Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat - Part 2 : Chicken Boogaloo.

[ShrekDawg]

Lambs are rather complicated as a meat animal. They sell best for meat in Spring, but that is also when they are born. When the lambs are small/young, they just don't have enough meat to be worth butchering and they wouldn't be worth very much. Lambs grow quite well and quickly just on mom's milk animal rend grass, so it's more profitable to raise them out, than to butcher them.

Even veal isn't that "small". They are typically butchered at 450# or more. They get to live longer lives than cornish chickens. And cornish game hens are slaughtered even younger than those.

Thanks for all the info so dumb question but how do they get lambs for spring then? Have the babies earlier? Or people just suck it up? Aha

 

[WPFarmstead]

Thanks for all the info so dumb question but how do they get lambs for spring then? Have the babies earlier? Or people just suck it up? Aha

There are some who breed their sheep much later in the year or even in early Spring. A few breeds will come into heat then, but it isn't very common. A lot of lamb meat gets frozen or imported from Australia, which are on the opposite seasons from us.

 

[ShrekDawg]

There are some who breed their sheep much later in the year or even in early Spring. A few breeds will come into heat then, but it isn't very common. A lot of lamb meat gets frozen or imported from Australia, which are on the opposite seasons from us.

Ahhh okay, that makes sense then. I hadn't really thought about importing

 

[7 Biddies]

Interesting. I've thought about getting some ducks, but don't need the eggs and figured they fly away for the winter. I want one so I can name him "Lloyd'. It just conjures up a really cute picture in my mind.

 

[WPFarmstead]

Interesting. I've thought about getting some ducks, but don't need the eggs and figured they fly away for the winter. I want one so I can name him "Lloyd'. It just conjures up a really cute picture in my mind.

Most domestic ducks can't fly. Of the birds I have, only my mallards and my muscovy can fly. I also have pekins, khaki campbells, welsh harlequins, roeuns, buffs and cayugas.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Most domestic ducks can't fly. Of the birds I have, only my mallards and my muscovy can fly. I also have pekins, khaki campbells, welsh harlequins, roeuns, buffs and cayugas.

They're too heavy, right? Or has flying ability/instinct sort of been bred out? Or both? I'm assuming it's kind of like chickens where some of the lighter ones can fly but others are too heavy and all of them can only fly short distances, like to the roosts or partway across the yard, etc. (And my EEs can fly 4-6 fert straight up and 4 foot horizontal, theyve flown out before, But they can't migrate or fly to a 100 foot pine or anything

 

[WPFarmstead]

They're too heavy, right? Or has flying ability/instinct sort of been bred out? Or both? I'm assuming it's kind of like chickens where some of the lighter ones can fly but others are too heavy and all of them can only fly short distances, like to the roosts or partway across the yard, etc. (And my EEs can fly 4-6 fert straight up and 4 foot horizontal, theyve flown out before, But they can't migrate or fly to a 100 foot pine or anything

They're too heavy to fly. They really can't even fly short distances. They just sort of run along the ground flapping their wings as hard as possible to get a little extra speed. If I think about it, I'll grab a video of the little buggers running from me one of these days.

 

[ShrekDawg]

They're too heavy to fly. They really can't even fly short distances. They just sort of run along the ground flapping their wings as hard as possible to get a little extra speed. If I think about it, I'll grab a video of the little buggers running from me one of these days.

Haha that sounds hilarious!!!

Most of my chickens don't relaly fly either now that I think about it but occasionally they'll notice their friends are all gone and panic/be loud, then lift off. LOL the EEs do it the most. Some loud squaking then lift off to where their friends are

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: It may be a bit different than your way with weights...but I've done both; lamb in the spring and grow them out and sell them in Jan/Feb when there's a good demand for lamb.
I aimed for 90-115 pounds, depending on the year and the market. I don't slaughter my own eating lamb until the lambs were 140-160lbs. I always keep the best and biggest one's for meat for us.

Or like mentioned, I lambed both spring and fall, and marketed them both in Jan/Feb. The fall lambs were smaller and brought a premium price.
I've never marketed lambs in the fall. We're usually combining so it never worked out...lol.

 

[Bantambird]

I miss raising sheep. When I was a kid my mom(veterinarian) would barter services rendered for bum lambs. One year, we acquired 14 after this poor shepherd ended up with his whole flock getting poisoned. We raised them up for 4h and because mom wanted us to learn about responsibility