Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat

[chooks4life]

Quote: How useful that would be for both the layer and broiler industries!


Quote: There are many other references to this, and some in reverse, and I think it's due to 'chinese whispers' corrupting information. Brown eggs were found in some studies to have more nutrience, but the study criteria was lacking, and attributed the extra nutrition to the color rather than the fact that the hens being compared were of a more recently free ranged breed that had more digestive capacity than the intensively caged white laying breed that had become feed inefficient from long reliance on overprocessed unnatural foods. That was one study in particular but there have been many, pro or anti white or brown eggs or hens, all of them biased in one way or another. Not enough people take into account the nutritional differences relative to caged or free range, grains or pellets, digestively lacking or efficient genetics, family strains, etc. Some poultry simply do not put a decent level of the nutrition they receive into their eggs, no matter what.

 

[loveourbirds]

my chickens are not completely free range they do get cooped at night and such and honestly one loss to a predator is not cruel to me its nature. as far as raised cages they are generally only used on my property for rabbits, sometimes guineas or quarantine. I line most of mine with areas of newspaper and all have a perch and a board for foot relief. But like I said most of my birds free range all day except for my pullets they are in a tractor during the day so I can monitor growth and are waiting until I can integrate them into the rest of the flock

no the loss of one is not cruel, and its going to happen sooner or later if you raise chickens. one particular instance here we have a cage that is flat steel and 1/4 inch steel bars. it opens from the top and the top is about 50-60 lbs to open. i got it when we were having troubles with neighbors dogs. so far no dogs have gotten into it, but a mink did; killing a trio of higher end white rock bantams. i remember a gentleman on here asking how to make a bear proof coop. i cant think of many ways to make a bear proof coop that will not be a sever inconvenience.

like i said, its the owners choice; both methods have their good and bad points. I imagine people have argued about the best method for years, and i imagine they will argue for years to come. a properly built tractor would give you the best of both worlds, but to build one with a house, nest boxes, and all the proper caging to keep most animals out would be so heavy most people couldn't easily move it.

one of the best methods of both i have seen took up a lot of room but the birds in it were in excellent shape. his method he had a coop in the middle with about 10 rhode island reds in it. the coop held the nest boxes, feed and water. the coop had a raised wood floor. he had a lean to on each side both had door accesses and wire for the roofs. he planted oats in both lean to's. he would let the chickens run on one side for a couple of weeks while the other side grew, when it looked like it needed mowed he would switch sides. the outside lean to's according to him had 15 square feet per bird.

the best method i have found for me is to build a barn, and securely cage the birds inside. we do have outside tractor pens that we use for grow off pens and to let breeding groups enjoy the sunshine in. this method is a lot of work, but for us its the best way we have found so far.

my brother has a hen house for nights and lets them free range during the day. it seems like about the time he gets them laying, a dog, fox, or something gets them. we built him a large run area, about 30 feet by 60 feet (for <20 hens). he keeps them in there when he is not home, and turns them free in the evenings when he is there. this has worked well for the past couple months, but ask me about it again this winter.

 

[blobear23]

You just have to name them correctly. For instance, my two pigs were named Bacon and Sausage. My turkeys were Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't really name my chickens, other than a few of them, but I have a friend who names hers things like Original and Extra Crispy.

Lol we do that too it started when we first got rabbits and chickens so the kids would remember they were eventually food. Rabbits were taco and fajita. Chicken are extra crispy, spicy, crispy, mama(nt going anywhere), spot, fred(that one came from my son lol) etc. and my kids collect the eggs most of the time. They are learning to cook with them. So proud! They are ages 7,8, 16.

 

[chooks4life]

One of the ignorant things I've heard about chickens comes from those who think all chooks are red/white/brown or black; bantams do not exist as far as they are aware. These are often city tradies. One of them was around our place, doing some wiring (electrical) as he'd been hired by the real estate agents.

One of my mixed breed bantams, a very handsome boy (named Prettyboy, no less), who looked like a more colorful version of loveourbirds's avatar but with gold, red, and partridge markings and a fluffy but neat 'hairdo', came strolling past us and stopped to mate. The tradie goes 'what's wrong with that one? He's so ugly, he's going in the pot for sure.'

What can you say? I tried to explain, but his eyes glazed over, so I left him be.

Quote:
Some free range chicken growers in some parts of Australia build old buses, trailers, horse floats, etc into coops. They leave the engine in some of them and just drive to the next spot they want it. Others tow theirs. Some of these custom made coops are things of beauty. Obviously they keep the poultry out of the driver's areas, lol.

 

[Hinotori]

Off topic here but I have to ask.

I raise pharaoh quail. I sell a lot to people who eat them for meat, I never have. I agree with you, they are a small bird and a lot of work for just a little meat. I guess one of the things to look at with quail is the speed of reproduction and growth. hatch, grow 6 weeks, gather eggs and set in incubator for 19ish days then hatch again. there are insects that reproduce slower LOL.

I have silkies from different backgrounds. I don't show, but I know it seems to be desireable for them to have the puffy polish heads here in the US. my blacks are from show birds, rooster is about 4 lbs, hen is very broody, not a lot of comb, and black skin. the buffs are about the same size, hen is less broody, skin is lighter in color but still purple, neither of my buffs are crested. my whites: rooster is larger about 7lbs, one hen is about 4-5 lbs other hen was evidently from a large polish cross, fully crested and about 6 lbs. the crested hen appears to be the broodiest. it amazes me how many people don't know about the crested silkies having a high instance of vaulted skulls. they don't know to separate them, and it gives them a bad reputation because of a lot of loss.

I agree about the frizzle gene. I have thought about adding it to my bantam cochins, but I can see adding a gene that seems to weaken a chick. they are pretty birds, I love looking at them at shows. people who deal with the frizzle gene need to study it well. crossing 2 frizzle chickens could be detrimental to a flock, and breeders don't tell customers this a lot of the time.

Where the heck are you getting your silkies? The ones I have right now, the biggest rooster weighs just under 3 pounds. The hens are all under 2 pounds. The hatchery ones I had before were even smaller. I like silkies for soups. We've lamented that they are so small, though, so sometimes you need two.

 

[loveourbirds]

Off topic here but I have to ask.


Where the heck are you getting your silkies? The ones I have right now, the biggest rooster weighs just under 3 pounds. The hens are all under 2 pounds. The hatchery ones I had before were even smaller. I like silkies for soups. We've lamented that they are so small, though, so sometimes you need two.

ive picked most of mine up as adults from different farms and breeders. from what I have been told, the larger birds came from murray mcmurray but I cant speak from experience. I didn't buy most of them as show quality, they were more of a backup incubator plan in case we had a power outage and rare eggs in the incubator. the whites especially I looked for larger birds on the idea a larger bird could hatch more. the whites I have are fully crested, if I had to guess they were crossed with large polish.

part of the size difference could also be the feed I use. its not uncommon for us to have a 16lb white rock rooster, we have had some 20+lb brahmas. where my birds aren't allowed to free range, that could add to their weight. when I butcher a bird I don't see a lot of fat, on the feed remember all the protein in the world doesn't do a bit of good if proper nutrition isn't there. I have never found a "factory made" feed that suits the needs of my birds, so I have my feed custom mixed. I don't know how available it is in other states but the basis of my feed is "bowles range bird pellets" they are 24% protein. I have them mixed with rolled corn, black oil sunflower seed, oats, wheat, wet molasses and alfalfa pellets to about 18% protein. birds in pens also get a handful of grass per bird per day, and once a week a few mealworms sprinkled on their feed. every couple of weeks I will throw a handful of dried cat food per 2 large fowl birds (4 bantams) to suit the carnivorous needs. to much cat food is bad, so use it in moderation. I have also used calf manna in place of the cat food, I cant tell you which practice is better.

this is an odd idea, but if i were to create a strain of silkie for meat purposes; i would cross with bantam Cornish. (not to be confused with Cornish x rock). this would increase breast size, but culling for silkie's black skin, extra toes and feathered legs may present a problem.

 

[What the Pluck]

My very own sister said the same thing.....

 

[7 Biddies]

I was just poking around online and came across some one who swore that if you don't have a rooster in your flock to mate with the hens, eventually your hens' functioning ovaries will atrophy, the non-functioning ovaries they have will start producing testosterone and eventually you'll have a bunch of nonlaying, crowing hens who think they are roosters.

Really? I have some beachfront property I'd like to talk to them about. It's in Kansas.

 

[tsuninight]

I always took the color of the egg to be meaningless. The nutrion/diet makes sense. Lol perhaps I'm one of the ppl who believes and says silly things about chickens.

 

[uzto]

This actually happened to my brother not me. He had a friend staying with him. My brother had gone out and gathered the eggs one morning, he only had a couple of chickens, so he only got a couple of eggs and one of the eggs had a wrinkle. Anyway a little while latter when they were getting ready to have breakfast my brother couldn't find the eggs he had just put in there that morning. His friend had thrown them away because he thought they were old, because they were turning brown and starting to shrivel up.