frank I am not a big fan of Naked Necks, they surprisingly don't do to well in heat. Their neck gets red in summer and they look stressed. The naked neck gene is dominant. Mine were picked on by other hens. For some reason other breeds liked pecking on their exposed necks. They also don't lay enough and they rarely went broody. Customers didn't like them. They thought they were sick.

Oh man, thanks for the input. I just got sunburnt working on the farm today without a hat... i imagine them naked necks.

 

[Molpet]

In my signature is a link to a guy who compared a few hatchery heritage for meat

 

[iwltfum]

Do you know of any heat resistant broiler breeds?

Do you really need a heat resistant breed for raising in Hawaii? Isn't it basically 70F year round there? We have temps in the high 80's here in Maine for a couple weeks a year during our broiler season and people raise alot of cornish cross chickens here successfully. I would expect it to be important to find a heat resistant breed in the southern and south central us where temps get into the 90's+ for extended periods of time, but I'd surprised if you needed to worry about that in Hawaii.

I raised cornish crosses in the desert in Colorado where temps would regulalry get up above 110 during the day for 3 or 4 months out of the year and I used misters to keep them cool, but that was an extreme climate.

 

[jmanaba]

Do you really need a heat resistant breed for raising in Hawaii? Isn't it basically 70F year round there? We have temps in the high 80's here in Maine for a couple weeks a year during our broiler season and people raise alot of cornish cross chickens here successfully. I would expect it to be important to find a heat resistant breed in the southern and south central us where temps get into the 90's+ for extended periods of time, but I'd surprised if you needed to worry about that in Hawaii.

I raised cornish crosses in the desert in Colorado where temps would regulalry get up above 110 during the day for 3 or 4 months out of the year and I used misters to keep them cool, but that was an extreme climate.

Someone said CX don't do well in heat. It ranges 80F-100F. I figure just have shade for them should do the job.

 

[jmanaba]

In my signature is a link to a guy who compared a few hatchery heritage for meat

Sorry new to this. How do I get to the link?

 

[Ruthster55]

Sorry new to this. How do I get to the link?

You can just click on @Molpet ‘s signature. Specked Sussex were taste favorites!

https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/fnc12-866/