You mean people actually do singe those little "hairs"? I've never done it before and have never seen one after cooking and eating the bird....
Well, NNs are actually already a very good meat bird all on their own (especially from some sources, like Ideal, and, hopefully, S&G). One could argue that I don't need to cross them with anything. But I enjoy doing the crosses and putting Naked Necks on other birds.
As to why, a few things.
1) Protein/energy that would go into growing feathers instead goes into growing body mass/muscle in the growing chicks (there are papers on this, just can't put my hands on them now). They're little bricks when you pick them up.
2) They do well in the heat here where I am.
3) When processing, there are many fewer feathers to pluck, and there are no hairs to singe. I can even reasonably dry pluck if I want without losing my mind.
4) Because of these differences in the skin (including areas with no follicles), the skin gets crispy when cooked and makes them super delicious - they are at or near the top of the "taste test" breeds. (I learned this when buying frozen chickens from a local farmer before raising them myself. NNs always sold out - indeed, the NN broiler chicks would sell out and they couldn't get them sometimes.)
I like New Hampshires a lot, and actually, find them as tasty (or maybe a bit more) than the NNs or other breeds (same age, same food, same conditions). I think the taste tests also rank New Hampshires very high. And they're pretty, and calm.
Sooooooo.... I'm crossing them!!!!! (Yes, they are cute, but all, or nearly all, of the males in this group will go into my freezer.)
The other cross that I'd like to do is to somehow get a pea comb on them without sacrificing too much size. The pea comb in NNs adds even more body zones with no feathers. Bonus would be green eggs... I'd also like fibromelanotic NNs for black skinned/black boned meat chickens (no need to cross with Ayam Cemani or Silkie - many folks have Fm mutant NN birds, might get hatching eggs). But that's for another day...
Yep - instead of one hip pocket dripping with egg, it would be lots of little tiny pockets all along the front that would INDIVIDUALLY be dripping with egg...
- Ant Farm
